Intro to EvPsych

Question 1

Three assumptions of Natural Selection (Darwin)

Answer 1

• Variation between individuals
• Variation is heritable
• Variation produces differential reproductive success

Question 2

Social Darwinism

Answer 2

Francis Galton
founder of the Eugenics Society

• “genius and talent are inherited”
• heredity should be a moral decision to avoid “inferiors” reproducing (poor & low-paid, criminals, paupers…)

Question 3

Eugenics

Answer 3

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

• compulsory sterilisation - 1927 Supreme Court Rule

Question 4

Beahaviourism

Answer 4

John Watson

• nurture
• “there are no instincts… [they are] a result of training…”

Question 5

The birth of sociobiology

Answer 5

Edward Owen Wilson

• social behaviours in the animal world
  
  • altruism
  • parental care
  • aggression
  • mate choice
  • communication
  • societal structure
• short lifespan = easy to study heritability

Question 6

Opposition to sociobiology

Answer 6

Gould et al. (1975)

• There is biological influence on behaviours (eating, sleeping) but not complex social behaviours (warfare, currency, sexual exploitation)

Question 7

The birth of ‘evolutionary psychology’

Answer 7

Cosmides & Tooby (1987)

• reaction to standard social science model
  
  • biology unimportant for behaviour
  • blank slate
  • brain is a ‘general-purpose’ computer
  • culture = behaviour
  • culture can vary in any direction on any trait

Question 8

5 principles of evolutionary psychology

Answer 8

1. brain is a computer
   
   • generates environment-appropriate behav.
   • needed for social behav.
2. neural circuits designed by natural selection
   
   • “appropriate” bc of ancestoral problem solving
3. trivial behaviours reflect functioning of complex circuitry
   
   • e.g. attraction = contrast, colour, face processing, face referencing…
4. different neural circuits specialised for solving different adaptive problems (modularity)
5. mind adapted to deal with hunter-gatherer ancestors’ problems in upper Pleistocene period
   
   • ‘stone age minds in modern skulls’
   • environment of evolutionary adaptiveness e.g. paternal parental care ~2mil yrs ago for humans

Question 9

Difference between cognitive psych and evolutionary psych

Answer 9

Cognitive = where, how & what of info processing and storage (proximate causes of behav.)

Evolutionary = how does that promote evolutionary success? Purposes of functions (ultimate causes of behav.)

Question 10

Philosophy of science - Tinbgergen’s 4 questions

Answer 10

Mechanism (cause)

Ontonegy (development)

Adaptive value (function)

Phylogeny (evolution)

Question 11

Generation of testable predictions

Answer 11

General evolutionary theory
- selection for max. reproductive fitness

Theories on evolutionary mechanism
- SST

Evolutionary hypothesis
- males favour ST encounters w/ available fertile partners

Psych prediction
- men attracted to women who display cues to fertility e.g. youth, WHR, & look for signals of sexual interest

Question 12

Misconceptions of evolutionary psych

Answer 12

Genetic determinism….

NO!

EP is an interactionist framework
Genes bias but don’t determine behaviour