evolutionary psychology

Question 0

ehology

Answer 0

= scientific study of evolved characteristics of behaviour; universal, instinctive, adaptive

Question 1

evolutionary psychology

Answer 1

views patterns of behaviour, thinking and emotion in terms of their adaptive significance in our evolutionary history

Question 2

lamarkian theory of evolution

Answer 2

characteristics acquired over an individuals lifetime are passed on to offspring

Question 3

new ‘paradigim’

Answer 3

looking at the distant past to understand the present

Question 4

functionality

Answer 4

= the mind evolved to serve various adaptive functions

Question 5

modularity of mind

Answer 5

= just as body organs have evolved so has the human mind for specific adaptive purposes
e.g., animals have a ‘predator detection model’ which identifies dangerous predators

Question 6

term = mental modules have evolved for specific adaptive purposes

Answer 6

modularity of mind

e.g., ‘cheater detector model’ in humans, necessary if reciprocal altruism is to work

Question 7

the evolved personality

Answer 7

is ‘re-enacting the past’ from what our ancestors did [NOT from what we observe in our lifetime]

Question 8

unconscious instinctive motivation in evolutionary psyc

Answer 8

= we behave according to ancient programming

Question 9

nature vs; nurture

Answer 9

strong nature component BUT there’s environmental shaping; epigenetics

Question 10

EEA: environment of evolutionary adaptedness

Answer 10

the presumed environment in which our ancestors lived.

why many of our genes underlying our behaviour may/may not be suites to our lives in a modern, industrialised world

Question 11

problems with EEA

Answer 11

• how accurate is the EEA really? we weren’t around to observe the behaviour of our ancestors
• the EEA is a rather long span of time accounting for diff climates and era, maybe it should be environmentSSS

Question 12

reciprocal altruism

• soft-core
• hard-core

Answer 12

hard-core altruism = helping kin who share your genes and can pass them on to future generations
soft-core altruism = helping other is cooperative ventures in which you will likely benefit

Question 13

diff b/w men and women

Answer 13

sexes will differ in domains where women & men have faced different sorts of adaptive problems

Question 14

buss’ findings

Answer 14

females prefer wealth men, males prefer young buxom women

males more distressed by sexual infidelity, females emotional infidelity

Question 15

nature vs nurture

Answer 15

gender role stereotypes are in our genes, NATURE

Question 16

psychopathology

Answer 16

= adaptation gone wrong
e.g., eating disorder: sexual competition

in terms of EEA, some behaviour currently considered pathological might have been adaptive during the EEA (eg., paranoia necessary in the hunting world, but not today)

Question 17

evaluation

Answer 17

-ve
- post hoc
- untestable/unfalsifiable
feminist theory