Evolutionary Psychology

is the nature vs nurture debate a perspective of evolutionary psychology?

is the nature vs nurture debate a perspective of evolutionary psychology?

No, it is a false dichotomy

1. symmetry correlated to physiological, psychological and emotional well-being 2. individuals better able to cope with stress develop more symmetrically

Why are symmetrical faces judged to be more attractive?

T

environmental stress during development leads to asymmetry. T or F?

woman with high estrogen levels

a sample is shown pics of 2 women. one has higher estrogen levels and the other has lower estrogen levels. which woman was rated as more attractive?

what did smith et al. (2006) find?

(analyzed urine samples to determine hormone levels + facial attractiveness in women) attractiveness in women correlates with high levels of fertility but this finding only correlates when women are not wearing make up

What is cheater detection?

logical problems that involve cheater detection tend to be easier to solve than those that do not

cheater detection is easier even than mere rule verification

cross-culturally universal

4 points to studying psychology within an evolutionary framework

1. organize known facts parsimoniously 2. provide guidance to important domains 3. leads to new predictions 4. unifies psychology with the life sciences

an influential writer before Darwin's theory of natural selection;

he coined the term "survival of the fittest"

Herbert Spencer

What is dualism?

The most familiar form of dualism is Descartes' substance dualism in which the mind and body (including the brain) are seen as being made from two fundamentally different substances.

brain: made up of matter & same stuff as physical world; did NOT THINK mind: unlike the brain; where thinking was done; made of a mysterious substance called "res cogitans"

-view has been rejected by most scientists; mind and body are same; view is materialism

What did herbert spencer think of dualism?

Rejected dualism because he saw the mind as a biological counterpart of the body

Francis Galton

First to use questionnaires, statistics to study human variations, tiwn studies coined terms eugencies and nature vs nature founded psychometrics

Eugenics

Well-bread/successful people should breed with other successful people;

social ideology of improving human gene pool

1900s

when was eugenics considered a positive concept?

plato's republic

where is this quote from: "the best men must have intercourse with the best women as frequently as possible, and the opposite is true of the very inferior" - eugenic principle going all the way back to the ancient greeks

False

H.G. Wells and Alexander Bell did not support Eugencis. T or F?

Genetic screening, designer babies

what are 2 ways that eugenics still persists in modern society?

positive eugenics in nazi germany

the encouragement of the elite race to have children; making abortion illegal for the arians

Came in the form of genocide

negative eugenics in nazi germany

john watson and little albert

watson paired white fluffy things with a loud noise to show that he could create fear in anybody -many ethical violations

David reimer

received sexual reassignment surgery and was raised as a girl;

maintained male gender identity throughout childhood

discovered birth sex as a teen & reassumed male gender rule until committing suicide

cultural determinism

disregards genetic components that can also be incredibly dangerous

biological determinism

fail to account for environment; can lead to extreme eugenics

what are some factors contributing to the rise of the SSSM?

rise of civil liberties for racial minorities and women

• post holocaust and WWII -theories developed to make racism and sexism -downplay or denial of inherent differences among individuals

What are the 3 main theories contributing to the SSM?

1. The Blank Slate 2. The Noble Savage 3. The Ghost in the Machine

What are the 3 assumptions of the SSSM?

1. The Blank Slate 2. The Irrelevance of Biology 3. General Laws of Learning

who created the 'blank slate' ?

locke and mill philosophy of empiricism

Locke: reaction to church and monarchy

John Stuart Mill: class differences product of society

what is the idea of the blank slate/tabula rasa?

Tabula rasa (Latin: "scraped tablet", though often translated "blank slate") is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth.

idea of empiricism= everything in this world is learned. It was a response to Hobbes philosophy

(hobbes believed that men were shitty people and had a shitty life)

who were the fathers of behaviourism? believes that a single individual can be shaped just on experience

watson and skinner

Influence of behaviourism on psychology

• the SSSM and empiricism/behaviorist perspective was the dominant perspective in psychology up until the cognitive revolution

its' influence in psychology is still positive today

Who created the "noble Savage" and what does it stand for

• rousseau's romanticism; "the natural condition of a man is virtuous" ; societal influences lead to vice

what is the evidence against romanticism?

- hunter-gatherer societies have higher death rates caused by warfare; shows that nature is more prone towards violent behaviour

what are the views of "margaret Mead" ?

cultural extremism;

challenged views of "normal" society and argues that culture is paramount and almost infinitely malleable;

humans are virtuous and society imposes culture on us

basically, says that cultural conditions determine human cultures.

was margaret mead's data accurate?

no, indigenous people were misleading her; a lot of the data turned out to be inaccurate

Renee descartes

who created the "ghost in the machine" theories?

What was the view of renee descartes/ghost in the machine

- the mind and the body are SEPERABLE and distinct; mind has the free will to choose

-reaction to hobbes view of life and mind as mechanical

dualism

the view of mind and brain as distinct entities conscious mind can operate independent of biological operations of the brain

cartesian theatre

Idea that there is a center point in the brain that is the consciousness

non-human animals

did evolutionary theory develop primarily in regards to non-human animals or humans?

facultative trait

a trait that is triggered by the environment

example of a facultative trait

- UVb and melanin production

hereditary effects: the gene that is selected for the appropriate amount of melanin

environmental effects: phenotype is plastic and responds to recent UV exposure

5 critiques of the SSSM

- 1. misunderstands the nature of development (thinks all behaviour is subject to genes)

2. SSSM sets a false dichotomy- it is not nature vs nurture, rather nature-nurture interactive and go hand in hand; ex/ melanin or facultative traits

3. Learning is not governed by general laws; learning and cognition are modular aka not all types of cognition are the same

4. SSSM divides natural and social sciences; SSSM separates themselves from the life sciences but behaviourists do not do this

5. SSSM does not explain a design = can explain a certain phenomena, but cannot explain WHY they are that way

• can have proximate explanations but not ultimate ones

ultimate causation

big picture; caused by evolutionary past

proximate causation

what caused the behaviour right now

levels of analysis

Ernst Mayr: distinction between ultimate and proximate causation

Niko Tinbergen: 4 questions to be asked about behaviour

what are niko tinbergen's 4 questions and how do they fit into proximate and ultimate levels of explanation?

• proximate level:

1. how does it develop (ontogeny)?

2. What are the causal mechanisms (physiological)?

ultimate level: 3. how did it evolve (phylogeny)? 4. what is the adaptive function?

complimentary

are the answers to tinbergen's question competitive or complementary?

cruel-step parents effect

; ultimate and proximate explanations - ultimate explanations: reduced parental investment in non-genetic offspring

proximate explanations: SES, increased stress in mixed families, increased financial hardship for step parents, etc.

Human nature

cultural relativists deny the existence of ___________ ___________ -

what is evidence of there being a valid human nature?

- there are more potential cultures that have never existed than actual cultures that have existed;

people are similar cross-culturally

Universal People (brown 1991)

- aspects of humans cross culturally that are highly consistent examples incl. the following:

• social: live in groups, observe status + rules of etiquette; -communicate verbally and nonverbally; -exchange gifts; -show hospitality and have celebrations

simple-minded thinking

Most resistance to sociobiology or evolutionary psych & many silly ideas within sociobiology result from simple-minded thinking

genetic fallacy

genetic traits are inflexible (determined); most traits are flexible + develop through gene-environment interaction

naturalistic fallacy

what is natural is right/good

paleoanthropology

study of fossil evidence of our ancestors

orangutan

ponginae - what is this? -

hominae

- what is this? - humans, chimps, gorillas

Tribe hominini

- chimps, bonobos and humans in the same tribe

chimpanzees

Pan troglodytes - what are these? -

Characteristics of the common chimp

- -sexually dymorphant: there are differences between males and females/ sex difference in body size

• primarily plant gatherers, some hunting

• strong dominance ranks males are dominant over females);

• in a group of chimps, you will have a dominant males

pan paniscus

- bonobos; same genus as chimpanzees

bonobos vs chimps

• -bonobos are less sexually dymorphic/smaller sex difference in body size -less dominance ranking in bonobos -bonobos have conspicuous sexual interactions; -they use sexual interaction to ease social settings; -engage in hetero and homo sex

bonobos

which chimps are known as the "make love not war" chimps? -

are humans closer to chimps or bonobos?

- neither one; humans branch off from bonobos and chimps equally

4MYA

when did hominims develop full bipedalism? -

2.5MYA

when did hominims develop scavenging and stone tools? -

1MYA

when did hominims start hunting and gathering? -

0.2MYA

when did hominims develop the large brains that we currently have? -

how do we create phylogenies

? - compare features of individuals to fossil records

The difference between hominid lineage and chimps

- -hominids developed larger brains, obligate bipedalism and smaller teeth

what are characteristics of the pan lineage/how this differs from human lineage?

• pan lineage:

• brain did not enlarge

• facultative bipedalism

• quadrupedalism

• larger teeth

australopiths, homo

what are the two types of hominims that we descended from?

1970s Lucy

- is she a homo or australopiths? - australopith ; she was totally bipedal; had a small brain;

fossil evidence = bipedalism developed before a large brain..pelvis indicating bipedalism in lucy yet she had a small brain

Characteristics of Australopiths

- -5-2MYA; there were robus and lighter forms

• full bipedalism preceded large brains

• not sure if they lived in a forest or savannah

defining feature of the homo genus

- tool development and use because there are multiple homo species, there is variation within the species

stone tool manufacturing in olduvai gorge

what is the discovery of early homo in conjunction with?

rudolfensis

- potential second early homo species with larger teeth

true

early homo genus existed at same time as at least 2 species of Australopithecus. True or false? -

Homo erectus

- was this a later or earlier homo species? - later

Features of the homo erectus

• 1. 1.8MYA; emergence of even larger brained species in Africa 2. 0.8MYA; expanded range and colonized much of Europe and Asia 3. Modern Humans arrive approx 0.2MYA

homo erectus

________ has the most direct line to us; -

how are homo ergaster and homo erectus related?

homo erectus is a subspecies of homo ergaster

100,000

homo erectus existed until as recently as ___________ years ago -

were the same size as modern humans;

primarily hunters and gatherers

were homoe ergaster and homo erectus larger or smaller than modern humans? what was their primary role? -

Characteristics of homo heidelbergensis

• -600k-200k years ago -more meat consumption, larger brains -transition to more hunting than scavenging -evidence of organized hunting of large prey and butchering

Characteristics of homo neanderthalis

? - distinct species, aka we did not evolve from them; contemporary with homo sapiens

spread across Europe and west Asia- also initiated a migration

larger build than sapiens, large occipital lobes

multi-regional hypothesis/regional continuity

- hypothesis is that homo erectus migrated across the globe & developed populations around the globe & that via inter-breeding homo sapiens evolved

single-regional hypothesis

• all direct population of homo sapiens originated in africa; other homo species developed and spread across but homo sapiens were through to originate in Africa then migrate

evidence of single-origin hypothesis

what have fossils found in the middle east indicated about neanderthals and homo sapeins? - -they occupied the same site -they did not originate from breeding together; each species was occupying same area and the sapiens out competed neanderthal

genetic evidence for the single-origin hypothesis

? - most variation occurs in Africa oldest populations existed in Africa; low variance across the globe is suggestive of a common origin in Africa

A type of genetic evidence

mitochondrial DNA from the mother

mitochondrial Eve

- thought that we all descended from a single female in Africa

why can we use mitochondrial cells to trace history?

- in the mitochondrial cells, all of the DNA that you receive is from your mother -looking at mitochondria, just have to track mother hence simplifying determining ancestry

multi-regional or single-origin hypothesis

- single-origin in Africa, subsequent migration across globe and replacement of older forms

distinct DNA of Neanderthals and sapiens support single origin

homo floresiensis characteristics

• nicknamed "Hobbit" very small body and brain likely distinct species from homo sapiens

The evidence surrounding potential homo sapien breeding with neanderthals

- no evidence for interbreeding: early mitochondrial DNA

recent genomic DNA analysis: significant interbreeding about 45k-80k years ago

non-africans have 1-4% of DNA derived from Neanderthal

EEA: environment of evolutionary adaptedness

• -don't know environment exactly, but know that African-savannah looking environment was the OG -we know that our species did not evolve in the current environment because we have traits that could be considered nonadaptive

The EEA

- -high risk- starvation and predation -scarcity of some nutrients (iodine, some vitamins) -small groups 50-100: in a day, would see very few people compared to what we see everyday -hunter-gatherer existence: sex difference were more important

biological evolution

• a change in gene frequency over time

NO

are evolution and natural selection the same thing? -

Thales

(624-545 BC) - explained the origin of life in natural, not supernatural terms

suggested all life evolved from simpler elements, and all elements from water