Mental Disorders

Question 1

Mate Choice

Answer 1

attractiveness + estimation of own sexual appeal … no longer accurate bc our perception of attractiveness based on small minority - drastic responses

Question 2

Food

Answer 2

diets different - 55% milk, sugars, cereal, alcohol now; fat consumption 5x at least; more salt…..
risk: cancer, hypertension, heart disease

Question 3

School

Answer 3

no natural basis for reading in brain architecture… ADHD (some maybe just more playful)

Question 4

Fight or flight

Answer 4

can’t flee now in stressful situations.. such as sitting in traffic

Question 5

Daily life differences

Answer 5

working more, living in huge groups (strangers don’t have our best interests in mind)

Question 6

Design trade-offs

Answer 6

while some genes may enhance fitness in some ways, bring about other “disorders”

– not necessarily same effects in different people (ie. homosexuality)

Question 7

Depression

Answer 7

An adaptation?:

1. Yes heritable (monozygotic)
2. Yes Adaptive – means of seeking help/conserving resources; bargaining strategy; involuntary subordinate strategy

Question 8

Postpartum depression & seeking help/conserving resources

Answer 8

Adaptive… seeking help/conserving resources… correlated with:

1. insufficient investment from father
2. problems w/pregnancy
3. hostile environment
4. large opportunity costs (more profitable to direct investment toward survival of other offspring)

Question 9

Depression & bargaining strategy

Answer 9

willingness to impose costs on rest of group unless he/she is helped to overcome a problem … withdraws efforts entirely from group - gains to genes related to suicide may outweight losses

Question 10

Social competition hypothesis - involuntary subordinate strategy

Answer 10

1. prevents indivs from making a comeback
2. communicates submission
3. facilitates acceptance of defeat, promotes behavior leading to termination of conflict .. pessimism toward likelihood of success

Question 11

Psychopathology

Answer 11

characteristics:

1. antisocial personality & behavior (failure to show empathy/remorse/accept consequences)
2. deceit & manipulation (commit crimes relying on trust of others)
3. emotional make-up (shallow emo.s, impulsive, crave excitement)

Question 12

Possible causes of psychopathology

Answer 12

1. Pathology: resulting from developmental trauma (ie. pregnancy difficulties, stress during delivery, low bw)
2. Adaptation: such characteristics enhance fertility

Question 13

Psychopathy an adaptation?

Answer 13

1. Heritable? YES - children of psychopaths adopted away from parents show tendency for criminality, for psychopathy
2. Adaptive? Advantages - pays to defect in society where people cooperate (this is a minority strategy! only in ~1% of pop.)

Question 14

Schizophrenia

Answer 14

“Fragmenting of the mind” - 1% prevalence in all cultures, delusions, disorganized speech, visual dysfunction, etc.

Question 15

Schizophrenia an adaptation?

Answer 15

1. Heritable? YES 80%, slightly more than height

2. Adaptive? Maybe. hi fertility costs to indiv., but maybe group benefits (spreading of related genes)

Question 16

Schizotypes

Answer 16

+ heterozygotes = schizotypes = have some of the characteristics (Einstein, Dickinson, Van Gogh, Newton)

• activation of R hemisphere dramatically greater than schizophrenic & avg subjects = enhanced creative ability, but still organized thought

Question 17

Autism

Answer 17

1. qualitative impairment forming social relationships (lack of eye contact, poor facial recognition)
2. qualitative impairment communicating (limited use of speech to maintain conversation, little grasp of metaphor)
3. restricted, repetitive stereotypical patterns of behavior (obsessive adherence to routines)

Question 18

People & thought relation

Answer 18

Autistics unable to think about others’ thoughts - think that sally knows where object is, not Anne

Question 19

Autism an adaptation?

Answer 19

1. Heritable? YES - one of most heritable conditions
2. Adaptive?
   a. assume change is agentive (=some intentional consciousness is at work)
   b. assume change is physical (natural or mechanical systemizing)
   … autism may occur from union of parents with both highly systemizing (physical) genes
   - lack of social motivation (no activation in reward areas - no natural motivation, so won’t build social structure necessary)
   + chimps - we are motivated to cooperate.