Evolutionary Psychology Flashcards
Adaptation
A feature of an organism that is a product of natural selection. It is a specific feature of an organism that has come to typify (represent) a species because it helps members of the species overcome some important survival or reproduction-based hur- dles and facilitates reproduction
Cultural Evolution
a cultural unit that has the capacity to be replicated—much like a gene. It’s a piece of human culture or an idea. Can happen in a short amount of time unlike genetic evolution
Ex: how cell phones have advanced since 2000 and are now the norm
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA)
This concept pertains to the environmental conditions that typified the ancestors of a species, with the idea that organisms evolve the features that they have to match their current environments
Evolutionary mismatch
When organisms evolve to match their environment but their environment drastically changes
Ex: polar bears not being able to adapt to the melting ice caps
Genetic drift
the idea that some genes become more prevalent in populations not because they lead to adaptive benefits relative to alleles, but simply because of happenstance regarding which genes were where when!
Ex: if everyone there was an equal amount of tall & short people and all the short people got wiped from the earth, the tall gene would be more prevalent
Meme
a cultural unit that has the capacity to be replicated—much like a gene (cultural evolution)
Multilevel Selection
the idea that several evolutionary forces, at multiple levels, work simultaneously at a given time
Ex: an indi- vidual may have a gene that is in the gene’s interest, but not in the individual’s interest (e.g., a gene that replicates in high frequencies by creating cancerous cells—these are cells that replicate a gene that is harmful to the individual).
Natural Selection
he idea that features of organisms that are adaptive, or that somehow help with the survival and/or reproduction of the organism, are selected and retained as part of the species
Organic evolution
takes thousands of generations to make important and observable changes in a population.
Reproductive success
The idea that life forms evolved a host of features that facilitate the ability of an organism to reproduce
Selfish gene
the idea that genes are the basic replicating unit of all life forms, and that we can understand the nature of life by understanding conceptual properties of genes
Sexual selection
the idea that qualities that facilitate reproduction in the mating domain may be selected simply because of their role in this particular domain, even if these same qualities hinder survival
Sociobiology
field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. … It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, so also it led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior.
Spandrel
Each adaptation, he argued, brings along several by-products that come to typify a species (just as the adaptations do), but that have no reproductive benefits—they just come along for the ride
Trade-off
every benefit comes with costs, evolution is not meant to make creature perfect. No creature is perfect
Ex: reproducing too early in our species would have the cost of having parents be ill-prepared for child or having a high number of offspring at a time leads to increased risks of death to both mother and child during childbirth
