Lecture 1 Flashcards
Why do we study evolutionary psychology?
To try and answer why we behave the way we do; for example why are we nice to our family and why we use language. People are still searching for a divide between humans & animals because of cartesian dualism (which says we can’t study them together). BUT Darwin said humans and animals are related.
What is genetic determinism?
It’s a mechanism by which genes, along with environmental conditions, determine morphological and behavioural phenotype’s.
What is naturalistic fallacy?
Reporting data, whereby there is no value of opinions
Discuss the evidence for evolution
- Fossil records; there is evidence that fossils have changed through time, and every two species have a common ancestor.
- Similarities of related life forms; chimps & humans share 98% of DNA, as well as the embryo’s of species are similar and often inseparable in the first few weeks. There is also similarity in body plans, for example horses and zebras.
- Geographic distribution; island distribution. Broad groups that evolved before the break up of Pangaea are distributed worldwide.
- Rapid population changes in living organisms; bacterial resistance and bottle neck population.
How does evolution work?
Theory of evolution via natural selection; 1. Principle of variation - exhibits variation, 2. Principle of inheritance - variation is inheritable, 3. Principle of adaption - more offspring are born than can survive. Because of this the fittest offspring survive. Note that inheritance is not always a genetic unit of inheritance. This is the principle of evolution.
Life is the product of successful strategies. During evolution, selection favours individuals who adopt strategies that maximise their contributions to future generations. Evolution designs life, equipping individuals with the tools needed to survive.
What is fitness
It is a success with which a trait is propagated in future generations relative to other variants of the trait.
Discuss Tinbergen’s 4 why’s?
- Mechanistic; proximate, refers to causes of behaviour such as hormones, genes & nerves that control expression of behaviours.
- Development; proximate, refers to the ontogeny of behaviours such as imprinting or learning.
- Phylogenetic; ultimate, refers to context in which behaviours are found for example the prevalence of parental care in birds, but not reptiles is an example of the taxonomic affiliations of some behaviours. E.G. evolved to like something.
- Functional; ultimate, refers to the adaptive value or contribution that the behaviour makes to fitness.
Discuss the common pitfalls of evolution
- Humans have stopped evolving. We are always evolving.
- Evolution is always an improvement - not always!
- Humans have evolved from monkeys - 25 million years ago, humanoids and monkeys branched separately, and 5 million years ago humans and apes split.
- Group selection; individuals behave for the good of the group. No, mathematical arguments dispute it! Hamilton (1964) suggests inclusive fitness, and Trivers (1971, 1974) suggested reciprocal altruism and parent-offspring conflict.
Define adaptive
Adaptive functions increase fitness
Define adaptations
A characteristic that has been designed by selective processes to increase fitness.
Discuss human evolution
There are two hypotheses. Multi-regional hypothesis; suggests that Homosapiens evolved from Homoerectus about 1 million years ago, after homoerectus’s spilled out of Africa & evolved separately into Homospaiens everywhere.
Or the Out of Africa hypothesis; suggests there was a common ancestor for all humans in Africa about 100/200k years ago. Homosapiens spread around the worlds, and the theory is based on mitochondrial DNA evidence- Cann et al (1987).
