General psychology lecture 2 Flashcards
Co-developer of the theory of evolution through natural selection
Alfred Russel Wallace
3 major milestones in human evolution
Bipedalism
Tool use
Language
What was Darwin interested in?
Describing the expression of emotions in man and animals
What did Darwin suggest regarding emotions in animals and humans?
That they were similar
Example of altruistic behaviors
Sharing food
Helping injured group members
What is kin selection n(altruism)?
Helping relatives
What is reciprocal altruism?
Helping others with expectation of future help
What is intersexual competition?
Competition within the same sex
What is intersexual selection?
Mate choice
What is human evolution characterized by?
A balance between cooperation and competition
What did the interplay of cooperation and competition influence?
Cultural evolution
What is inclusive fitness?
Measure of an organism’s genetic success in the population
Includes reproductive success and role in reproductive success of genetic relatives
What is direct fitness?
Reproductive success of individual based on number of offspring
What is indirect fitness?
Reproductive success of an individual’s genetic relatives due to the individual’s actions
What is kin selection?
Individuals behave altruistically towards their relatives to increase overall genetic success of the family
What does Hamilton’s rule describe?
Inclusive fitness quantitatively
What is favored according to Hamilton’s rule?
Altruistic behavior is favored when the genetic relatedness between the actor and recipient, multiplied by the benefit to the recipients is greater than the cost to the actor (when benefits outweigh the costs)
Examples of inclusive fitness in human behavior
Parental care
Sibling support
Extended family assistance
What is adaptive behavior?
Behaviors that increase survival and reproduction
What are mental mechanisms?
Psychological traits and mechanisms evolved to solve recurrent problems
What is cognition?
Mental processes such as perception, memory, reasoning and decision-making
What are cognitive biases?
Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgement
Often lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation or irrationality
Confirmation bias
Tendency to search, interpret or remember info that confirms preexisting beliefs
Anchoring bias
Rely too heavily on first piece of information
Availability heuristic
Overestimate likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
Hindsight bias
Believing after an event that you could have predicted or expected the outcome
Overconfidence bias
Overestimate abilities, knowledge or judgement
Sunk cost fallacy
Continue investing in a decision based on cumulative prior investment despite new evidence suggesting the decision may be wrong
Representativeness heuristic
Making judgements about probability of event based on how much it resembles other events
Availability heuristic
Relying on immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision
Affect heurostoc
Basing decisions on emotions and feelings rather than rational analysis
What did Tversky and Kahneman research?
Heuristics and biases
Non-critical thinking can lead to erroneous conclusions, due to
Tendency to downplay evidence that does not match what they believe
When do people often rely on heuristics to make judgments?
When faced with uncertainty
What are heuristics?
Mental shortcuts/rules of thumb that simplify decision making
What kind of theory is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Motivational theory
How many levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
5
The levels of Maslow’s hierarchy
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Love and belonging needs
Esteem needs
Self-actualization needs
Who developed the self-determination theory?
Deci and Ryan
What does the self-determination theory focus on?
The degree to which human behaviors are self-motivated and self-determined
Key points of self-determination theory
Autonomy
Competence
Relatedness
Basic psychological needs
Types of motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic)
What is cognitive psychology?
Study of mental processes and their evolutionary origins
Key points of cognitive psychology
Adaptation and survival
Mental modules
Domain-specificity
Adaptive nature of cognitive functions key points
Memory
Attention
Perception
Problem-solving
Language
Decision-making
Examples of adaptive cognitive functions
Spatial navigation
Social cognition
Mate selection
What is developmental psychology?
Examination of how evolutionary theory explains changes in behavior and mental processes throughout lifespan
2 main theories of developmental psychology
Attachment theory
Life history theory
Who originally developed attachment theory and who expanded don it?
OG: Bowlby
Expanded: Ainsworth
Focus of attachment theories
How early attachments influence emotional and social development
4 attachment styles
Secure - trust and security
Anxious-ambivalent - uncertainty and anxiety
Avoidant - emotional distance and self-reliance
Disorganized - lack of clear attachment
What is life history theory?
Evolutionary framework that examines how organisms allocate resources to growth, reproduction and survival across their lifespan
Life history traits
Reproductive timin
Growth and development
Survival strategies
What does life history emphasize?
The trade-offs organisms face the allocating limited resources (ex reproduction may come at cost of reduced self maintenance
What are human life history strategies influenced by?
Social
Cultural
Environmental factors
Environmental influences that shape life history strategies
Resource availability
Predation risk
Social stability
What does understanding life history theory help explain?
Patterns of growth
Key concepts of social psychology
Social influence
Cooperation
Aggression
What does social influence refer to ?
The ways individuals change their behavior to meet demands of social environment
Key points od social influence
Conformity
Compliance
Obedience
Social norms
Persuasion
Key points of cooperation
Evolutionary basis
Reciprocal altruism
Social exchange theory
Group cooperation
Challenges to cooperation
2 types of aggression
Instrumental aggression - used to achieve goal
Hostile aggression - driven by anger and intent to cause harm
What does social learning theory propose?
Aggression is learned through observation and imitation of others
Most significant evolutionary development in human brain
Enlargement of neocortex
What is the cerebral cortex involved in
Higher order brain functioning such as sensory perception, cognition, generation of motor commands and spatial reasoning and language
Key points of neuroplasticity
Synaptic plasticity
Experience dependent plasticity
Critical periods
Learning and memory
Environmental influences of nuroplasticity
Enriched environments - enhances
Stress and adversity - negatively effects
Concepts of behavioral adaptations
Fight or flight response
Social brain hypothesis
Fight or flight key points
SNS activation
Adrenaline release
Fight or flight key responses
Increased heart rate
Dilated pupils
Rapid breathing
Redirected blood flow
Tensed muscles
Heightened senses
What is the social brain hypothesis?
Posits that the complexities of social life were a driving fore behind evolution of large brains in primates
Demands of living in social groups led to development of advanced cognitive abilities
Social Brian hypothesis key points
Group size and brain size correlation
Social cognition
Theory of mind
Cooperation and competition
Communication and language
Implications for human behavior
