Week 2 (lectures) Flashcards
How can we understand human behavioural diversity and where does it come from?
By looking at the emerging theoretical perspectives:
human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, ecology.
Did Darwin, Wallace or both think that human mental faculties evolved?
Wallace thought the mind was specially created which is a dualistic view. Whereas, Darwin believed it evolved from an earlier form.
The challenge of understanding behavior
i.e., the Genotype → Phenotype relationship
> what does this require us to do? > what is a geneotype? allele > what is a phenotype? behaviour > what were the two flamingo examples?
Understanding behaviour from an evolutionary perspective requires us to balance multiple perspectives. We have genetic information and phenotypic behaviour (the expression of the gene which is triggered by environmental factors). Geneotype (the stuff I’m made from) Phenotype (the stuff that I do) The relationship between genotype and phenotype can be quite complex. Flamingos are not naturally pink! They’re white and become pink through their food source which triggers the expression of the genotype for pink colour. There are melanistic flamingos which have a specific genotype that means regardless of environmental influence they will never be pink (phenotype). Over the past few years this has been debated. People questioning how much of people's personality or the range of personality traits they express (phenotype) due to their genetics? How are different personality traits related and interrelated? Can you be a neurotic extrovert (are the polarized traits that cannot be both expressed or not).
What are the three sources of influence on behavior:
How do these three sources of influence produce variation in behavior?
- Genes (fisher and mendail)
- Environment (flamingo and
colour) - Culture (socialization)
What is the size of the relationship between genotype and phenotype? What percentage of it is influenced by genes, environment or culture? The answer to this question will vary depending on what perspective of human diversity you take! For example, in resource inequality and body height are related and change in relation to economic development and is an example of how environment hinders genotypic expression. How the different schools of thought view the relationship between genotype and phenotype and the level of important they place on genes, environment and culture.
The beginning of modern psychology:
Who are the (6) important figures?
- Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
- William James (1842-1910)
- Alfred Binet (1857-1911)
- Lewis Terman (1877-1956)
- Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
- John B. Watson (1878-1958)
What was William Wundt known for in psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
§ Built the foundation for experimental work in psychology. § He tried to make philosophical claims about the mind and test them in the lab. He developed structuralism which uses the method of introspection to identify the basic elements of psychological experience. § He opened the first psychology laboratory. § He had a tendency to ramble and believed that his thought was unassailable to people outside of himself. § A lot of his work on mental faculties was written in German and never translated into English
What was William James known for in psychology?
Wrote a book called the psychologist against himself. He hated research and teaching. He wrote a very important book called the introduction to the principles of psychology; massive work on psychology, he wrote the first textbook on psychology. He drifted away from psychology as he aged and referred to psychology as the nasty little science. He drifted into astrocathies into his book the moral equivalent of war. He is the first person to use the term evolutionary psychology and was strongly influenced by Darwin. He had strong beliefs in how human behaviour is grounded in human nature. The idea that humans are drawn to the spectacle of war, the romanticism, sacrifice and war will always appeal to us and produce people more inclined to war; yet he still claims that we should replace the draft with a civil draft- to help with natural struggles like, war, famine, disease by channeling our innate inclination of war into positive appeals.
What was Alfred Binet known for in psychology?
He is the first person to develop an IQ test designed to develop a tool to allow us to determine which school children needed additional help at school. A more positive version than others eugenicist views.
What was Lewis Terman known for in psychology?
Took Binet’s scales that were written in French and translated them and exported them into the US. He started applying it to children and then during the world war he used it on soldiers where people with a private education or higher IQ were drafted for the war as an attempt to lower their casualty rates and find leaders (generals etc.). Terman’s work on intelligence overtime became blended with his eugenics views and tried to uses his data obtained to make claims about some ethnicities being less intelligent than others. As reflected in his book called the bell curve where he poses that social class or SES and ethnic influences intelligence.- the differences he found do not hold up to statistical scrutiny! Every year there will still be interesting paper that make interesting claims about religiosity. This one was redacted in 2020. It claimed that intelligence, violent crime and religiosity in countries were interrelated but was subject to poor statistical analysis. A train of thought that is a common pit fall in psychology over the years, eugenic elements. Terman’s quote. How he translated Binet’s work reflects his inclination to link intelligence to morality- eugenics- and are inherited traits. The debate that intelligence is linked to morality is a claim still made today as seen in this 2020 work. Hamilton Gregory wrote McNamara’s Folly: the use of low-IQ troops in the Vietnam war. They lowered the IQ criteria for recruitment from 80. He worked with people who didn’t know what state they’re from or how to tie their own shoes so were kept away from everyone else because they became a danger to themselves and others with high casualty rates.
What was Ivan Pavlov known for in psychology?
Pavlovian conditioning or classical conditioning and is referred to as one of the grand daddies of behaviorism.
What was John B. Watson known for in psychology?
He wrote a paper called psychology as the behaviorist views it which argued that mental processes are not directly observable and thereby not directly measurable. He believed psychology should focus on measuring observable behaviour. Another granddaddy of behavioralist and kick started the behavioural revolution.
What is the Ethology perspective and who are two important figures?
Ecologist perspective on evolution and animal behaviour.
The two main authors from this branch are:
1. Nickolaas Tinbergen (1907- 1988) - He was imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp and developed PTSD to German language.
- Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
- He got swept up in the Nazi
movement and got imprisoned
in a prisoner of war camp in
Russia.
- The man with the goslings,
goslings imprint on the first
thing they see.
- They both started talking
about animal behaviour and
were very controversial at the
time because the speculated
that the same
behaviour/theories could be
applied to human behaviour.
- Konrad Lorenz on aggression
claimed that humans are
predisposed to violence and
therefore war occurs so
frequently in human history
and murder; an innate
tendency to solve problems
with violence.
- The Seville (group of Spanish
psychologists) published a
statement where they
rejected his theory on
violence.
Which three ethology authors won a Nobel prize in 1973?
Konrad Lorenz, Nickolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch: - Collectively won a noble prize on their work on animal behaviour in 1973. - Karl von Frisch (translated to night of fresh) was famous for his work on the dance of the bees, which identified that bee’s fly in a particular pattern to signal to other bees where the food source is.
Who is David Sloan Wilson: within ethology?
- Brought a lot of the three ecologists work on human behaviour into psychology post behaviorism. - He recently published a book called this view of life: completing the Darwinian revolution which dugout “the four Tinbergen questions”. - he wrote the "The Four Tinbergen Questions"
What are “The Four Tinbergen Questions” and what is its main probelm?
Ethology
There are a number of things to consider when looking a at a trait in its current form and development: o Proximal: - On a Developmental level: Ontogeny; How does this trait develop in individual's lifetime (communication, social norm, fear of snakes etc.). - On a static level: Mechanism; How does this trait work (structure, physiology, triggers… behavioralists focus on this). o Distal: - On a developmental level: Phylogeny; what is the traits evolutionary history (what we will focus on) - On a static level: Function; how does the trait enhance reproductive success (what we will focus on)
Problem: o Proximal developmental causes and distal static causes are hard to distinguish apart. Behaviours that help me in my lifetime now surely also help me in the long run because it allows me to stay alive and reproduce.
What is the Human Behavioural Ecology perspective?
Who are the (4) important figures?
Who is the controversial Napoleon Chagnon?
The combination of ecology and psychology perspectives forms the human behavioural ecology stance on human behavioural diversity.
Important Figures are: § Monique Borgerhoff Mulder § Ruth Mace § Donald Brown § William Irons
Napoleon Chagnon: • This is a school of thought tied to anthropology namely Napoleon Chagnon who worked with Yanomamo people or the fierce people. • They are a remote tribe who live in the rainforests of South America. • He is a controversial person because he claims that these people are exceptionally aggressive and war like because it fits in with their environment. Resource’s scarcity produces this tendency. • The catholic church was not a fan of Chagnon. • Darkness in El Dorado by Patrick Tierney challenged his ideas. Articles came out that claimed Tierney caused the measles outbreak and that the” scientist killed amazon Indians to test race theory” “he was trying to test eugenic theories” “he was distributing weapons to the tribe to get his data”. • Following this he was kicked out of the anthropology scientific community. • Reanalysis of Tierney’s work was poorly collected data but not ethical violations, so he was reinstated into the community and the false claims were redacted.
What are the key elements of the human behavior ecology perspective?
What is the main problem?
Key Elements:
§ Main focus is on environment. - Are traits more beneficial in certain environments. - The environment constricts the flow from genotype to phenotype.
§ Variation in human behaviour are perceived to be adaptive responses to variation in environments conditions (i.e., food production etc.)
§ Main focus (environment) - The environment elicits the optimal (most frequently expressed) behavioural phenotypes - The Human Behaviour Ecologists are neutral to the mechanism through which variation is inherited (i.e., gene, culture, social or psychological).
*Like behaviorists their focused
on the outcome/behaviour
rather than the mechanism
Problem: Adaptive how though? What is adaptive? Is the trait an adaption or the by-product of other processes (i.e., spandrels; areas that exist due to architectural necessities but in itself is not adaptive) - The space is not purposely created. A by-product of another adaptation. In artwork this spandrel space is filled with art to make it interesting as an afterthought because it is not the focus. - A review of the spandrel idea rejected the adaptationist view and claimed they were just so stories, that you don’t actually know what an adaption is. People over the years have tried to find ways to identify whether a trait is an adaption or a byproduct.
Is the behaviour (phenotype) an adaption?
what two questions do we ask?
(A) Is the behaviour adaptive in
the current environment?
(B) Is the behaviour an
adaptation?
*This is the big question identifying if an expressed phenotype is an adaptation, by-product, secondary adaption or random variation-
Examples: Birds-
§ Current Adaptation:
o Yes/Yes: beak shape/size.
§ Past Adaptation:
o Yes/No: Tailbone
§ Exaptation: o No/Yes: Feathers (more likely to be a secondary adaptation, the evolution of an adaptation to a secondary adaptive role).
§ By-Product (Spandrel): o No/No: human chins (most animals do not have chins why do humans have chins or belly button; things that sometime baffle scientists).
When looking at behaviours or phenotypes we should ask three things?
what are two key points?
1. Is it variable across the population or species? - Very few people have additional fingers- is not variable!
- Is it heritable? inherited trait
from parent.
- Hairstyles is variable but not
heritable.
3. Does it affect reproductive
success?
- Bad hairstyles can affect
reproductive success.
Fingers not so much.
Key Point: • Not everything that is variable is inherited. • Not everything that is inherited is variable
(D) Sociobiology important figures
§ Important figures in Sociobiology
perspective who took a gene-centrist view:
• Edward Wilson: Sociobiology
- Genes keep culture on a leash
• William Hamilton (Hamilton rule/kin
selection rule)
• Marlene Zuk (evolution of sex differences in
behaviour; sexual selection between
high/low parental investment species)
• Robert Trivers (reciprocal altruism; to
describe a process that favors costly
cooperation among reciprocating partners)
• John Maynard Smith (game
theory/mathematical models to explain and
predict animal behaviour)
• George Williams (anti-group selection)
*mainly these authors are biologists so they
take a gene-centrist view.
*Genotype-Phenotype relationship in bold.
Richard Dawkin’s (the selfish gene)
Sociobiology
- Wrote the selfish gene. He viewed humans
as survival machines, robot vehicles blindly
programmed to preserve the selfish
molecules known as genes. This is the truth
which still fills me with astonishment. - He believed that human evolution must be
understood from a genetic perspective. - This perspective believes that evolution
occurs through the differential survival of
competing alleles within a population. - Furthermore, selfish genes (i.e., genes that
produce a better outcome for survival at the
expense of other gene expressions) are the
genes that are most likely to be selected for
and transmitted from one generation to the
next because they aid reproductive
success.
Sociobiology
William Hamilton (1964) Sociobiology
- Hamilton rule otherwise called kin
selection. - Wrote the genetical evolution of social
behaviour. - Takes a genetic perspective in
understanding social behaviours like
altruism. - He proposes the idea of kinship altruism
where the reproductive success of genetic
relatives, even at the cost of organism’s
own survival or reproduction is beneficial to
the group or species. - An example of how genetic information
transmission influence behavioural
(phenotype) variance in prosocial
behaviours in the population. - The more closely related you are to them
the more willing you are to help them.
Sociobiology
Robert Trivers
Sociobiology
- Was an active member of the black panther
movement (black power movement). - He worked with lizards in Jamacia.
- He focuses on parental investment theory.
- He wrote the theory on the evolution of
reciprocal altruism (to describe a process
that favors costly cooperation among
reciprocating partners) which explained why
we see it within species. - He also looked at parent offspring conflict
where parents are genetically motivated to
equally distribute their investment across
their children, but the offspring are
motivated to take more parental
investment, even to the determent of their
siblings that they share less genes with.
Sociobiology
Edward Wilson (1929) Sociobiology
- He was an anthologist (I.e. worked with ants).
- He termed the phrase sociobiology.
- He proposed the Biophilia hypothesis; that
humans have an innate desire to interact
with the environment and is fundamental to
our well-being. - In 1975, He Applied evolution to humans
again and discusses his gene centrist views
in his work the battle of BB guns against
socio-biology. - At the time people were NOT receptive to
his genetics views. Viewing humanity as
carries of genetic variance caused people
to to respond aggressively towards them
(Wilson held reductionist views). - “genes keep culture on a leash- but it is a
very long one”. Cultural variation is
constrained by the genetic makeup of the
population. People cut out the last of his
quote and discredited his reductionist
sociobiology views as being “just so”
theories.
Sociobiology
Stephen Jay Gould
Sociobiology critique
- Just so stories
- Outlines this idea of how researcher have a
tendency to create stories which nicely
explain variation within species and seem
plausible without having any scientific
evidence to support said claims. - How the leopard got his spots.
Sociobiology critique
E. Wilson & C. Lumsden
Sociobiology
- Genes, mind and culture outlined
mathematical formulas about gene-
behaviour relationships. - Most scientists at this time did not
appreciate their work and glanced over it
but ultimately ignored it. - Mathematical models not testable during
their time due to technological constraints
that hindered the development of
mechanistic views in sociobiology.
Sociobiology
(E) Evolutionary Psychology (Santa Barbara School)
Three psychology influences?
Key figures in evolutionary psychology:
looks at __ and ___
it covers the ___ period
William James
- coined the term evolutionary psychology
and developed “The mind-stuff theory”.
Leda Cosmides (1957) and John Tooby (1952)
- Used the term evolutionary psychology in
their 1992 work the adapted mind.
Key figures in evolutionary psychology:
- David Schmitt
- Donald Symons
- David Buss
- Sarah Hardy
Looks at Genotype-Phenotype relationship and the role of the environment (but must be a specific environment; ancestorial environment).
The ancestorial environment they’re generally talking about is the Pleistocene (pleistos = most; kainos = new) era which occurred between 1.8/2.6 Million years and 11,700 years ago.
The time where Homo sapiens emerged 200,000 years ago and traits we see today evolved to help hunter-gatherers adapt to the selective pressures of their environment.
Key Arguments of Evolutionary Psychology
• Ancestral environment (pleistocene)
shaped our human nature (slow evolution;
adaptions from them are still with us today
even if they’re not as useful).
• Focus on the brain (as an evolved organ)
- Mind is not a tabula rasa (i.e., doesn’t have
innate properties that are domain-general)
• Domain specific adaptations (solve a
specific adaptive problems)
• Juke box metaphor:
- Evolved set of psychological mechanisms
to process environmental inputs, particular
inputs flip these mechanisms into a number
of states (specific environmental stimuli
trigger and eliciting appropriate
behavioural outputs)
John Lock
EP
John Lock cries because In Locke’s philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that at birth the (human) mind is a “blank slate” without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences.
Evo psyc.
The Modular Mind Hypothesis
EP
• Cognitive modules (evolved cognitive
systems that are domain specific)
• Domain-specific (designed through natural
selection to solve a specific problem in our
ancestorial environment and were adaptive
because they increased their reproductive
success and the successful transmission of
genetic information onto their offspring).
• Solving problems encountered by our
ancestors
• Innate & canalized
o No/few individual differences (in cognitive
modules; not shaped by experience)
o Contemporary environment does not
matter (because they have not had enough
time to evolve and be incorporated into the
jukebox).
• Automatic (unconscious awareness)
Evoked Culture EP
- Mate attractiveness, Ideal body type &
Scarcity (Early learning experiences crucial) - What body types we find attractive are
shaped by culture (our upbringings and
beauty standard within a cultural group) but
are also influenced by stable environmental
factors like resource scarcity; overtime in
environments of scarcity, overtime, people
prefer to select mates with a higher BMI as
it indicates health and access to resources. - An evolved program in everyone’s mind
which is elicited in environments of
resource scarcity (male preference to
females). - Other studies looked at females’
perceptions of male mates where they
found the same results. - Some studies have shown that recession
cues (resource scarcity) increase females
desire for males to own luxury goods (to
signal access to resources) and males
desire to purchase luxury goods. However,
men do not care about women’s signaling
of wealth; but make up sales go up in order
to try and outcompete intrasex competitors
and get a high value mate.
“Classic” Evolutionary Psychology
- Proposing & testing hypotheses
- How do we test hypothesis about adaptions when we can not go back in time to check?
(6) Steps (Tooby & Cosmides, 1989)
- Identify adaptive problem (AP) (secure
mate, threat detection, access to resources) - How did the AP manifest during EEA
(Pleistocene)? - Computational theory (derive hypotheses)
- Determine design features & develop
candidate models - Eliminate alternatives (experiments & field
observations; DG or DS) - How well does the model perform?
New et al. (2007)
animal/people/object recogniton
- Visual & motivational systems.
- Change detection paradigm where we are
better at detecting animal/human change in
state or location relative to inanimate
objects. - Evolved to suit ancestorial selective
pressures where spotting animals and
conspecifics had a large role in survival that
is not that useful to us now. These systems
work independently from volitional goals,
life experience, and is domain specific
(human/animal and not objects).
Applications:
- This underlies the trick of sleight of hand,
our tendency to focus on the moving hand
rather than the object being hidden.
- Detrimental effects, in a school classroom if
you focus on animals outside rather than the
lecture.
- Tendency to misidentify inanimate objects
or sounds as people is an evolved threat
detection mechanism consequence that
may explain supernatural sightings/beliefs.
- Very few of us will be mauled by tigers, but
busses on streets are a bigger threat in the
current environment (it’s about past
adaptations).
New et al. (2007)
- Do males have better spatial memory?- - Can you identify some problems?
- Do males have better spatial memory?
- Men were hunters (mental rotation) and
women foragers (absolute spatial location
and navigation) in hunter-gather societies;
in general. Evidence that female also
hunted large game in some hunter-gatherer
societies; there will always be variation! - Farmers market study where they found
males were better at general non-food
related navigation but females better at
absolute and relative spatial navigation on
food items (significantly). Navigation
(optimal route/how much you can carry) and
remembering where food/resources is was
a sex specific problem for women and not
men = optimal foraging strategy.
Independent of sex both of them were
better and remembering where high calorie
food was (a mental intenerary for the better
food is; more willing to exert energy to find
higher calorie food). - Women’s role in Extractive foraging
required Relative & absolute spatial
orientation.
o Females 27% better than males
o Men performed better on general spatial
test (separate measure, d=.58) - Women are better & calories count
- Small sample (small degrees of freedom)
- Salience of specific foods (colour/shape/similarities/differences salience matters)
- Gender stereotypes (confidence or
expectations based on gender influence their
behaviour) & experimenter effects (demand
characteristics; they change their behaviour to
act in ways they think the experimenter wants
them to).
Rogers & Weister (2021)
- Optimal foraging studies on existing hunter-
gatherer societies in Hawaiian and they
found conflicting to the optimal foraging
technique (mental itineraries on the optimal
foraging system prioritizes energy
consumption to obtain higher quality
resources) they argue that the mental
itinerary on the optimal route is based on
cultural predetermined routes learnt from
ancestors that are NOT the optimal route. - An example of how cultural ideas and
biological constraints interrelate and
contradict one another.
Some General Thoughts
- Validate your measures (confounds, validity
and reliability issues) - The problem of WEIRD samples
- Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich,
Democratic - We know a lot about about a small
proportion from the world that is not
representative of the global population. - Specify & test alternative hypotheses (come
up with a range of hypothesis and
systematically test them all to avoid
developing a just so theory) - Optimal levels of reductionism (think about
what is the optimal level of varring you will
allow in your model for natural human
variations; male foragers and female
hunters).
Paleofantasy:
- Don’t get tricked into wrong ideas about
the ancestorial environment was. For
example, the paleo diet (current fad) is not
accurate to their actual diet.
