Introduction Flashcards
Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s Pre-Darwinian Concept
- Believed that organisms tend to progress toward higher forms
- Features and characteristics of organisms are inherited
Leopold Chretian Frederick Dagobert Cuvier’s Pre-Darwinian Concept
- Proposed that species are extinguished periodically by sudden catastrophes to be replaced by another species
3 main concepts of the Theory of Natural Selection
- Variation
- Inheritance
- Selection
Definition of ‘Variation’
Organisms vary across a multitude of dimensions of attributes
Definition of ‘Inheritance’
Some of the attributes that vary are inherited and reliably passed down to offspring over generations
Definition of ‘Selection’
Organisms with heritable attributes reproduce and have more offspring as those attributes help overcome the problem of survival and reproduction
Definition of ‘Fitness’ in evolutionary sciences perspective
The odds of an organism with a certain attribute surviving till reproduction
2 types of ‘sexual selection’
- Intra-sexual competition
- Inter-sexual competition
Explain ‘Intra-sexual competition’
Competition between members of the same sex to gain sexual access to mates directly or indirectly
Explain ‘Inter-sexual competition’
Manifests as preferential mate choices and those who do not have advantageous characteristics are less likely to be chosen as mates
Darwinism after Darwin
- Classic Darwinism
- Mendelian genetic
- Post-synthesis
What concepts are under Mendelian genetics?
- Mutation
- Genetic inheritance
- Etc.
Mendelian genetics supports Darwin’s theory of natural selection by…
Defining by which mechanism inheritance occured (via genes)
What concepts are under post-synthesis?
- Ethology
- Inclusive fitness and kin selection
- Evolutionary-developmental theories
- Multilevel selection
- Adaptive lags
Ethology indicates…
An adaptation in the form of a physical characteristic requires the organisms to enact behaviors that make use of the adaptation for organisms to benefit from it
Inclusive fitness indicates…
Inclusive fitness = classical fitness + (effect of organism’s action on the fitness of genetic relatives x genetic relativeness)
Explain the Hamilton rule
rB > C; Benefits to genetic relatives must be greater than the cost to self
r: proportion of shared genes
B: fitness benefits in terms of how many offspring are produced
C: fitness cost to self
Group selection is…
A mechanism of evolution in which natural selection acts at the level of the group instead of at the level of individual or gene
-> This indicates that selfish organisms will perish
2 reasons why group selection is now disfavored are
- Altruistic organisms are less likely to survive while selfish organisms are more likely to survive and reproduce
- Selections at the genetic level work against selection against group level
Define adaptation
Evolved solutions to specific problems that contribute either directly or indirectly to successful reproduction
3 criteria for a characteristic to be considered an adaptation
- Reliability
- Efficiency
- Economy
Explain Reliability
Does the mechanism regularly develop in most or all members of the species across all normal environments?
Does the mechanism perform dependently in the context in which it is designed to function?
Explain Efficiency
Does the mechanism solve a particular adaptive problem well and effectively?
Explain Economy
Does the mechanism solve a particular adaptive problem without extorting huge costs from the organism?
What are Robert Trier’s 3 Seminal Theories?
- Theory of reciprocal altruism
- Parental investment theory
- Parent-offsprings conflict theory
Explain the theory of reciprocal altruism
Defined the condition where altruism could have evolved
-> Altruistic helping could be beneficial when there is potential for repayment for the altruistic act in the future
Explain parental investment theory
- Sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate
- Less investing sex will have intra-sexual competition for access to mates
Explain parental-offsprings conflict theory
- Resources invested in offspring are resources not available elsewhere
-> Parents look to maximize fitness benefits from parental resources invested, while offspring look to maximize parental resources gained from parents
How is sociobiology different from evolutionary psychology
Sociobiology: Goes straight from ancestral environment to behaviors
Evolutionary psychology:
Includes the psychological mechanisms that are affected by the ancestral environment that explains how the end-product (behaviors) generated
3 common misconceptions about evolutionary psychology
- Genetic determinism
- Inflexibility
- Optimal design
What is genetic determinism?
A view that genes determine phenotypes, such as morphology, psychology, or behavior, with little or no environmental influence
How is genetic determinism rejected?
Environmental influence is apparent at all stages of the evolutionary process and evolutionary psychology is an interactionist approach
What is inflexibility?
Evolved characteristics are impossible to change
How is inflexibility rejected?
Evolved characteristics require triggers to activate; the extent to which change can happen depends on the extent to which plasticity is favored by natural selection (adaptive plasticity)
What is adaptive plasticity?
The extent to which plasticity is favored by natural selection
What is optimal design?
Adaptations that organisms possess today are optimally designed over generations of selection
How is optimal design rejected?
The existence of evolutionary or adaptive time lag (evolutionary mismatch)
Specific adaptations have subsequent ‘costs’
2 types of analysis from Tinbergen’s Four Question
- Proximate analysis
-> Explanations that address the immediate causes of a behavior or mental process - Ultimate analysis
-> Explanations that address distant historical origins of how and why the psychological structures are responsible for producing the behavior or mental process
2 types of fallacies
- Naturalistic fallacy
- Moralistic fallacy
What is a Naturalistic fallacy
The belief that what is natural is always good
What is the Moralistic fallacy
The belief that what is good is how nature is
