Lecture 1: Evolution and Human Behaviour

Question 1

Naturalistic Fallacy

Answer 1

A leap from is to should be - an informal logical fallacy which argues that is something is natural it must be good - if we want to justify existing social practices with the argument that they are natural.

Question 2

Moralistic Fallacy

Answer 2

A leap from should be to is - the informal fallacy of assuming that an aspect of nature which has socially unpleasant consequences cannot exist - if we want to combat existing social practices with the argument of denying that they are natural.

Question 3

Human Behaviour is ____?

Answer 3

COMPLEX

Question 4

Immediate Context

Answer 4

something bad happens that could put us in a bad mood.

Question 5

Hormones and Neurotransmitters

Answer 5

immediate context and hormones interact with each other to cause HIGHER AGGRESSION.

Question 6

Genes

Answer 6

underlie the expression of our behaviour, it interacts with our environmental experiences which also determine how we are expected to behave.

Question 7

Social Constructs

Answer 7

influenced by generations of CULTURE TRANSMISSION - aspects of our experiences and environment determined by our culture.

Question 8

3 common misconceptions about adaptive traits?

Answer 8

1. human traits are solely genetically determined
2. if its evolutionary we can’t change it - we are capable of controlling our actions.
3. current mechanisms are optimally designed.
   * our adaptive traits evolve through generations due to natural selection*