History and Basic Concepts Flashcards
What were some of the things known before Darwin’s time?
- Primates all had 5 digits on hands and feet
- Wings of birds were similar to flippers of seals
- Embryological development was very similar in species that were very different
- Species seem to have characteristics with a purpose
How did the fossil record suggest change over time?
Bones from older geological strata were not the same as more recent strata
Variation
There are subtle differences in the characteristics of organisms
Inheritance
Differences are passed on to offspring
Competition
Some differences increase/decrease survival and reproduction
Natural selection
Characteristics increasing survival and reproduction will therefore become more common
What causes phenotypic differences?
Adaptations
An adaptation
An inherited characteristic that increases an organism’s survival and reproduction in an ancestral environment
What are the two forms of exaptations?
Pre-adaptations and spandrels
Pre-adaptations
Adaptations selected for one function and then used for a new function
Spandrels
Adaptations that are now useful, but not the result of past function and are thus non-adaptive in origin
What are the common criticisms of evolution?
- Just a theory
- Gaps in the record
- Simply chance
- Not relevant to the present
Empiricism
Role of sensory experience in the construction of knowledge
Rationalism
Role of rationality and intuition in the construction of knowledge
Nativism
Role of innate ideas in the construction of knowledge
Reductionism
Explaining things in terms of their components, starting the highest level and working down
Determinism
Things are inevitable outcomes of prior causes
What are some of the claims Jonason and Dane use to suggest that people do not accept evolutionary psychology?
- Religious bias
- Human exceptionalism bias
- Environmental determinism bias
- Genetic determinism bias
Give an example of religious bias
Gould’s NOMA
Give an example of human exceptionalism bias
Rejection of evolutionary principles for human behaviour
Give an example of environmental determinism bias
Belief in Standard Social Science Model (a blank slate)
Give an example of genetic determinism bias
Belief that evolutionary psychology thinks genes alone determine behaviour
