Historical And Conceptual Issues In Evolutionary Psychology

Question 1

Meant did Malthus say was explanation for why animals are so well adapted to their environments?

Answer 1

Competition for resources

Question 2

What did Darwin say about competition and adaptation in terms of survival leading to reproduction?

Answer 2

Competition = between and within species as members of the same species compete for resources/mates

Adaptation = widespread amongst members of species - help solve environmental problem facing the organism

Question 3

What did Darwin say natural selection was a result of?

Answer 3

Variation - organisms differ from one another both as individuals and species

Inheritance - only some of this variation is inherited by the next generation

Selection - heritable variation results in more organisms having those variations (different reproductive success)

Question 4

How did adaptation and psychology link?

Answer 4

Darwin suggested populations of organisms show variation - some of those variations have advantages on organisms that possess them = adaptations

Adaptations confer survival/sexual advantage and are passed onto offspring

This thinking in terms of function led to a school of psychology

Question 5

How has evolution had important implications in psychology?

Answer 5

Continuity - between animals and humans (behaviourism)

Physical structures and behaviours exist in organisms will be adaptive (help solve survival/sexual problem faced by organisms)

If behaviour is adaptive can analyse according to function

Question 6

What did Galton believe with heredity and statistics? And what was his contribution to psychology?

Answer 6

Intelligence = inherited

Founded eugenics education society

First introduced nature/nurture argument

Introduced use of statistics especially measurement of variation in population and measures of central tendency

Question 7

How do functionalism and behaviourism contribute to evolution?

Answer 7

Functionalism - sought to discover the adaptive functions of consciousness, used similar introspective measures as structuralism, nature of cognition (specifically consciousness) addressed in distinctly Darwinian terms

Behaviourism - lack of a ‘dividing line’ between humans and animals draws directly from evolutionary principles, entire nature of behaviourism would have been impossible without Darwin and theory of evolution

Question 8

What does cultural relativism say?

Answer 8

Refers to idea that the greatest differences between people lie in their cultures - to understand people must understand their cultures

Question 9

What does sociobiology say?

Answer 9

Ideas about applying evolutionary theory to human behaviour been around since Darwin
After WW2 and horrors of holocaust, biological explanations for human differences and behaviours morally uncomfortable
Sociobiology grew out of attempts to apply evolutionary theory to animal behaviour by ethnologists like Richard Dawkins
Sociobiology = systematic study of biological basis of all social behaviour
If behaviour affected reproductive success in predictable way, and if articular selection has are shaped by genes then natural selection has to some extent shaped human behaviour

Question 10

How evolutionary psychology came about?

Answer 10

Came from psychologists

Claimed it differed to sociobiology in that it’s concerned with the underlying computations of the mind (cognitive psychology/cognitivism)

Question 11

What are the principles of evolutionary psychology?

Answer 11

1. Brain evolved to generate behaviour appropriate to our environmental circumstances
2. Neural circuitry adapted to solve evolutionary problems
3. Much problem solving is unconscious
4. Neural circuits are specialised to solve adaptive problems eg. Cheat detection
5. A Stone Age brain in a modern world

Question 12

Are evolutionary specified behaviours (specialised neural circuits) modules?

Answer 12

Fodor = modules are innate, automatic, responsible for a certain aspect of human behaviour

Question 13

Criticisms to evolutionary psychology

Answer 13

Popper = science must seek to falsify theories - how can you test evolution? - psychology involves testing hypotheses by looking at responses to stimuli, usually occurring closely together in time - evolution is slow

Lakatos = theories can be maintained in the face of anomalous results - argued Darwinism was pseudoscience

Question 14

Chapter 3

What is cross-fertilisation?

Answer 14

Many plants could self-fertilise but seemed to avoid it -> if happened = offspring on average less healthy -> cross-fertilisation = variation - more vital and sometimes nee type of flower created
L> new type dominated - struggle for existence = reason some variants had advantages = natural selection or survival of fittest

Question 15

Chapter 3

What was the dilution problem?

Answer 15

One element Darwin failed to explain was how a new plant could come to dominate
L> Jenkin = when new feature placed in group wouldn’t expand, but dilute until nothing remains
L> Darwin couldn’t answer - agreed new variant couldn’t alter nature of species and evolution only possible when change is environment favoured whole group of individuals at same time
L> only when biologists unravelled nature of inheritance and understood genes aren’t blended in process of conception, real impact of evolution theory became clear

Question 16

Chapter 3

Common misunderstandings of evolutionary theory

Answer 16

No direction in genetic changed - genes induce change in plants/animals so becomes more adapted to environment = wrong
L> genetic material = no knowledge of environment and can’t change in desirable direction
now and then = random alteration = changes that result in descendant barely visible or not resulting in further offspring
L> occasionally alteration results in characteristic that is well adapted to prevailing environment and increases chances of organisms to survive and have descendants - gradually increases in number
Organisms don’t become stronger or better - each genetic mutation survives in a better, stronger and more complex organism - Jones gave example how adaptations not always for better = described how predators eg wolves, declined as soon as humans invaded but few species increased in number eg pets or for food eg dogs/pigs - these species dumber than ancestors = humans didn’t want dogs with own initiative or smart pigs - wanted animals lost without human presence