Module 5: Genetic and Evolutionary Perspectives Flashcards
What are 3 examples of dissimilarities in the environment that can explain variations observed in peoples’s behaviour and traits?
- Oxygen concentration
- Routine physical activity
- Mandatory schooling system
Since genes and environment are the only 2 factors that contribute to phenotypic variations, they inevitability have an _________________ relationship
inverse
What are 5 limitations of evolutionary psychology?
- Limited knowledge of the environments and selective forces in ancestral time
- We have not comprehensively characterized evolved psychological adaptations
- What is adaptive in ancestral conditions might not be adaptive now
- Can easily come up with different and competing hypotheses for the same phenomena
- Sometimes the hypotheses are not testable and falsifiable
Cisgenderism
The belief that gender and/or sex is assigned at birth and that this is right, natural universal, and healthy.
Cisgenderism has the effect of…
delegitimizing people’s own understandings of their bodies and genders
Some evolutionary perspectives on sex differences relevant to personality refer to sexual dimorphism (not just at the physical level but also at the neural and hormonal level). What is sexual dimorphism?
Distinct differences in appearance between sexes of the same species
Is there noticeable or strong dimorphism with regard to male and female testosterone levels and male and female brains?
No
Naturalistic fallacy
Believing that because something is natural means that it is good
The parental investment theory focuses on a _____________ that conflates the different dimensions of gender and sex
binary
Based on what theory do women have to make a larger investment in their offspring compared to men?
Parental investment theory
According to the parental investment theory, men are essentially replaceable. Why?
Because if a population loses a few men, other men can provide the sperm and keep up the reproduction rate in the population. However, when a population loses a fertile woman, a certain number of children are lost from this population’s next generation
Given the presumed greater sex drive in the average male, Perry (2019) hypothesized that males would report greater frequency of these behaviours than women. What did he find?
Men scored higher than women on a question related to when they last masturbated
Men reported higher use of pornographic content compared to women
Men reported less satisfaction with the amount of sexual activity they currently had
In one study, students were asked to have sex by others who approached them. What did they find?
3 our of 4 men said YES and no women agreed
For most personality variables the _____________ environment has little or no impact whereas the ______________ environment does.
shared; non-shared
Studies using observational measurement have revealed stronger effects of the ______________ environment than previously found using self-report
shared
Describe genotype-environment interaction versus genotype-environment correlation
Genotype-environment interaction:
- The differential response of individuals with different genotypes to the same environments
Genotype-environment correlation:
- The differential exposure of individuals with different genotypes to different environments
One study found that abused children who had a genotype that produced low levels of MAOA frequently developed conduct disorders, antisocial personalities, and violent dispositions. In contrast, maltreated children who had high levels of MAOA were far less likely to develop aggressive, antisocial personalities. What is this an example of?
Genotype-environment interaction
Individuals with different genotypes respond differently to the same environment (in this case, abuse)
What is the genotype-environment interaction between the 5-HTT gene and childhood maltreatment?
Only individuals with two short 5-HTT forms of the gene who had experienced maltreatment as children developed persistent depression
What are 3 different kinds of genotype-environment correlations? Briefly describe each.
- Passive
- The parents provide both genes and the environment to children - Reactive
- Parents respond to children differently depending on the child’s genotypes - Active
- A person with a particular genotype creates or seeks out a particular environment
What is an example of a passive genotype-environment correlation?
Parents are verbally inclined and pass on these genes to their children. Since the parents are verbally inclined they have a lot of books in the house.
There is a correlation between the children’s verbal ability and the number of books in their home but the child has done nothing to cause the books to be there.
What is an example of a reactive genotype-environment correlation?
A mother touches and hugs her two babies a lot. One child loves it and the other does not. So, the mother reacts by continuing to hug the child that likes it but cuts down on hugging the child that does not like it.
What is an example of an active genotype-environment correlation?
A person who is high in sensation seeking may seek out environments that are risky
The 3 genotype-environment correlations can be positive or negative meaning that…
the environment can encourage the expression of the disposition or discourage the expression.
Describe the association method in molecular genetics
Identifies whether individuals with a particular gene (or allele) have higher or lower scores on a particular trait than individuals without the gene
The most frequent examined associated between the DRD4 gene and a personality trait has involved novelty seeking. Specifically, individuals with the so-called long repeat versions of the DRD4 gene were found to be higher on novelty seeking than individuals with short repeat versions. What was the hypothesis for this?
People with long DRD4 genes tend to be relatively unresponsive to dopamine and thus seek out experiences that will give them a dopamine buzz
Why do we have to be careful when drawing conclusions about the association between a single gene and a personality trait?
We have to be careful because:
1. There have been failures to replicate gene and personality trait associations
- It is unlikely that any single gene will ever be found to explain more than a small percentage of variation in personality
__________ populations (Asia) have shown a higher proportion of the 7R allele of the DRD4 gene than ______________ populations (North America)
Migratory; sedentary
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can…
rapidly examine the entire genome for links with personality
Darwin’s answer to the anomalies (mechanisms that continue but seem contrary to survival) was that they have evolved because…
they contribute to an individual’s mating success
Inclusive fitness theory can help us to understand human traits such as altruism. Explain
One’s personal reproductive success plus the effects one has on the reproduction of their genetic relatives
Can lead to adaptations that include a person to take some risk for the welfare of genetic relatives
What are the 3 key premises of evolutionary psychology? Briefly explain each.
- Domain specificity
- Adaptations are specialized mechanisms for certain adaptive problems - Numerousness
- We have many adaptive mechanisms - Functionality
- Our adaptive mechanism are designed to accomplish adaptive goals
The deductive reasoning approach can also be called the ______________ approach and is…
top-down
theory driven method of empirical research
The inductive reasoning approach can also be called the _______________ approach and is when…
bottom-up
a phenomenon is observed first and then a theory is developed to fit the observations
According to Hogan, from an evolutionary perspective, what is the origin and function of social anxiety?
Origin
- the most important social problems early humans had to solve in order to survive and reproduce involved establishing cooperative relations with others
Function
- Prevent exclusion and promote status and acceptance
If social anxiety functions to prevent exclusion and promote status and acceptance, how might we test this?
Assessing events that elicit social anxiety
A central component of human nature is helping other people, but in highly domain-specific ways. Explain
Helping decreases as the degree of genetic relatedness decreases (more inclined to help those we are more genetically related to)
People help younger relatives more than older relatives because helping older relatives would have less impact on reproductive success (prediction)
Manipulation hypothesis
Emotions are designed to exploit the psychological mechanisms of other people
How does evolutionary-psychology tend to predict sex differences?
Sexes will differ in domains where females and males have faced different sorts of adaptive problems
(i.e., females have mechanisms for producing labor contractions)
Species that show high variance in reproduction within one sex tend to be highly…
sexually dimorphic (highly different in size and structure)
Describe the 2 main views that exist on the interaction between jealousy and human evolution
- Since fertilization occurs internally in females, males have risked investing in children who were not their own
- So, it is predicted that males become more jealous in repose to cues of infidelity and females become more jealous in response to cues to the long-term diversion of a mate’s commitment
- Research does not support - The attachment-fertility view
- Need for parental involvement
- Jealousy has evolved in both sexes to preserve strong emotional bonds with children
- Research supports
Does research support significant sex differences with regard to jealousy?
No
What are the 4 sources of individual differences identified by the evolutionary framework?
- Those that arise from individuals possessing universal adaptations whose expression is contingent on the environment
- Those that arise from contingencies with other traits
- Those due to frequency-dependent selection
- Those due to variation over time and space in the optimum value of a trait
Frequency-dependent selection its the process whereby…
the reproductive success of a trait depends on its frequency relative to other traits in the population
In a large population of people with a cooperative disposition, selection may favour those with a cheating disposition as long as they are not too common. However, as the frequency of cheaters gets more common, cooperators evolve defences to punish cheaters and so the success of cheating goes down. This is an example of how individual differences come from…
frequency-dependent selection
Someone may have a more cautious personality disposition because they grew up in a time and space of food abundance which favoured a trait that reduced the risk of venturing widely into the environment. This is an example of how individual differences come from….
variations in time and space in the optimum level of a trait
According to one theory, the critical event of early father presence versus father absence triggers specific sexual strategies in individuals. Explain
In father absent homes children develop expectations that parental resources will not be reliable and so they develop a sexual strategy that is promiscuous
In father present homes children develop an expectation that resources will be reliable and so they develop a sexual strategy that is more long-term
Describe how aggression can be reactively heritable
Aggression can be a secondary consequence of heritable body build
Provide an example of a how a personality trait can be contingent on other traits
The trait of extraversion has been predicted by the combination of physical strength and physical attractiveness
Describe the adaptive rumination hypothesis in explaining depression as an evolved mechanism
Depression is triggered by complex social problems related to fitness and survival. Once triggered, depression causes changes in bodily systems that promote rumination on the triggering problem in an attempt to solve it
______________ selection causes the frequency of men and women to remain roughly equal and also causes psychopathic strategy
Frequency-dependent
From an evolutionary perspective what big five trait reflects differences in the proclivity to cooperate versus to act selfishly in conflicts over resources?
Agreeableness
From an evolutionary perspective, what big five trait reflects differences in sensitivity to the adaptive problems of social exclusion?
Neuroticism
i.e., high neuroticism can be beneficial in causing increased vigilance to social danger but at a cost of increased stress and depression
From an evolutionary perspective what big five trait reflects pursuit of a risk-taking social strategy marked by success in short-term mating versus adopting a more stable family life marked by long-term mating?
Extraversion
From an evolutionary perspective what big five trait reflects a long-term mating strategy of delayed gratification and tenacity of goal pursuit versus a more impulsive solution that involves grabbing immediate adaptive benefits?
Conscientiousness
