W4L2 explaining human behavior Flashcards

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1
Q

What is nature and nuture

A
  • Nature: behaviour is determined by genetics; environment has little influence
  • Nurture: behaviour is determined by learning from the environment and genetics has little influence
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2
Q

The Seville Statement on Violence (UNESCO, 1989), refutes “the notion that organized human violence is biologically determined

A
  1. It is scientifically incorrect to say that we have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors
  2. It is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behaviour is genetically programmed into our human nature
  3. It is scientifically incorrect to say that in the course of evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behaviour more than for any other kinds of behaviour
  4. It is scientifically incorrect to say that humans have a violent brain
  5. It is scientifically incorrect to say that war is caused by instinct or any single motivation
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3
Q

Nature and nuture characteristic

A

Some characteristics do have a genetic cause:
* cystic fibrosis: caused by a recessive gene located on chromosome 7
* red hair: caused by variants of the MC1R gene complex, located on chromosome 16
Some characteristics have an environmental cause:
* the acquisition of a particular language depends upon what is spoken in the child’s environment
Mostly they reflect both:
* the phenotype (or set of traits) produced by a gene(s) may depend upon the context in which the gene is expressed

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4
Q

Cross-fostering experiments in animal

A

Offspring are randomly split between biological and ‘foster’ parents and differences in trait expression reveal the influence of ‘genetic’ and ‘environmental effects
-In rat, cross fostering does not have an effect on gene expression BUT embryo transfer can affect gene expression

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5
Q

Distinguishing between genes &
environment Experiment in human

A

Adoption studies
* comparisons between offspring behavior and the characteristics of both the biological and adoptive parents
Twin studies
* classical twin studies compare data from identical/monozygotic (MZ) with fraternal/dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, raised in the same circumstances

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6
Q

Types of twins

A

Dizygotic Twins, separate amniotic sac
B. Dizygotic Twins, shared amniotic sac (rare)
C. Monozygotic Twins, share/ separate amniotic sac

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7
Q

Heretibility study result

A
  • identify if sleep pattern is genetic or not: no genetic correlation in school day but on free day, genetic is a stronger determinations factor (genetic can be overwritten)
    -study on drug dependent: show large variability between control. Cultural influences
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8
Q

Methodological approaches to human studies

A
  1. Construct an evolutionary explanation of a pattern human emotions: weak data to explore the evolution of disgust
  2. Ask why a behaviour is maintained in the population, despite a fitness cost human handedness: what maintains a polymorphism with
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9
Q

Study on human emotion: disgust and disease

A

Web-based survey (hosted by the BBC), completed by 77,000 people, but
exclusions yielded < 40,000 respondents
respondents asked to view photographs and rank them according to disgust (internet based)
respondents mostly from Europe (78%), with others from North America
and Canada (13%), Asia (5%), Oceania (2%), Africa (2%), South America (1%)

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10
Q

Result of the disease and disgust study

A
  • 98% of respondents found the disease-relevant pictures equally or more disgusting than their pairs
  • no interaction between ranking and respondent’s location was reported (not surprising – why?)
  • females (mean 3.5) rated disease-salient images significantly more disgusting than males (mean 3.2)
    -ranking of disgust decrease with age (historical difference)
    -large variation in disease-irrelevant images
    -little evidence that these respond have biological origin, more likely to be culture inspired
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11
Q

Sharing toothbrush study

A

-more likely to share with people closer to us
Sharing a person’s bodily fluids becomes more disgusting as that person becomes
less familiar because strangers are more likely to carry novel pathogens and
hence present a greater disease threat to a naive immune system

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12
Q

Basic on lefthandness

A
  • left-handed people in the minority in all human populations
  • several alleged fitness costs associated with left-handedness
  • countervailing benefit must exist to maintain polymorphism
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13
Q

left handiness gene association

A

Sample of 30,161 subjects aged 18–69 from a questionnaire survey of the older
Finnish Twin Cohort
Environmental effects account for most observed variance in handedness, but estimates of familial effects increased if forced handedness was taken into account
-MZ have higher percentage than DZ

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14
Q

Cost of left handedness

A
  • eight hand have longer life expectancy
    -but cost occur post-reproduction age so unlikely to be a strong selection pressure
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15
Q

Left handiness benefit

A

left-handed people have an advantage in sports involving dual confrontations (fencing, tennis, baseball)
* if left-handed people have similar advantage in aggressive interactions, then left-handedness predicted to be more prevalent in more violent societies

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16
Q

Problem with lefhandness benefit

A

is the cost of left-handedness substantial, and relevant to the societies in this study?
* is homicide rate the best estimate of prevalence of one-to-one fights?
* is the correlation confounded (e.g., differences in rates of handedness and violence between field and literature studies)