Chapters 1-3

Question 1

Adaptation

Answer 1

Having 3 characteristics of natural selection:
1) variability- any trait
2) heritability - offspring resemblance
3) selection - higher reproduction

Question 2

Animal behavior in psychology

Answer 2

Biopsychology: genetic & physiological mechanisms of behaviour
Evolutionary psychology: evolutionary theory applied to human behaviour

Question 3

Behavioral psychology

Answer 3

Study of behavior within populations
E.o Wilson - socialbiology: ethology & population genetics, social behavior & genetic substrate & now it evolves

Question 4

Charles Darwin theories

Answer 4

• behaviour responds to natural selection
• sexual selection male v female choice

Question 5

Comparative Psychology

Answer 5

lab studies, interested in the mechanisms (learning) not evolution, animals were used as models to study humans

Question 6

Ethology and its decline

Answer 6

ethology: interest in normal animal behaviour studied from the perspective of Darwin
failure: failed to account for the modern synthesis of darwins theory - darwin and mendels theories combine to understand how evolution works at the genetic level

Question 7

evolution

Answer 7

a change in properties (or gene frequency) of populations over the course of generations
- populations evolve - population: a group of interbreeding individuals

Question 8

natural selection

Answer 8

predictable:
1) variability - any trait
2) heritability - offspring resemblance
3) selection - higher reproduction
- dominant heritable traits that can cause a difference in reproduction as well as increase reproduction and population
- acts on morphology (study of the form and structure of organisms), learned and innate behaviour

Question 9

proximate vs ultimate

Answer 9

proximate:
ontogeny (development) - watching adults
immediate causation (mechanism) - the brain signalling the body
Ultimate:
Function (adaptive values) - attracting males
Evolution

Question 10

tinbergens four causes of behaviour

Answer 10

1) development - how characteristics develop over time
2) mechanism - how does a characteristic work
3) function - what does it do then v now
4) evolution - what are the evolutionary characteristics, how did it evolve/ change over time

Question 11

“is-ought” fallacy

Answer 11

the assumption of how things are & how things should be are somehow the same
- what is does not equal what it should be
- infanticide
- forced copulation
- enslaved

Question 12

Genetic Hitchhiker

Answer 12

genes are passed on in chunks, when one gene are selected the others follow even tho they arent selected

Question 13

analyzing selection

Answer 13

1) compare traits with proxies of selection - what traits might have been selected
2) response to selection
3) the comparative method

Question 13

exaptations

Answer 13

an adaptation that may have been made in one context then but is used for something different now

Question 14

divergence

Answer 14

when a population divides it can develop evolutionary traits - needs a barrier of gene flow

Question 15

nature vs nurture

Answer 15

DNA separately has no phenotype - the environment has to interact in order for it to produce phenotypic attributes

Question 16

developmental noise

Answer 16

manifests as fluctuating asymmetry

Question 17

epigenetics

Answer 17

epigenome - the physical “packaging” around your genetic material that can activate or deactivate genes - affected by the environment

Question 18

DNA Methylation

Answer 18

the mechanics behind epigenetic gene activation

Question 19

Evolution

Answer 19

a change in properties of population over generations - mutation and genetic drift