3.2 Genes & the Psychosocial Environment

Question 1

What are the 3 major principles of Darwin’s theory?

Answer 1

1. Heredity
2. Variability
3. Natural Selection

Question 2

What are the 3 products of evolution?

Answer 2

1. Adaptations
2. By-products
3. Noise

Question 3

Discuss adaptation

Answer 3

Characteristics that stuck around because they help the organism survive better

Question 4

Discuss by-products

Answer 4

Adaptations can create by-products

They do not solve a problem or increase chances of survival but are related to adaptation

Question 5

Discuss noise

Answer 5

Random effects generated by genetic drift and chance mutations that do not affect survival

Question 6

Define exaptation

Answer 6

Features that did not originally arise for their current use but rather were co-opted for new purposes
e.g. birds’ feathers

Question 7

Discuss the “blank slate”

Answer 7

Differentiating between mind and brain
The mind is completely blank at birth
Needs experience in order to deduce rules, expectations etc

Question 8

What does evolutionary psychology challenge and why?

Answer 8

The Standard Social Science model is challenged because it has largely ignored the role of evolution in shaping human behaviour

Question 9

What did Steven Pinker say the ultimate goal of the mind is?

Answer 9

“The ultimate goal that the mind is designed to attain is maximising the number of copies of the genes that created it”

The goal of the mind is ensuring that the vehicle of the gene is doing a good job
The purpose of every organism is to pass on their genes
Taking the gene level perspective to understand physiology and our behaviour

Question 10

What is the technical term use to refer to the environment in which we evloved in?

Answer 10

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness or EEA

Refers to evolution over last 200,000+ years

Question 11

What are the 2 views of the mind?

Answer 11

The Standard Science Model & the Evolutionary Psychology Model

Question 12

Discuss the Standard Science Model of the mind

Answer 12

The mind has general mechanisms that can adapt to everything
Resonates with Watson and Skinner behaviourism
Mind is a blank slate that is shaped by experience

Question 13

Discuss the Evolutionary Psychology Model of the mind

Answer 13

Mind is constituted by a series of specialised cog processes
At birth, we already have a substantial amount of knowledge about the world - sounds unintuitive and has generated a lot of resistance to evol. Psych

Question 14

What were problems faced by ancestral humans?

Answer 14

Survival, mating, parenting, aiding genetic relatives

They need to reach puberty in order to reproduce so need to survive past this
Once they have reached puberty, need to find a mate
Responsibility from a genetic perspective to increase the chances that the offspring reproduces at a later stage - need to support them
Need to help people who share many of these genes in order to help carry on passing of your own

Question 15

What was one of the most fatal things that killed ancestors?

Answer 15

Parasites - killed more individuals than predators

There was selection pressure and so evolved defensive mechanisms

Question 16

Discuss disgust and whether it is learnt

Answer 16

Disgust is not learnt
You can see disgust on the face of a new born in reaction to certain stimuli eg. Bad smell
Creates by-products

Question 17

Discuss disgust and facial blemishes

Answer 17

Facial blemishes unrelated to pathogens but studies show individuals looking at these facial blemishes show a level of disgust
Creates a desire to put distance between you and the source of the disgust

Question 18

How were pathogens explained before germ theory?

Answer 18

Most cultures had conventions and norms to guide people in how to reduce potential illnesses etc - often shown to be useful as it puts distance between themselves and the pathogen
Many taboos about food are related to how that food is potentially dangerous

Question 19

Discuss diff levels of dealing with norms when threats are high and low

Answer 19

Conforming to the norm when threats are high is valuable

When threat is low, potentially conformity is not v useful because it reduces creativity, engineering etc

Question 20

What is the correlation between fear of germs and conformity?

Answer 20

People who fear germs show a stronger liking to people who conform

Question 21

Discuss the experiment that shows the germ and conformity correlation.

Answer 21

Ps asked to put a penny in the plastic cup representing what they support
Manipulated how many pennies already in the cup: 3 in 1, 25 in the other

Found that individuals who were led to think about infectious disease affecting them were more likely to conform
Penny with the majority

Question 22

What does the germ fear and conformity correlation show?

Answer 22

Shows behavioural manifestations that are not really learned and are context dependent
How we distance ourselves from things that may harm us

Question 23

What did Trivers (1972) argue?

Answer 23

A driving force behind sexual selection is the degree of parental investment each sex devotes to their offspring

Question 24

Define parental investment

Answer 24

“Any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring”

Question 25

What is the female reproductive strategy?

Answer 25

They have more to lose than males so they look for certain criteria: physical and behavioural

They compete with other females for the right to choose the desirable male
They seek quality in their matings, not quantity

Question 26

What physical features do females prefer in males?

Answer 26

Size and strength which confer dominance and so preferential access to resources

Question 27

What behavioural features do females prefer in males?

Answer 27

May indicate willingness to invest or good parenting skills

Question 28

What is the male reproductive strategy?

Answer 28

Less to lose so are less choosy
Not tied to offspring and so seek quantity
Prefer a superior female but not fussy
When presented with sexual opp, they take it
Males compete vigorously with one another for fertile females
Reproductive success varies - some males may never mate

Question 29

What did Buss (1989) find men and women prefer?

Answer 29

Males prefer young, physically attractive and chaste mates

Females show stronger preference to earning capacity and ambitiousness-industriousness of potential partners than men do