Chapter 5 Flashcards
When tracing back 100,000 years, we are all ____
Africans
T/F humans have little that is universal
F. Many aspects are universal.
How did the difference in color of skin happen?
Africans stayed in Africa (sunscreen for tropics)
More north, evolved to have vitamin D without much directed sunlight
Evolutionary Psychology
Natural selection and its relation to predisposing psychological traits in genes
Sex
Male/Female. Biological distinction. (Chromosomes, genitals, secondary sex diffs)
Gender
Characteristics that people associate with (due to biology, culture, or both)
Differences in behavior between boys and girls is sex or gender?
Gender
How has treatment of intersex individuals changed?
Before: assigned gender at birth and diminished sex diffs surgically
Now: some wait until the child identifies till surgery
How many Americans are transgender?
4/1000
Why might men have stronger sex drives?
Evolutionary psychology: It’s more costly for women to have sex.
Why might men be more aggressive?
Physically dominant men have had more success in getting access to females
Genghis Khan is an ancestor of ___________
approx 1 in 200 men worldwide
Evolutionarily, why might women want male achievers?
They want someone who can raise their child without financial struggles
What do men want?
Healthy and youthful women. (fertility)
Are mate preferences universal?
They are pretty universal. As evolutionary perspective predicts.
Gender and Hormones. Why is it important?
More testosterone in men. Genes don’t tell full story.
What can increase/decrease testosterone?
Aggression increases. Compassion decreases.
Androgynous.
Merging of male and female characteristics. Happens as people grow into adult life.
Critique of Evolutionary Psychology (or evolutionary explanations)
Easy to use hindsight (nothing can be wrong! anything can be retrofitted.)
Why is it not genes vs. culture?
They interact. Like how you can’t taste tea without hot water.
Epigenetics: environmental influence on gene expression
Are we moving towards a uniform global culture?
No, local cultures are very enduring.
Norms
“proper”, accepted/standard behavior