Fundamentals I - Evolution Flashcards
Evolution
1) Traits vary among individuals and strengths of traits can vary by levels
2) Different traits lead to different fitness in survival and reproduction
3) Traits are inherited
Evolutionary Psychology
- Attempts to explain how patterns of behaviour that characterize all humans originated in the survival value of these characteristics
- Adaptiveness increases the likelihood of passing on genes
- Identify common behaviour patterns and then determine how the behaviour was adaptive
Survival: Evolution of Negativity Bias
- In general, people tend to be more sensitive to aversive stimuli (tend to be more reactive to negative things)
- It is a common behavioural pattern and can be seen as adaptive
- If you come across something that could be a branch or a snake you have two possible reactions (jump away or do nothing) with 4 different outcomes:
- If you jump away, the best case scenario is a hit (it’s a snake, you’re correct and alive) and worst case scenario, a false alarm (it’s a branch and you’re embarrassed)
- If you do nothing, the best case scenario is correct rejection (it’s a branch, you’re satisfied) and the worst case scenario is a miss (it was a snake, and you’re dead)
- Ultimately the logic is that in case of a negative, it is better to react regardless
Crazy Bastard Hypothesis (Fessler et al., 2014)
- Focus on a pattern of behaviour that exists but is hard to explain: the survival of risk-seeking behaviours
- Hypothesis: Risk-seeking individuals signal to others that they are worth as an ally and a dangerous enemy to have, therefore we will perceive them as bigger, stronger, and more formidable
- People were asked to read about risk seeking individuals and then asked to describe them
- They tended to be seen as taller, bigger (daredevils)
General Adaptations of the Cultural Animal - Domain-specific adaptations
Attributes that evolved to meet a particular challenge but that are not particularly useful when dealing wit other types of challenges
General Adaptations of the Cultural Animal - Domain-general adaptations
Attributes that are useful for dealing with various challenges across different areas of life
Four Domain-General Adaptations that Shape Human Behaviour
1) Humans are social beings
2) Humans are very intelligent beings
3) Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings
4) Humans are very emotional beings
First domain-general adaptation - Humans are social beings
- Human survival depends on social relationships to survive and adapt
- The human brain has evolved several tools to facilitate appropriate social sensitivity
First domain-general adaptation - Humans are social beings: how the brain has evolved towards social sensitivity
- The recognition of human faces (fusiform face area, more seemingly specialized part of the cortex that is more sensitive to the social)
- Social exclusion sensitivity (particular sensitive & responsive to instances of social exclusion)
- inborn readiness to categorize people (closeness or solidarity; status or hierarchy; very quick (~200 millisecs) as seen on EEG)
- Become very receptive and involved in socialization
First domain-general adaptation - Humans are social beings: Human Facial Recognition
- Fusiform Face Area (FFA) is activated by faces and the more a face looks human the more it is activated (objects, to schematic faces, to cats, to human faces)
- FFA is a part of the visual system (in inferior temporal cortex) and specializes in facial recognition, as the cortex specializes in certain types of things or functions in network (different areas function at the same time)
- There was a whole question behind Greebles (individuals related to each other) and idea was they should not activate the FFA as the cortex is not that specialized, but they all kinda have faces so there was activation and argument was that the FFA is more about expertise in regards to Greebles and family among greebles
First domain-general adaptation - Humans are social beings: Social Exclusion and Cyberball
- Kip Williams was influenced by an outing in the park where a group of strangers were playing frisbee and upon throwing the frisbee too far in his direct, he brought it back
- He threw it to a group member, who threw it back to him (surprised him) and they continued to include him until all of a sudden they stopped which made him feel horrible
- He realized how odd this was as he did not know the group, was not a particular fan of frisbee and decided to study it by creating Cyberball (an online passing the ball game, while participants’ brains were scanned)
- There was the Inclusion condition and the Exclusion condition where after 5-6 rounds, the two other players stopped passing it to participant
- This study showed how much rejection hurts
First domain-general adaptation - Humans are social beings: Rejection
- The next question was does rejection hurt beyond the metaphorical and actually be described as pain
- Throughout many different cultures and language, the terms of hurt feelings was applied to ostracization, isolation and rejection, demonstrating an inevitability of pain
- Eisenberger et al. (2003) even saw activations in the dACC (associated with conflict), the Thalamus and in the Right and Left anterior insula (associated with embodiment of negative feelings and thoughts)
- This showed a neural overlap between social rejection and noxious stimuli (liable to cause pain)
- Social rejection could activate the insula, the same part of the brain involved in physical pain
Second domain-general adaptation - Humans are very intelligent beings
- Ability to imagine a future (construct things that have not happened yet) supports a uniquely human form of control over the world (gives sense of control)
- Symbolic thought and language enables humans to consider multiple conceptualizations and to communicate these to others
- The ability to think about the self symbolically enables people to think about the meaning of experiences (to think of ourselves in more abstract terms)
Second domain-general adaptation - Humans are very intelligent beings: Dual-Process Model (Rational-Experential)
- Rational (Control, Top-down) System is moreso abstract, slow, conscious, effortful, analytic; it is more involved in the prefrontal (problem-solving) cortex
- The Experiential (Irrational, Bottom-Up) System involves moreso holistic thinking, affect, intuition, what feels right, vivid images and is non effortful, automatic (outside of control), higher in speed operation; it is more present in the Limbic (emotion, affect) system which involves quick emotion based processes
Second domain-general adaptation - Humans are very intelligent beings: Dual Process Theories of Creativity (Convergent vs Divergent)
- Convergent Processes involves connection of different elements into a unified whole, it is rational, top-down, logic, accurate; uses the Remote Association Test where you are given multiple words and have to find the word that connects each of them
- In contrast, Divergent Processes are experiential, bottom-up, can involve many meanings (metaphorical types of thinking where one thing can mean many things); Intellectual playfulness is used where you play with what you already know like with the Drawing an Alien Test (the more human like it is, the less creative/divergent and vice-versa)
Second domain-general adaptation - Humans are very intelligent beings: Extreme Rational or Top-Down
Demonstrated with Anosognosia after a right hem stroke where patients cannot use left arm; they believe they can and are unaware of the paralysis, until a syringe with ice-cold water irrigates left ear canal, where they become aware for about 90 minutes and then go back to initial state; brings out question of what happens when one mode of thinking is dominant on the other
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings
- Goals matter
- The world as it is differs from what we perceive, perceptions that are filtered by expectations/wants
- Thinking is impacted by goals which helps us act (negativity bias)
- Motivation fuels energization of behaviour towards goal-consistent information and outcomes
- Humans direct their behaviour toward the satisfaction of needs and goals
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: How goals can change our perception (Goal-Directed Processing)
- When having the goal of finding something, your brain will tune into what you’re looking for and you will find it quickly
- But if there are variations of what your brain tuned into it will be harder to find your target as quickly; when finding Waldo, your brain is tuned to find red and white straps but these characteristics are everywhere and it is harder to find Waldo fast
- Can even narrow our abilities to find abnormalities or other things (experts paid to look for things, like radiologists were asked to find nodules on x rays and found more than 90% of nodules but all missed the gorilla in the chest cavity)
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: Characterizations of Motivation
- Can be characterized by strength, duration and direction
- A high (strong) motivator like seeing a shark when swimming will motivate an immediate action, whereas a low (weak) motivator like seaweed brushing feet will motivate an action that is less intense
- Also dependent on trait (dispositional) and state (moment), like being tired or losing interest versus invested and high energy
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: The Two Basic Motivational Systems in Motivational Direction
- Motivational valence/direction
- Approach and Avoidance Systems, which developed from single-celled to vertebrates
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: Approach Motivation
- Drive toward positive outcomes/stimuli (obtaining rewards, sometimes seeking novelty)
- Sustained by positive affect (interest, excitement, intensity)
- Less sensitive to negative outcomes/stimuli (punishers) (when owl is hunting for prey, very salient, less focused on other things when hunting)
- Promotes efficient action towards goal
- Growth motive
- With BAS (behavioural activation/approach system), Seek and Want System, left prefrontal cortex especially and dopamine pathways
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: Avoidance Motivation
- Drive away from negative outcomes/stimuli (punishers, novelty)
- Less sensitive to positive outcomes/stimuli (rewards) (won’t be looking for food if threat in the vicinity)
- Sustained by negative affect (fear, anxiety, trying to get rid of negative affect)
- Promotes rapid movement away from negative outcomes (harm)
- Security motive (need a home or safe base to go to)
- With FFFS (fight-flight-freeze), Fear and Withdrawal, and especially the Right Prefrontal Cortex
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: Influence of Needs and Goals on Behaviour
- Needs are necessary (mostly basic) internal states that drive action that is oriented towards survival or thriving
- Goals are cognitions that represent outcomes for which we strive in order to meet our needs and desires (involved with the social, the need to feel accepted, connected, meet people)
- But the distinction if there are different levels between both (there can be subordinate goals that are serving something higher)
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: Hedonism
- The human preference for pleasure over pain
- Found in most animals (very normal to choose feeling good over bad)
Third domain-general adaptation - Humans are motivated, goal-striving beings: How are abstract goals turned into tangible actions?
- Any specific activity can simultaneously be serving many interrelated goals that can be arranged hierarchically
- Any goal helps the person to achieve another, more abstract goal at a higher level in the hierarchy of standards
- Momentary challenges affect how actions are likely described (Action identification theory; Vallacher & Wegner)
- Rita tying shoelace example
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings
- Emotions motivate actions when goals need to be reached and needs satisfied (they are part of and causes of goal pursuit)
- Internal emotions are accompanied by external displays to communicate feelings and intentions (help us do and communicate things)
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Alexithymia
- Low in emotional intelligence (inability to identify and express emotions and prone to apathy and depression)
- Not good at answering questionnaires
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Blindfeel hypothesis
- Based on Blindsight and Phosphenes phenomenon
- Shows how consciousness is not made up of on thing but of components
- People who are blind had eye tracking that showed their eyes still follow and map out a face in front of them and if they hit or stimulate their visual cortex, thy still experience phosphenes (“seeing stars”)
- Most perceptual system is intact other than area affected by injury, but has no conscious idea of it
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)
- Blindfeel and Alexithymia related to ACC
- Broad lesions to ACC can cause Akinetic (no movement) mutism (no talking)
- Local lesions cause blunted emotional experience (often treatment for severe chronic pain)
- Electrical stimulation of ACC lead to reports of intense emotions and motivational states
- Alexithymic is decreased volume and activity in ACC, leading to no emotional drive, no action (if you want to avoid feelings, turn down ACC)
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: External displays of Emotion
- Primary emotions are universal (happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust, surprise) and are expressed by particular arrangements of face, even at small levels (microexpressions)
- Have dual function of sensory changes and communication
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Dual Function of External displays
- Changes Sensory input (with fear, eyes and nose open, so you can see and smell more, prepped to do more; with disgust you close off eyes, mouth, nose, reducing airway and airflow)
- Communication is also at play
- The amygdala is very important in rapidly processing threats and fear-related stimuli and it also has an elevated response to fearful expressions, notably wide eyes
- If seeing someone with wide eyes or general expression of fear, even without seeing what they are seeing, it elicits a fear-causing stimuli and automatically puts us in a reactive and alert mode
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Three-Part Division of Emotion (Damasio, 1999)
Secondary emotions are variations of primary emotions and can include social emotions, like guilt, jealousy, etc.)
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Social Emotions and their Regulation of Behaviour
- Draw attention to inappropriate behaviour
- Reinforce appropriate social behaviour
- Help repair disrupted social relationships
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: How cognition influences emotions
- Lazarus’ (1991) Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotions looked at how we recognize emotion and the part it plays in cognitive and behavioural responses
- If we encounter a stimuli, it’ll lead to primary appraisal process (immediate increase in physiological arousal, like fear), which will then lead to secondary appraisal process (we label/interpret what is going on), and from that we figure out our emotional experience
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: How emotions influence cognition
- Positive moods will lead to more positive judgements and reliance on existing knowledge
- Bad moods will lead to more negative views and actions and critical thinking
- Higher-order cognition is dependent on adequate emotional fucntioning
Fourth domain-general adaptation - Humans are very emotional beings: Knowing but not feeling risk (Bechara et al., 1997)
- Two groups, one with lesions to part of brain that incorporates feelings associated with ways of feeling and one control non-lesion group
- Both played game involving real money and two good decks and two bad decks, while having skin conductance measured
- People with lesions cognitively were on track with non lesion group (making mistakes, figuring out a deck is bad, etc.) but emotionally could not feel they were making bad choices showing that knowing something is bad does not affect actions, you have to feel that it is bad
