Chapter 1

Question 1

The environment of evolutionary adapation (EEA)

Answer 1

A combination of the time,
place and ecological pressures faced by our species during its evolution

Question 2

Proximate and ultimate levels of explanation

Answer 2

Ultimate questions: ask why a particular behvaior of an organism exists at all, focus on asking what evolutionary function of the particular trait
Proximate questions: ask how a particular behavior develops, asked by traditional psychology

Question 3

Natural selection depends on what components? Describe them

Answer 3

Heritable variability- (individuals within a population tend to differ from each other in ways that are passed
on to their offspring)
Differential reproductive success - (as a result of these differences some individuals leave more surviving offspring than others

Question 4

Particulate Inheritance

Answer 4

The reason why some traits,
such as height or skin colour, seem to blend is because they are controlled by a number of genes not because, for traits controlled by single genes, inheritance is always particulate

Question 5

Eugenics

Answer 5

A practice whereby humans are ‘selectively bred’ for the good of humanity. So-called positive
eugenics attempts to mate people with positive characteristics (e.g. people who are industrious or intelligent), negative eugenics, on the other
hand, seeks to prevent people deemed unfit from breeding

Question 6

The great chain of being (scala naturae)

Answer 6

A false theory of evolution which sees some creatures as more highly evolved than others. This view would see humans as being a more evolved version of a chimp, rather than the correct view which sees each descending from a common ancestor

Question 7

Sociobiology

Answer 7

Approach. Deals with the evolution of social behaviour and uses functional explanations of pro- and anti-social behaviour. The term functional is used here to mean how current behavioural
responses occur because of the usefulness they had to an individual’s ancestors. Considers human social organisation developed through natural selection.

Question 8

Gene-culture co-evolution/dual inheritance theory

Answer 8

GC - E. O. Wilson’s suggestion of how genes and culture interact.
Culture, he argues, is constrained by the genes.
Broadly similar to dual-inheritance theory

Dual - A theory proposed by
Boyd and Richerson, who argue that humans have
two sources of inheritance, via the genes and via
culture. In their theory culture evolved as a way
of enabling humans to change more rapidly in an
uncertain world

Question 9

Naturalistic fallacy

Answer 9

The false assertion that because
something is seen as good in a moral sense, it must be found in nature (see naturalistic fallacy)

Question 10

Moralistic Fallacy

Answer 10

The false assumption that
because something is found in nature it is necessarily good or desirable in some kind of moral sense (see moralistic fallacy)

Question 11

Ethology

Answer 11

Observation of animal behaviour in its natural setting, i.e. observe the behaviour in the environment in which it evolved. Ethologists attempt to combine evolutionary/functional explanations with causal explanations

Question 12

Behavioural Ecology

Answer 12

It combines principles from ecology with an ethological approach to behaviour.
Examines the abilities of animals to make ‘economic decisions’ concerning, for example, foraging, fighting or mate-seeking behaviour. Hence is concerned with optimising inclusive fitness

Question 13

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 13

Usually uses experimental studies or the use of naturalistic data (e.g. survey data)
to test predictions drawn from evolutionary theory. Focus of explanation is frequently concerned with psychological mechanisms, unlike the three other disciplines mentioned

Question 14

What is evolution?

Answer 14

A process by which different kinds of organisms have
developed and diversified from earlier forms of life

Question 15

Principles of Evolutionary Psycholgy

Answer 15

1. The brain is a physical system. It functions as a computer.
2. Our neural circuits were designed by natural
   selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species’ evolutionary history
3. Consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg; most of what goes on in your mind is hidden from you.
4. Different neural circuits are specialized for solving different adaptive problems.
5. Our modern skulls house a stone age mind

Question 16

Behavioural genetics

Answer 16

A discipline that investigates
the effect of genes and the environment on individual differences (e.g. personality,
intelligence)