Evolutionary Psych Flashcards
1
Q
is personality just for people?
A
- Not necessarily!
- Study of chimpanzee behaviours identified 5 core personality traits
- – Reactivity/undependability
- – Dominance
- – Openness
- – Extraversion
- – Agreeableness
- – Possible 6th trait: methodical
- Studies like this suggest a strong evolutionary basis for human personality
2
Q
evolutionary psych
A
- All humans come from an unbroken line of ancestors who accomplished 2 tasks: surviving to reproductive age & reproducing
- We carry the adaptive mechanisms that led to ancestor’s success
- Human nature and human personality are made up of a collection of evolved mechanisms
3
Q
2 levels of evolutionary psych
A
- human nature
- individual differences
4
Q
human nature
A
- what are all people like?
- Need to belong (adaptive – allows for resources, protection, mating)
- Empathy (adaptive – promotes group membership and cohesion)
- Helping/altruism (enhances inclusive fitness of helpers -> more likely to help those closely related)
- Universal emotions (strong evolutionary basis; adaptive – signal to other individuals re: pleasure, plan; used for manipulation, etc. -> happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt)
- These are seen in other mammals too
5
Q
individual differences (and their sources/perspectives)
A
- how are people different from one another? Why are people different from one another?
- Most challenging level of analysis
- 4 evolutionary perspectives on individual differences:
- Environmental triggers of differences
- Contingencies among traits
- Frequency-dependent selection of traits
- Optimal variance over time
6
Q
environmental triggers of differences
A
- individual differences result from environmental differences acting on species-typical psychological mechanisms (ie. Human nature)
- Ex. Individual differences in neuroticism may result from differences in stressors and demands in the environments
7
Q
contingencies among traits
A
- individual differences result from contingencies among traits; other traits (ie. Physical) may make the expression of certain psychological traits more adaptive
- Ex. A quick temper may be advantageous if one is big and strong, but not if one is strong and weak -> aggression is “reactively heritable” because it’s a secondary consequence of a different heritable trait
- Ex. Extraversion may be more advantageous if you’re strong and physically attractive
8
Q
frequency-dependent selection of traits
A
- the reproductive success of a trait depends on its frequency relative to other traits in a population (as a trait/strategy becomes more common, it becomes less successful, and vice versa)
- Ex. If most people are cooperative, selection may favour infrequent cheaters; once cheating becomes too frequent, it becomes more difficult (perhaps due to adapted response from cooperators) and frequency of cheating goes down
9
Q
optimal variance over time and space
A
- variations over time and space (ie. In environmental conditions) can favour certain traits over others -> this creates heritable differences in personality that are maintained in the population
- Ex. During food scarcity, selection favours risk-taking; during food abundance, selection favours more cautious disposition
- Ex. During a disease outbreak, selection favours low openness (and vice versa)
- Both traits in both examples become common in a population over time
10
Q
evolution of the Big 5
A
- maintained over time due “balancing selection”: genetic variation is maintained by selection because different levels of a trait are adaptive in different environments -> optimal variance over time and space
- Personality factors can be understood as clusters of key features of “adaptive landscape” of other people
11
Q
what does it mean that “personality factors can be understood as clusters of key features of ‘adaptive landscape’ of other people”?
A
- Humans have evolved “difference-detecting mechanisms” designed to notice and remember individual differences that have most relevance for solving social adaptive problems
- Relevant clusters of traits for social adaption:
- Likely to rise in hierarchy -> extroverts
- Likely to cooperate -> agreeableness
- Likely to be reliable -> conscientiousness
- Likely to drain resources -> neuroticism
- Likely to give me good advice -> openness
12
Q
3 key premises of evolutionary psych
A
- domain specificity: adaptations are designed to solve particular problem (ex. preferences for caloric-rich foods keeps us alive, but doesn’t help with mate selection)
- numerousness: humans have many adaptations
- functionality: psychological mechanisms designed to accomplish particular adaptive goals (ex. preference for healthy mates can be traced back to adaptive advantage)
13
Q
evolutionarily-predicted sex differences
A
- say that the sexes will differ in those domains where women and men have faced specific adaptive problems, for example:
- aggression: higher in men because they’ve had to do more to attract mates evolutionarily (women invest more; are choosier)
- jealousy: men more likely to get jealous if women have sex with someone else (unsure of paternity), women more likely jealous if men invest emotionally/financially in someone else (loss of resources)
- mate selection: men care more about physical attractiveness (indicates fertility), women care more about financial resources (to support offspring)
14
Q
ADHD as an adaptive trait?
A
- ADHD appears maladaptive, but why is it so prevalent?
- advantageous in evolutionary past -> being restless was adaptive; helped nomads survive
- Linked to the 7R gene, which is associated with more risky and restless behaviours in general -> people whose ancestors travelled further out of Africa more likely to have it
15
Q
depression as an adaptive trait?
A
- analytic rumination hypothesis: depression is triggered by complex social problems related to fitness and survival -> forces you to ruminate and try to solve it
- support for ‘social problems’ aspect: depression often triggered by social stress and interpersonal conflict, and affects women more
- support for ‘problem-solving’ aspect: depression activates prefrontal cortex and allows you to focus on rumination and problem-solving
