Chapter 12: David M. Buss Flashcards
Sociobiology
A discipline seeking to unite fields such as anthropology, psychology, and sociology under the unifying assumptions of Darwinian evolutionary theory. The major contention of socialbiologists was that certain human social behaviors were selected by evolution because they contributed to the biological fitness of those who engaged in them.
Evolutionary Psychology: shares several Darwinian assumptions with sociobiology, but some evolutionary psychologists differ with sociobiologist and want to make clear the distinctions between the two approaches. David M. Buss has been one of the more prolific and articulate psychologists to develop and differentiate the field.
Inclusive Fitness
The act of helping relatives such as siblings survive and reproduce as a way of perpetuating copies of your genes
Evolutionary Psychology is not Sociobiology
Sociobiology beliefs:
Whether we know it or not our primary goal in life is to reproduce—we live to pass copies of our genes to the next generation
Evolutionary Psychology:
Some behaviors are adaptive because they solve problems, no bc they perpetuate genes. Their goal exists in the short-term relative to evolutionary time (Buss coined the term sociobiological fallacy)
What is selected by natural selection (in terms of personality)
1) It is the brain that is acted on by natural selection
2) The neural circuits that we currently possess were selected because they solved adaptive problems faced during the evolution of humanity
3) the brain circuitry underlying any behavior is far more complex than we might imagine. Those aspects of any behavior of which we are conscious constitute only a small fraction of the neural activity in question
4)our evolved neural circuits are specialized for specific problems in specific contexts
5) our brains and circuitry evolved over thousands of generations as hunter-gatherers. The circuits that enables our behavior were very successful for hunter-gatherers
Personality and Human Nature
Most research in personality theory is concerned with how and why individuals differ from each other. However, evolutionary psychology sets as its primary goal a description of human nature. A theory of human nature attempts to describe what it means to be human—how we are like every other human being.
Two Theories of Human Nature:
1) The Empirical Theory/Social Science Model
2) Evolutionary Psychological Theory of Human Nature
Social Science Model: maintains that what characterizes a person at any given time is a function of what that person has experienced in his or her lifetime. What you become as a person depends on what you experience. According to this view of human nature, the environment, including cultural environment, is all-important in determining personality. Suggests that we come equipped with no inherited predispositions.
Evolutionary Psychological Theory of Human Nature: assumes that the human mind has been shaped by evolution and is predisposed to act in some ways and avoid acting in others. Principal task is to document and describe these perceptual/behavioral tendencies. There is more and more empirical research that supports that infants exhibit many predisposed abilities
Strategy (also referred to as circuits, evolved psychological mechanism, adaptations)
An evolutionarily selected neural system developed to solve a specific problem. We have strategies for finding food, finding mates, etc. They are multifaceted solutions to complex problems and are not always executed consciously.
Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA)
Difference between let and right body halves. Provides important attraction cues. Extremely high FA (large distortions of body symmetry) might be an indicator of disease or genetic disorder. Low FA (subtle differences) is generally an indicator of good health and is often found attractive
Self-promotion:
Competitor derogation:
Strategic Interference:
Engaging in behavior that emphasizes or exaggerates her youth, vitality, and potential as a faithful mate. Men should emphasize their resources, loyalty/fidelity, and athletic prowess
The undermining of a competitor’s attempts to display her youth, and beauty or her potential fidelity, or both
Occurs when a person employs a particular strategy to achieve a goal and another person blocks or prevents the successful enactment of that strategy or the fulfillment of the desire (ie: woman looking or short-term mating encounters man who is looking for commitment)
Kin selection/kin altruism
Hamilton’s Rule
Cost-benefit analysis
Reciprocal altruism
Helping those who share our genes (inclusive fitness: perpetuating our own genes either by reproducing or by helping those to whom we are biologically related)
Rule that we will resist or sacrifice resources for another based on a genetic cost-benefit analysis (rB > C)
When we extend resources or risk our safety for others to whom we are not biologically related, including strangers. The key here is reciprocity (I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine). This also explains altruism between spouses who usually don’t share genes.
Naturalistic fallacy
To assume that something natural is good. Arsenic, rabies, and hurricanes are natural but they are not necessarily good. Humans have a natural inclination towards prejudice but it is not necessarily good.
Context Failure
The activation of an evolved mechanism by stimuli or situations other than those for which it evolved. the result is that behavior is not suited to the environment or context in which it is expressed and may therefore be socially inappropriate, dangerous, or self-destructive (suicide, drug addiction, homicide, etc.)
Reproductive Variance
The disparity between nonreproducing and the multiply reproducing males (often with many women)
Effective Polygyny: refers to greater reproductive variability in males than in females.
Criticism 1: Evolutionary Psychology Engages in Adaptationism
Panadaptationism Refers to the assumption that virtually everything humans or nonhumans do is the result of an evolutionary adaptation. Suggests that almost any current behavior is both heritable and, in effect, beneficial because it has or had adaptive significant (teenagers interest in video games—is it beneficial? Does is have adaptive significance?)
Exaptations: occur when an ancient adaptation manifests itself in distinctly different ways in contemporary organisms (birds first adapted feathers to regulate body temp)
Spandrels: occur when an original adaptation has several unforeseen side effects in contemporary organisms (ie larger brain results in increased memory for location of food but also the development of complex societal rules)
Nomological Network: interrelates theoretical framework for psychological construct, empirical framework for how construct is measured, empirical relationships among and between these two frameworks
Criticism 2: Evolutionary Psychology Invents Stories Balu tour Ancient Ancestors
Criticism 3: Evolutionary Psychology Justifies the Status Quo (Is Sexist or Racist)
Criticism 4: Ignores Important Research in Neurosciences
