Lecture 1 (Intro to Evo Psych) - Slides Flashcards
Human Evolutionary Psychology
4 Questions
1) Why is the mind designed the way it is?
- What are the things that helped us in the past
2) How is the mind designed?
- How are these areas interconnected with each other
3) What are the functions of the component parts?
- Do they work together or separately (We can measure IQ, but verbal and reasoning IQ are different)
4) How do inputs from the current environment
interact with mind to produce behavior?
- Will the behaviour occur in other places under the same conditions?
Human Evolutionary Psychology
General Explanation
- Brains cause behaviour and brains are influenced by natural selection at the level of the genes. (Environment influences the expression of genes)
- Takes theories from evo-bio and
- Interdisciplinary approach: applied to many fields (Economics, sociology, etc.)
- Understand the mind based on evolutionary past
Pre-Darwinian Thinking
Lamarck and name of theory
(1744-1829)
First to use the term “biology” and was the first to get close to answering it before Darwin
Transformationalism - How one species transforms into another through:
1) Use and disuse
2) Inheritance of acquired change
Transformationalism
2 features and who developed it
Lamarck (1744-1829)
1） Use and disuse: Animals will maintain features that they can use, and if they don’t use
2） Inheritance: Next generation inherits those traits but was specific to the parents life history. If a parent didn’t use it, then it wouldn’t pass on to the child.
The individual changes in response to the environment, not the expression of genes over time.
Transformationalism
Giraffe example and who developed it
Lamarck (1744-1829)
Giraffe example: thought there was a nervous fluid that would allow the animal to grow a longer neck.
Problems with this: Mechanism is wrong, use example: a blacksmith should have kids with huge upper bodies, disuse: circumcized men should have circumcized women.
Darwin
Boat, island and book
The Beagle (1831-1836)
Thought that Galapagos birds he collected were initially all different species, but were actually the same.
Food availability determined the success of the bird sub species and beak size.
On the Origin of the Species (1859)
Natural Selection
Book and initial problems
- Foundation for evolutionary biology
- Populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection
- On the Origin of the Species (1859)
- Problems: Physical traits that didn’t fit into natural selection were problematic (like Peacock tailfeathers)
- Great for mating, bad for survival (large, colourful, metabolically expensive)
- Sexual selection was developed from this
Sexual Selection
Book and theory
- Different characteristics can be selected for that may convey reproductive advantages and may even cause individual survival disadvantages.
- The Descent of Man (1871)
The Modern Synthesis
Who, when and what
- 1942
- Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
- Darwin thought that inheritance occurred through “blending”
- Inheritance is PARTICULATE - we pass down individual packets/particles in the form of genes.
- Depending on dominance/recessive patterns we get one trait or another, not a blend
- Synthesis didn’t happen until 60 years after Mendel’s death
Ethology Movement
What is it, the 2 tenants of behaviour research
- The study of animal behaviour
1) Behaviour requires a structure, a physical underpinning that can be measured across individuals
2) Behaviours can influence the traits we observe. Soviet fox experiments ears became round, coats softened and other differences in phynotype
Imprinting
Who and what
Who: Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
- Imprinting: A pre-programmed form of learning and part of an evolved structure.
Example: Ducklings will imprint on the first thing that moves when they are born.
- It’s like learning, but it’s preprogrammed at birth - there is a critical period though
- Cat video: imprinted on things that are small and fluffy shortly after giving birth, in this case ducklings
Tinenbergen’s 4 Questions
Proximate（direct questions）
1） Ontogeny: How does it develop within an organism.
- What patterns do we observe in the development of an organism from life to birth
2） Mechanism: How does it work?
- How does it occur, from hormones to neurons and organs
Ultimate (Causal)
3） Phylogeny: How did it evolve over generations
- Is it in just humans? Primates, and birds? How far back can we trace it back in our evolutionary record
4） Function: What is the adaption function?
- What is the adaptive value
Human Crying
Tinenberg’s 4 Question Example Proximate Causes
- Composition of tears themselves: Emotional tears have higher levels of prolactin (social bonding hormone), corticotropin (released in times of stress. They are different than other kinds of tears.
1) Mechanism: Birth, pain, hunger, emotional distress, etc.
2) Ontogeny: Reaches peak at 6 months, stabilizes at 4 months and declines after 2.
- Infants stop crying around 2 when they start to talk - 2 year olds with larger vocabulary cries less.
Colic
Colic - Crying for no reason. Humans are only primates that cry while we are held. Crying becomes private when it’s penalized particularly within a culture.
- In hunter-gatherer societies, colic doesn’t occur as much, but the children are cared for different.
- Infant is consistently carried and can breastfeed whenever it wants, and can monitor consistently.
- Colic could be an evolutionary recent behaviour that is because we are getting away from what we have been doing throughout our evolutionary history for some time.
- Apes don’t cry, but they do vocalize. Primates do not vocalize unless they are separated from their parent or injured only.
Sex Differences in Crying
Sex differences - women cry 30-64 times, men 6-17 times a year
Sobbing - uncontrolled crying with vocalizations （65% for men, 6% for women）
