1. Scientic Movements Flashcards
What is Evolution?
Chance in organic structure over time
Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s causes of species change
- Natural tendency of species to progress to higher form
- Inheritance of acquired characteristics
Three essential ingredients of natural selection
Variation, inheritance, Selection
What is natural selection?
The principle that, among the range of inherited traits variations, those that lead to increased survival will most likely to passed on to following generations
What is Sexual Selection?
The principle that, among the range of inherited traits variations, those that lead to successful mating will be passed on to successive generations
Two means of sexual selection
• Intrasexual competition: competition between members of the same sex leading to increased mating access to the other sex
• Intersexual selection: individuals with qualities that are preferred by the opposite sex are more likely to reproduce
Other causes of evolutionary change
Genetic Drift: random changes in the genetic makeup of a population
• Mutations: randoms changes in DNA
• Founder Effects: small portion of population establishes a new colony (founders not genetically representative of entire pop)
• Genetic bottleneck: small portion of population survives some catastrophe
Caveats
• Evolution is not intentional
• Not Forward Looking
• Is Gradual
What is the modern synthesis?
Unification of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and particle gene inheritance
What is particulate inheritance?
The qualities of parents are not blended with each other, but rather are passed on intact to their offspring in distinct packets called genes
• Gregor Mendel
Ethology and Konrad Lorenz
• The first major discipline around the study of behavior from an evolutionary perspective
• Critical Period: optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli/experiences produces proper development
• Imprinting: process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period early in life
Tinbergen’s Four Whys (of behavior)
- Immediate influences (proximate cause)
- Developmental influences
- Function of behavior (adaptive purpose it fulfills)
- Evolutionary origins (ultimate cause)
Hamilton: Inclusive Fitness Theory
Classical fitness: individual’s direct reproductive success
Inclusive fitness: sum of individual’s own reproductive success plus the effects of the individual’s actions on the reproductive success of genetic relatives
Williams: Challenge to Group Selection
Group selection: the idea that adaptations evolved for the benefit of the group as opposed to the benefit of the gene
• Self sacrificing individuals unlikely to pass on genes
Criteria for determining adaptation
• Reliability: developed in most/all members and perform dependably
• Efficiency: solves problem effectively
• Economy: does not extort huge costs to organism
Trivers’ Theory
• Reciprocal altruism among non-kin
• Parental Investment
• Parent-Offspring Conflict
Misunderstandings of Evolution
• Does not imply that human bx is genetically determined
• Does not imply that human behavior is immutable
• Does not imply optimal design
Evolutionary time lags
The lag in time between the environment that fashioned our mechanisms and today’s environment means that some of our existing evolved mechanisms are not optimal for current times
Multiregional continuity theory vs. Out of Africa theory
MCR (Seeding Theory): different groups of humans in different parts of the world slowly evolved in parallel with each other, gradually becoming modern humans
OOA: modern humans evolved in Africa and then migrated into Europe and Asia, replacing previous species
Three fundamental sources of evidence for both MRC and OOA
• Anatomical
• Archaeological
• Genetics
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
• Psychological problems result from inner mental conflicts
• Life instincts and Death instincts
Radical Behaviorism
A few highly general principles of learning can account for the complexity of bx
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
Harlow and the Monkeys
• Wire and Cloth mother
• Milk producing nipple was attached to either the wire or the cloth mother
• Attachment was based on “contact comfort” rather than feeding
