Behavioral Ecology Flashcards
What is Behavioral Ecology?
The study of the evolutionary basis for organism decision-making and behavior due to selective pressure from the environment imposed upon the organism
What is Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity?
Organisms of the same species often can develop distinct characteristics that are most adaptive to specific environmental conditions
Cultural and individual variations in humans may be
Outcomes of universal flexibilities that evolved to deal with adaptive problems posed by specific ecologies
What is the context of Life History Theory?
Energy is limited and thus organisms cannot maximize all life domains simultaneously
What are the two approaches to the Life History Theory?
- A slow life history
- A fast life history
What is a Slow Life History?
Energy may be preferentially allocated to the development and maintenance of bodily growth and competitive abilities
What is a Fast Life History?
Organisms may opt to rapidly achieve sexual maturity to focus on reproductive effort with little investment into further growth and maintenance
When would an organism adopt a Fast Life History?
Organisms that typically experience high environmental unpredictability and harshness
When would an organism adopt a Slow Life History?
Organisms that typically live under more predictable conditions
When would the Environmental Contingencies not apply?
When there are no trade-offs to be made such as children from ultra-rich families
What are the 6+2 Environmental Dimensions?
- Popularity density
- Genetic relatedness
- Sex ratio
- Resource availability
- Resource patchiness
- Resource unpredictability
- Mortality rates
- Pathogen prevalence
What is Population Density?
The number of individuals in the fixed amount of space
What are the effects of high Population Density on non-human organisms?
- Slower life history
- Greater aggression and territoriality
What are the effects of high Population Density on human organisms?
- Slower life history
- Slower level of prosociality
What is Genetic Relatedness?
The extent to which an individual organism is, on average, perceived to be genetically related to other individuals
What are the effects of high Genetic Relatedness on non-human organisms?
- Inclination towards altruism & higher willingness to provide costly help
- Alloparenting
- Sex-based dispersion to prevent reproduction with in-group members
What are the effects of high Genetic Relatedness on human organisms?
- Inclination towards altruism & higher willingness to provide costly help
- Greater within-group trust and cooperation
- Alloparenting
- Tendency for women to move between groups
- More chance of migration
What is Sex Ratio?
The ratio of reproductive viable males to reproductively viable females
What are the effects of Sex Ratio on non-human organisms?
- Direction of intersexual competition and sex roles
- Increased intrasexual competition for the sex bias in the population
What are the effects of Sex Ratio on human organisms?
- Direction of intersexual competition and sex roles
- Increased in intrasexual competition for the sex-biased in the population
- Increased emphasis on matching female long-term preferences when the population is male-based
- Increased emphasis on men’s short-term preferences when the population is female-biased
What is Resource Availability?
The absolute amount of resources available in an environment
What are the effects of low Resource Availability?
- Preferential allocation of energy towards survival over reproduction
- Avoidance of risky and costly competition
- Higher resource-seeking behaviors
What is Resource Patchiness?
The variability in resources across space
What are the effects of high Resource Patchiness in non-human organisms?
- High social competition
- Higher levels of aggression
- Territoriality
What are the effects of high Resource Patchiness in human organisms?
- Social attitudes that favors competition
- High prevalence of resource-focused emotions such as jealousy
- Competition-related antisociality and aggression
- Intolerance to strangers
What is Resource Unpredictability?
The variability in resources across time
What are the effects of high Resource Unpredictability in non-human organisms?
- Decreased aversion toward novelty
- Resource hoarding and conservation
What are the effects of high Resource Unpredictability in human organisms?
- Higher openness
- Pathological hoarding
- Decreased delay gratification
- Hedging social and romantic affiliation