Evolutionary Psychology

What is comparative psychology

The study of animal cognition and behaviour from an evolutionary perspective

Why does comparative psychology matter

Illuminating Human Behaviour, advancing Evolutionary Theory, Improving Animal Welfare, Aiding Conservation

Homologous vs analogous

Homologous structures share a common ancestry and internal anatomy despite having different modern functions (divergent evolution), whereas analogous structures perform similar functions but evolved independently in unrelated species facing similar environmental pressures (convergent evolution)

What are the things that natural selection requires

1. Variation

2. Heritability

3. Differential fitness

4. Over many generations

Why study animal minds

• Animal minds can help understand what makes us human

• What human mind features have we inherited from our primate ancestors

• What cognitive abilities allow us to do things other animals cannot

What are the 2 proposed examples of human uniqueness

1. Tool use

2. Language

What is the research related to human tool use

• Leakey “man the tool maker”

• Jane Goodall discovered chimps modifying twigs to fish for termites

• New Caledonian crow tool culture

• Alexander Taylor crows can plan

What are the research cases related to human language use

• Nim Chimpsky

• Kanzi the bonobo and panbanisha

Key points on Nim Chimpsky signing

1. Just drill

2. No grammar

3. Action-object pairs

Key points on Kanzi and Sue

• Bonobo

• Lexigrams

• >3000 words

• Word order

• Spontaneous use

• Steven Pinker

  • Only 30-40 symbols used

  • Action0object pairing

  • No conversation

  • Reactive

Social motives of language in humans vs primates

Humans have shared intentionality, cooperative rather than competitive

Polygenic influence

a trait whose phenotypic expression is influenced by many genes e.g psychological

Genes and agression

• 2002 discovered a gene thawt codes for MAOA

• Involved in metabolism and neurotransmission

• Low activation of MAOA is linked to antisocial behaviour

Genes and agression Dunedin study

• Childhood mistreatment is linked to antisocial behaviour

• Questioned whether it is generational trauma, or genetic

What is heritibility

Trying to express the proportion of variability in a population that is attributable to genetic differences

• H²=G/V

Heritibility restictions

• Estimates of a specific population, not individuals

• Depends on the range of environments and genotypes

Ways to see heritibility of IQ

1. Adoption Studies

2. Identical v Fraternal twins

3. Separated identical twins

IQ heritibility study

• SHields 1962 found heritibility of 40 sepereated twins was 0.77

• Leon Kamin discoerd 27/40 were adopted by close relatives

• The remaining had 0.51

What is the IQ gap in the US

• African americans had lower mean IQ than white

• IQ paired with negative outcomes

• IQ is ‘heritable’ and the bad outcomes link to IQ, therfore your genetics predestine you

Jim Flynn effect

• IQ increases with no differences in population

• There must be environmental changes not genetic

Dictator Game

an experimental economics study where one player (the "dictator") is given a sum of money and decides how much, if any, to split with a second player.

Muller-lyer illusion

two lines of identical length appear to be different sizes due to the orientation of arrow-like fins at their ends

WEIRD Psychology

• Western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic populations are overrepresented in psychological research

• Ignores cultural variation

Foragin Aka Pymies in CAR in their transmission of culture

• 50 Life skills

• Asked when and who did they learn

• 80% of skills learned from parents

• Sex differences in timing and teaching

• Survival traits inherited from parent to child

• Social traits inherited from peers

THe Journey of Burke and Wills and transmission of culture

• Struggled to survive even when they had bush experience, but aboriginals could survive due to passed on culture

Human adaptations to social learning

• Overimitation

  • Copying a behaviour, even when the behaviour seems irrelevant

• Biases

  • Conformist bias

    • Copy majority

  • Prestige bias

    • Copy the successful

What is Richard Dawkins view on religion

• It is a “selfish meme”

• Copying fidelity

• Replication

What is Norenzayans belief and research on religion

• Belief in a powerful deity who will punish immoral behaviour helps individuals trust in their group, promoting cooperation

• Those with religious prime tend to give more in the dictator game

• All-seeing gods are selected for more harshly conditioned geographies, which may mean that they require more cooperation