Lecture 2: Evolution and Human Behaviour - History of Evolutionary Psychology

Question 1

3 Theory of special creation?

Answer 1

1. species do not change through time
2. species were created independently of one another
3. species were created recently
   * THESE ARE INACCURATE BECAUSE WE’RE CONSTANTLY CHANGING THROUGH TIME.*

Question 2

Inheritance are understood, but not its mechanism. TRUE/FALSE

Answer 2

TRUE

Question 3

Artificial selection

Answer 3

human manipulation to a certain organism to control the breeding and obtain a desired trait.

Question 4

What were Jean Baptiste Lamarkian Evolution of understanding?

Answer 4

1. Inheritance are acquired characteristics - if my mother was an athlete, I would be an athlete too - giraffe neck - argued that only genetic material can be passed on.
2. organisms have the tendency to advance to higher forms.

Question 5

Phylogenetic tree

Answer 5

how organisms diverge and split over time respected to the environment they adapted.

Question 6

Darwin’s theory of natural selection

Answer 6

Finch species - their beaks shape have evolve base on their food diet - as they move to a different environment they have adapted a beak shape to better fit for survival and reproductive success.

Question 7

Natural Selection

Answer 7

the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to difference in traits.

Question 8

3 conditions of Natural Selection

Answer 8

1. individuals within the population must vary in phenotypic traits
2. at least some of the variation must have a genetic basis (heritable) - passed on b/w parents to children
3. this variation must influence reproductive success in terms of survival or reproduction - if the organism can survive well but does not reproduce then the heritable traits does not matter.

Question 9

Survival of the fittest

Answer 9

the best adaptive to the current environment

Question 10

Variation

Answer 10

1. individuals vary in phenotypic traits both within and across species
2. variation provides the “raw material” for evolution - the more genetic variation that can be passed on, the more potential an evolution can occur through natural selection

Question 11

Heritability

Answer 11

1. Only some variations are inherited - characteristic are inherited and influenced by genes - environmental characteristics can’t be heritable
2. Genes are the mode for inheritance - it can be passed on - for phenotypic traits to evolve, it has to have a relationship to the genetic material.

Question 12

Survival and Reproduction

Answer 12

1. Survival means nothing if successful reproduction cannot occur
2. Reproduction - organisms with some heritable variants can leave more offspring because variants help with survival and reproduction.

Question 13

Darwin’s theory of sexual selection:
Why do certain species have traits that apparently have no survival benefit and in some cases are even costly for survival?

Answer 13

Because some traits are preferred frequently due to sexual interaction/selection
ex. Peacock tail - their tails are more important for sexual selection because they rely on aesthetics for reproduction. Also, if they are put in the wild they would catch more attention and would be more endangered meaning they would have no chance of survival.

Question 14

Darwin’s theory of sexual selection:

Why do males and females of the same species differ?

Answer 14

sexual dimorphisms - systematic difference in form between ind. of different sex in the same species.
ex. in some species, including many mammals, the male is larger than the female. In others, such as some spiders, the female is larger than the male.
- if males and females invest different amounts to reproduce
(PARENTAL INVESTMENT THEORY) - they would have different outcomes of sexually selective traits.

Question 15

Sexual Selection

Answer 15

a mode of natural selection in relation to sex (i.e. reproductive success)

Question 16

Alfred Wallace

Answer 16

He independently and simultaneously conceived a theory of evolution by natural selection

Question 17

The Ethology Movement

Answer 17

Lorenz (1965) - the idea that ducklings would imprint on the first thing they see - this is called INNATE - present from birth without experience.

Question 18

Ethology: 2 levels of analysis

Answer 18

1. proximate explanation: the mechanism underlying a behaviors (physiology, hormones, genes)
2. Ultimate Explanation: the adaptive (evolutionary) explanation of a behaviour

Question 19

Tinbergen’s 4 “questions of behaviour

Answer 19

• he found baby seagulls similar to ducks*
  1. Causation (mechanism) - what biological mechanism are responsible for behaviour? -
  2. Development (Ontogeny) -what environmental factors that influence development are responsible for the behaviour? - i.e. critical periods, nutrition - ex. when a kitten is blindfolded in the first month they become blind but if they are blindfolded in the 2 month period they stay normal - it’s all about the environment
  3. Function (adaptation) - how does the behavior influence the individual’s ability to survive and reproduce?
  ex. elephant seals - it is important to them to have showdown and win to show reproductive success
  4. evolution (phylogeny) - how did evolutionary processes over many generation result in the evolution of the behaviour?

Question 20

The Inclusive fitness revolution (1960s) - W.D. Hamilton and Richard Dawkins

Answer 20

Inclusive fitness: the sum of an individual’s direct fitness, the number of offspring produced, and indirect fitness, the number of relatives (nieces and nephews) produced multiplied by the degree of relatedness of those individuals.

Question 21

Robert Triver’s Seminal Theories (1970s)

Answer 21

1. reciprocal altruism - evolve if theres a favor in return and involve if there’s no relation between individuals
2. Parental Investment theory (and sexual conflict) - predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate, and the less-investing sex will have intra-sexual competition for access to mates.
3. Parent offspring conflict - It is used to describe the evolutionary conflict arising from differences in optimal parental investment (PI) in an offspring from the standpoint of the parent and the offspring.
   ex. a bird feeding - the strongest baby who gets all the food eats the other babies.

Question 22

E.O Wilson

Answer 22

sociologist argues that the mind and behaviours are shaped far more by genetics and other biological factors as opposed to culture

Question 23

Modern Evolutionary psychology - Martin Daly and Margo Wilson

Answer 23

Evolutionary psychology is a multidisciplinary field that borrows from biology, psychology, anthropology, medicine, economics and more.