Evolutionary Psych Ch 1.

The three essential ingredients for natural selection

variation, selection, and differential reproductive success

What is particulate inheritance?

the idea that traits are passed down from parents to offspring through individual genes, and these traits are not blended.

The three common misconceptions about evolutionary psychology

1) Human behavior is genetically determined

2) If it is evolutionary, we cannot change it

3) Current mechanisism is the only way we could have evolved.

When did Neanderthals go extinct?

Approximately 50,000 years ago.

radical behaviorism

declined due to its focus on observable behaviors and neglect of internal mental processes, leading to the rise of cognitive psychology, which emphasized the importance of thoughts and feelings in understanding behavior.

Variation

Individuals differ in heritable traits

Inheritance

These differences are passed from parents to offspring

Selection

Traits that enhance reproductive success tend to become more common over time

Sexual selection

Traits that improve reproductive success, like attractiveness.

Intrasexual selection

Competition within one sex (male to male)

Intersexual selection

One sex choosing mates based on traits.

Modern synthesis

Explained how genetic variation arises from mutations and recombination, and how natural selection acts on this variation within populations to drive evolutionary change.

Behaviorism

the theory that human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that some mental conditions are best treated by altering behavior patterns.

Cognitive revolution

an intellectual movement in the mid-20th century that shifted psychology from the study of observable behavior (behaviorism) to the study of internal mental processes like thinking, memory, and information processing