9 - Moral & Evolutionary Psychology

Question 1

what are the 3 premises of Darwinian evolution?

Answer 1

1. individuals of a species show variation in traits (behavioural, psychological etc).
2. Some variation is heritable.
3. Some traits provide benefits in terms of survival & reproduction (adaptation).

Therefore, certain adaptive traits are selected for over the course of generations (selected by survival & reproduction).

Question 2

What is the definition & assumptions of evolutionary psychology?

Answer 2

Definition; the application of evolutionary theorising to u/stand human psychology & behaviour.

Assumptions:

1. mind is composed of a collection of evolved mechanisms.
2. Adaptations (selections).
3. Domain-specific.
   - Designed to solve various recurrent problems, e.g. disease avoidance, mate selection/retention, kin care.

Question 3

What is the problem of altruism? What was Dawkin’s argument?

Answer 3

If evolution tailors organisms to behave in ways that facilitate success fo reproduction, doesn’t this mean organisms will be selfish?

Dawkins;

• take a gene’s-eye’-view.
• genes vs individuals (different perspective)
• genes try to make host behave in ways that facilitate gene proliferation.
• If altruistic behaviour helps person survive/reproduce, then altruism is evolutionarily-relevant.

Question 4

What is inclusive fitness (Hamilton, 1964)? What is the difference between direct & indirect fitness?

Answer 4

The capacity for genetic info to spread in the population.

• Direct; number of offspring produced
• Indirect; increasing classical fitness of kin/relatives.

Key point; Not all kin are equal, kids more than

Question 5

How do ground squirrels alarm calls (Sherman, 1977, 1981) provide evidence of helping kin at cost to self?

Answer 5

Squirrels emit alarm calls in response to predators, localising themselves at a cost, to benefit others. However, they’re more likely to call in the presence of sisters. aunts, & nieces.

Question 6

Describe the findings by Essock-Vitale & McGuire (1985) in their Helping episodes for LA Women study.

Answer 6

Percentage of helping episodes were highest amongst close relatives, and decreases as relation decreased (less related, cousins etc).

Question 7

What was the single largest predictor of child abuse and homicide (Daly & Wilson, 1988)?

Answer 7

Presence of a step-parent in the home resulted in 40-100 x higher rate compared to both genetic parents.

Question 8

Describe Laham et al.’s (2005) Grandparental certainty/investment study.

Answer 8

Takeaway 1: Mother’s-mother highest investing, Father’s-father lowest. Investment is related to degrees of relatedness.

Takeaway 2: When there a more investment outlets for grandparents (more certainty), diluted effect.

Question 9

List some challenges & criticism of evolutionary psychology.

Answer 9

• Pan-adaptationism; “everything’s an adaptation (unfounded crit).
• Genetic determinism; no nurture (unfounded crit).
• Implications for morality; naturalistic fallacy (unfounded crit) “because something is true it is moral”.

Question 10

What is evolutionary psychology’s value?

Answer 10

• Metatheory; provides an organising framework for social and all psychology.
• The function of psych mechanisms.
• Unpacks distal (ultimate) causes; why not just the how. Why is sweet rewarding & shock not?

Question 11

What is morality?

Answer 11

code of conduct or set of rules pertaining to right, good, wrong, bad etc.

Question 12

Describe Turiel et al.’s (1987) moral/conventional task?

Answer 12

Children were presented with various scenarios that represent violations of rules; violence, boys wearing dresses, talking out of turn in class…

Then asked; is violation wrong/serious, punishable, authority dependent, and explanation of why it’s wrong.

Question 13

What is the signature moral response?

Answer 13

SMR;

• serious, wrong, bad
• punishable
• authority independent.
• universal (general in scope).
• some harm/rights infringed.

Key feature: if HARM (justice or rights) then SMR.

Question 14

How did Haidt, Holler, & Dias (1993) challenge the harm violation aspect of the signature moral response?

Answer 14

Some people judge certain transgressions, that do not include harm, as immoral, via authority independent & universal aspects.

Question 15

What are Shweder et al.’s (1997) 3 ethics of morality?

Answer 15

1. autonomy; individual freedom/rights violation.
2. community; person fails to carry out duties within community/social hierarchy.
3. Divinity/Purity; sin, the natural order of things, spiritual defilement.

Question 16

Describe Moral Foundations Theory (5 domains)? (Haidt & Graham, 2004, 2007).

Answer 16

1. Harm/care; concerns about violence/suffering of others.
2. Fairness/reciprocity; norms of reciprocal relations.
3. Authority/respect; moral obligations
4. Ingroup/loyalty; obligations to group membership
5. Purity/sanctity; living an elevated, noble, & less carnal way

Question 17

How does Haidt (2001) define moral reasoning & intuition?

Answer 17

Moral reasoning: conscious, intentional, effortful & controllable mental activity that transforms given information into a moral judgement. (System 2)

Moral intuition: includes an affective valence, w/out conscious awareness, largely dependent on emotions, leads to moral judgement. (System 1)

Question 18

What is the Social Intuitionist Model (Haidt, 2001).

Answer 18

Moral judgement is a function of affect-laden intuitions. Reasoning is post-hoc rationalisation.

See a stimulus, have an intuition, reason afterwards.

Question 19

How does Greene et al. (2001, 2004) draw a difference between the underlying processes of the ‘switch’ & ‘footbridge’ problems? (in relation to deontological & utilitarian philosophy).

Answer 19

The deontological response is driven by gut-reactions, emotions, intuitions.

The utilitarian response is driven by controlled, effortful reasoning.

Footbridge involved contact with another in order to kill (personal dilemma), which is emotionally aversive & thus the deontological response is more potent.

Switch = no contact/less emotion, therefore utilitarian response wins out.

Question 20

How did Valdesolo and DeStano (2006) manipulate emotions in moral judgements?

Answer 20

Pts were shown either doco (control) or SNL clip (positive affect).

Pos-aff condition; neg emotion state is dampened by manipulation, leading them to make an inappropriate decision.

Question 21

What did Simpson, Laham & Fiske find about judgements of moral wrongness in regards to relational models? (Communal Sharing - CS, etc. theory from week 7)

Answer 21

• Loyalty violations: in communal sharing relations (siblings) deemed especially wrong.
• Respect violations: hierarchy relations deemed especially wrong.

Takeaway: Relational models/context makes a difference in wrongness judgement.

Question 22

What is the moral circle?

Answer 22

the category of entities in the world worthy of moral concern.

Question 23

What is the inclusion-exclusion discrepancy (IED), and how did Laham (2009) use this for moral categories?

Answer 23

Inclusion (circling) leads to smaller final choice sets than exclusion (crossing out) mindsets.

Laham got pts to circle things of moral concern, or cross-off those that are not.
- pts that in exclusion m mindset. had larger moral circles.

Then - pts made ratings of how they’d treat a variety of (non-listed) outgroups.

Exclusion mindsets were more positive towards a variety of outgroups.