Evolution, Nature, Nurture

How did Herbert Spencer feel about Social Darwinism

didn’t entirely agree with or understand it

who did Spencer say “survival of the fittest” could apply to

societies

what did Spencer think about those who aren’t “successful” or “fit” to survive

they should be prevented from breeding

What did Lamarck think

parents’ experience was heritable

What is an example of Lamarckian thinking

giraffes reaching for leaves would stretch their neck the slight neck lengthening resulted in the giraffes we have now

Who coined the phrase “nature vs nurture”/was the pioneer of eugenics

Francis Galton

What did Francis Galton think about those who are deemed less socially acceptable or “worthwhile”

they should be sterilized

What did Herbert Spencer argue about inherited predispositions

Psychological experiences, instincts, cultural behaviors, and other experiences are passed down

Who was a philosopher who justified misogyny, racism, classism

Francis Galton

Proximate Perspective of Nature

Questions that ask “which…” “What…” leads to a particular behavior/phenotype

Ultimate Perspective of Nature

Questions that ask “Why…” - often related to evolutionary questions, what is the ultimate WHY of how something happened

what do proximate perspective and ultimate perspective lead to

the behavior

What did Darwin and others believe about stages of development timelines

species with evolutionary relationships share early stages of development and differ more in later stages

How did Darwin and others come to understand species development

by looking at species evolution and asking if closely related species have primitive precursors to mind and behavior

What was Haeckel’s biogenetic law

early on, all animals were the same and any animal could be used as a model for human development if you look early enough in the lifespan (embryo); “ontogenry recapitulates phylogeny”

What was Darwin right about when it comes to embryos of animals

if you look at them across different kinds of animals, they all look very similar

What did Haeckel believe about the developmental process for complex animals

“Complex” animals go through a fish stage then tacks on another unique trait making them a different animal after being an embryo and traits keep adding onto each other, except everyone was originally a fish as an embryo

What did Von Baer say about evolutionary development

embryo’s developments are diverse, and what differentiates animals is their genome which take over pretty much directly after insemination

what did Von Baer put into question

if we can use other animals to study our own development because patterns are so immediately unique to every other animal

what did a reanalysis of Haeckel’s idea of an embryo show

if you look at embryos of different animals under a microscope, they all look different

Who was the father of ethology

Niko Tinbergen

ethology

biological study of animal behavior

What were Tinbergen’s 4 questions related to ethology/behavior

proximate causes, adaptive function in that environment, develops/changes, evolved over time

what is an example of Tinbergen’s first question (proximate causes of the behavior)?

what muscles drive this behavior immediately? What genes do they have?

what is an example of Tinbergen’s second question (why is the behavior necessary for the organism)?

if looking at a particular species, why does it engage in that behavior and how is it useful for that organism?

what is an example of Tinbergen’s third question (how does the behavior develop/change)?

how come young birds don’t do that behavior but they do it at a certain age

What is an example of Tinbergen’s fourth question (how and why has the behavior evolved over time)?

why is that bird here today because of that pecking behavior?

What did Darwin focus a lot on

variance among individuals in all populations among species

According to Darwin, how do variations and environments interact

environments create challenges to be “solved”, some variations do better in particular environments, and organisms are passive objects of evolutionary forces

what would happen without variation

everyone would be equally reproductively successful, and there needs to be variation so not everyone can be killed off to allow some success in different environments

passive objects

we’re waiting for something to change in the environment

what are some examples of organisms changing their environment to affect survival and reproductions

grazing animals increase plant growth (droppings, cropping) which increases their own food, beavers change their own environment by building dam

rather than being passive, what are animals in reality in relation to their environment

active agents of change and thus subjects of their own and other species’ survival and evolution

spandrels or exaptations

things that we use to help us, but at the time were not selected upon for their current use, we’ve just found a use for them eventually

who says almost everything we do or use today is a spandrel

Gould

exaptation

adaptive forces reshape some phenotype to provide some benefit different than what that phenotype initially arose to do

what is an example of an exaptation

feathers originally just provided warmth, similar to hair in mammals, but eventually became essential for flight

spandrel

features which just happen to provide some trait in some way even though the underlying phenotype arose for another reason

what is an example of a spandrel

the human chin, which is a side effect of the shape of the skull and jaw structure, rather than a trait that evolved for a specific purpose

what part is the spandrel

the purpose it provides, not the thing itself

why did we originally have such large brains

to dissipate heat - allows blood to cool off

how do genomes work even though everyone has the same genes

genes turn on and off

does everyone have the same genome

yes

phenotype

what is expressed visually on the outside

what are almost all phenotypes

polygenetic

polygenetic inheritance

there are many genes that contribute to phenotypes

what is polygenetic inheritance based on rather than dominant/recessive

the number of alleles someone has for a certain trait

in a scenario with a tall and short parent, what type of gene/alleles would the short parent give

those that don’t translate to height

what happens sometimes in early genetics during early development

one version of the gene will be shut off bc the body doesn’t need both, only needs one to be activated so one of the genes will spontaneously shut off

What are some examples of disorders that are legitimately dominant/recessive

PKU/Huntington’s

what happens in actual dominant/recessive scenarios

if you have that gene, you are going to get that phenotype definitively

how do GWAS studies work

how to determine “cases” in GWAS studies

looking for genes on all side of the genome that have extraordinarily high amounts of certain genes

why do controls sometimes have higher levels of activity of certain genes

protect against having less of that gene which could lead to things like anxiety

what do genes almost always look like for a lot of emerging child psychopathalogic disorders

too high or too low

multifinality

when the genes are often the same ones for very different disorders

equifinality

a lot of things are associated with one particular outcome, many reasons cause the one outcome

equifinality (vague) formular

Cause A, Cause B, and Cause C contribute to Outcome X

ontogeny

ongoing development

multifinality

the same cause can lead to many different outcomes

how does ontogeny work

branched set of pathways that an individual can take during development towards various outcomes.

when is backtracking available when it comes to ontogeny

the earlier the better leads to better intervention

what determines the pathways we go down in terms of ontogeny

we/our genes/our environment

what can genetic variation of a trait also depend on

genes not directly involved with the trait

what does genetic potential often depend on

the environment

when does genetic potential not matter

if the environment doesn’t allow it to thrive and be shown

what does the ability of the environment to affect an individual depend on

the person’s particular genetic profile

what is the idea of orchids

they need an environment tailored to their genome in order to allow them to thrive, but when they’re in a negative environment, they shrivel

differential susceptibility

individuals with certain genetic traits are more sensitive to environmental influences, both positive and negative

why do we want genetic variation and differential susceptibility

allows populations to thrive in some places, and other populations to thrive in others

mediation relationship

X directly controls the relationship by causing a change in the mediator, causing a change in Y

moderation

the moderator balances out changes between X and Y, can make the relationship stronger or weaker

what happens to “orchids” when they’re in a bad environment

they do worse than dandelions would, internalize the bad more and outcome is worse than average

dandelions

people who are not vulnerable to the environment

orchids

highly susceptible to the environment

what do orchids/dandelions depend on

the genes that are expressed in the brain

what do most studies surrounding environment fail to study

the positive

developmental noise

if you have identical genes and identical environments (identical twins), result still isn’t the same due to random (stochastic) genetic activity