Lecture 5: Evolution Flashcards
1
Q
What does evolutionary psych have to do with personality psych?
A
- Making & testing predictions about personality from evolutionary psychology
- Core assumption: human traits and personalities have developed because they are adaptive (i.e., helpful) and that is why it has continued over time
2
Q
What is natural selection?
A
- Naturally occurring variation leads to differences in the ability to survive and reproduce (reproductive success. The next generation contains more of the successful.
- Thus, successful variants are selected and unsuccessful variants are weeded out
- Over time, successful variants (i.e., recipes) come to characterized entire species
- Forces in the environment that threaten survival (hostile forces of nature) lead to the weeding out of the unsuccessful variants and the species that are able to survive possess the successful variants.
3
Q
What is adaptation?
A
- Adaptations: inherited solution to survival and reproductive problems posed by hostile forces of nature
- The primary products of selection, defined as “reliably developing structure in the organism which, because it meshes with the recurrent structure of the world, causes the solution to an adaptive problem”
- Adaptive problem: anything that impeded survival or reproduction
4
Q
What are by products of adaptation and noise?
A
- By products of adaptations: incidental byproducts (e.g., a lightbulb produces light but heat is a by product) (a by product of extraversion is sociability). Consequences of adaptations
- Noise or random variation: Introduced through the gene pool through mutations. Do not impede the function of adaptations.
5
Q
Why was the term sexual selection coined?
A
- Many mechanisms seemed to threaten survival (seemed to contradict natural selection; E.g., peacock’s elaborate plumage)
- Evolution by sexual selection as a solution
6
Q
What is sexual selection?
A
Traits that evolved because they contributed to an individual’s mating success
7
Q
Intrasexual selection vs. intersexual selection?
A
- Intrasexual competition: members of the same sex compete with each other for sexual access to members of the other sex (e.g., male-to-male combat)
- Intersexual competition: members of one sex choose a mate based on their preferences for particular qualities in that mate (e.g., peacock mating video, the male had a big and colourful plumage which signals high quality genetics)
8
Q
What did the discovery of genes as a unit of inheritance lead to?
A
- Discovery of the gene as a unit of inheritance led to key discovery, that natural selection and sexual selection are different forms of the same process (in order to reproduce you need to have survived and if you have survived and reproduced you pass on the successful variants for survival)
- Differential gene reproduction- reproductive success relative to others
9
Q
What is the inclusive fitness theory?
A
- Personal reproductive success (number of offspring you produce) plus effects you have on the reproduction of your genetic relatives, weighed by genetic relatedness
- We make these decisions at a subconscious level (we always give priority to a relative with the most reproductive success potential, because it increases our own indirect fitness.
10
Q
What are the 4 components of human nature?
A
- Need to belong: belonging was essential to survival because of shared resources and protection
- Helping and altruism: Some people say there is no such thing as true altruism (we always expect something in return). We are much more helpful to our ingroup than our outgroup, we have preferences. Study found that people were more likely to help people who had similar faces to them, any indication of kinship tends to increase altruism (similar last name)
- Universal emotions: Different emotions serve different purposes. We have primary emotions that are associated with ancient parts of the brain (near the back). Social emotions are helpful as well. Emotions involved to increase survival (love creates bonds, fear signals danger, shame/guilt signals that you’ve done something wrong and need to make amends). Serve adaptive purposes.
- Depression: Different types of depression, depression might have evolved as a useful adaptation. Depression that follows a social loss, bereavement (seek social support), depression that comes from failure (followed by fatigue, pessimism and guilt). The pain from all these types signal that something has gone wrong, it is important then to feel the pain that follows because then we know something has to be fixed. It threatened our reproductive survival and we need to know that and that poses different types of risk on our survival (cue for us to divert energies somewhere else)
11
Q
When will males and females be similar vs. different?
A
- Males and females will be the same or similar in all domains where sexes have faced the same or similar adaptive problems
- Males and females will be different in those domains where sexes recurrently faced different adaptive problems.
- Paternal uncertainty for males and potential lack of resources during pregnancy and infancy for females
12
Q
What are the sex differences in jealousy?
A
- Men over evolutionary history have risked investing in children who were not their own
- Men should be more jealous in response to cues to a sexual infidelity
- Women should become more distressed over a partner’s emotional infidelity (leaving them)
13
Q
What were the results of the study done by Shackleford, Buss & Bennett (2002) on romantic jealousy?
A
- Students 264 completed surveys and faced with several forced-choice dilemmas. E.g., what would upset you more? Sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity?
- Results: Men relative to women, find it more difficult to forgive a sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity. Men, relative to women, are more likely to terminate a current relationship following a partner’s sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity.
- The conclusion: we see evidence that based on different adaptive problems that men and women have faced that there are differences in jealousy
14
Q
What did Clark and Hatfield find about desire for sexual activity?
A
- Members of the sex that invests less in offspring, are predicted to be less discriminating in their selection of mates & more inclined to seek out multiple mates
- Evolutionary theory predicts men are more inclined to seek multiple mates to increase their reproductive success
15
Q
What is the relationship between the big 5 and evolutionarily relevant adaptive problems?
A
- Big five personality traits as clusters of key features of “adaptive landscape” of other people
- Humans have evolved “difference detecting mechanisms” designed to notice and remember individual differences that have most relevance for solving social adaptive problems
16
Q
What are the limitations of evolutionary psychology?
A
- Evolution has a large time span
- Can’t go back in time/testability
- Precise selective forces
- Modern conditions does not equal ancestral conditions
17
Q
Who is Freud?
A
most famous psychologist. His worked was based on a lot of misunderstandings, he thought humans were governed by two instincts: sex and aggression (based on the time he lived)
18
Q
What were the key ideas of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis?
A
- Psychic determinism
- Internal structure
- Psychic conflict
- Mental energy
19
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
- Psychic determinism: the mind has a cause
- Determinism: basic tenet of science
- No room for free will, miracles or accidents
- All contradictions can be resolved
- Purpose of psychoanalysis: dig deep into hidden part of the mind to find answers
- Assumption: unconscious mental processes (people are under the influence of these processes, explanations for behaviour)
20
Q
What is the internal structure of the mind?
A
- Conscious: Contains thoughts, feelings and images about which you are presently aware
- Preconscious: Contains information you are not presently thinking about, but can be easily retrieved and made conscious
- Unconscious: Largest part of the human mind. Holds thoughts and memories about which person is unaware. Includes unacceptable sexual aggressive urges, thoughts and feelings
