Test One Study Questions
Does evolutionary psychology imply a form of genetic determinism? Why or why not?
Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, is the belief that human behavior is controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment , whether in embryonic development or learning. Yes and No. Definitely no if one is referring to behavioral genetics. All organisms, including humans, can be conceived as an integrated set of functional parts. Modern medicine is founded on this functional view of the body. In the parlance of evolutionary biology, these functional parts are called adaptations. Adaptations arise through a process of evolution by natural selection. the brain should be organized just like the rest of the body, as an integrated set of interacting adaptations. In fact, there is no fundamental distinction between physiological adaptations and psychological adaptations.Because all humans (with very rare exceptions) have arms, legs, lungs, etc., that are built the same way and have the same features, we can surmise that we all share essentially the same genes for these limbs and organs. The universal architecture of the body is genetically determined in this sense. Since psychological adaptations like vision and pain are no different from other adaptations in this regard, they, too, are genetically determined human universals. However, this is not what is usually meant by 'genetically determined.' Often, researchers propose a genetic basis for criminality, alcoholism, anti-social behavior, schizophrenia, heart-disease, what-have-you. In other words, a genetic basis is postulated for individual *differences,* not similarities. In general, evolutionary psychology is not concerned with individual genetic differences. Genetic differences between individuals are known to be quite minor compared to our genetic commonalties. When one looks at the selfish gene theory by Dawkins, it supports the idea of gene determinism. The theory states that evolution is best viewed as acting on genes and that selection at the level of organisms or populations almost never overrides selection based on genes.
What are the basic assumptions of evolutionary psychology? What do the proponents of evolutionary psychology say the field contributes to our understanding of the human condition?
Evolutionary psychology: Understanding the human mind and behavior from an evolutionary perspective. The human mind has been prepared by natural selection, operating over geological time, for life in a human group. Evolutionary Psychology focuses on four key questions: 1. Why is the mind designed the way it is - what causal processes created, fashioned, or shaped the human mind into its current form? 2. How is the human mind designed - what are its mechanisms component parts, and how are they organized? 3. What are the functions of the component parts and their organized structure - what is the mind designed to do? 4. How does input from the current environment, especially the social environment, interact with the design of the human mind to produce observable behavior? Assumptions of evolutionary psychology (You would need to expand on each of the assumptions below. Simply listing them would not be sufficient.) 1. What evolved are psychological mechanisms (information processing mechanisms are the "missing link" in evolutionary explication) 2. Evolved psychological mechanisms are instantiated in the brain. 3. Psychological mechanisms evolved in the "environment of evolutionary adaptedness" (EEA) 4. Evolved psychological mechanisms are functional: Designed to solve statistically recurrent adaptive problems 5. Information processing mechanisms are relatively independent, domain-specific modules designed to solve recurrent problems faced by our ancestors Evolutionary psychology: Organizes known facts parsimoniously Provides guidance to important domains Leads to new predictions Unifies psychology with the life sciences Can serve as a meta-theory for other areas of psychology
Provide a detailed definition of evolved psychological mechanism (i.e., what are its properties, characteristics, etc.) as proposed by evolutionary psychology. Demonstrate a human trait that fits your definition.
Evolved psychological mechanisms are a set of adaptive evolved processes inside of an organism. The form of the psychological mechanism, their designed features, evolved to solve an adaptive problem of survival or reproduction recurrently in evolutionary history. The mechanisms are designed to only take in a limited range of information. For example, the predisposition of learning to fear snakes in humans is designed to take in only the narrow information of slithery movements from self-propelled elongated objects. The output of an adaptive mechanism is directed towards a solution to a specific adaptive problem.
Describe the evolution of Homo sapiens over the past 5 million years.
Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great apes of Africa, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas- shared a common ancestor that lived between 8-6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred in that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6-2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.
Discuss fears and phobias from an evolutionary psychological perspective. To what extent are children "prepared" to develop fearful responses to certain stimuli?
Phobias are fears that are irrational and that go beyond protecting you from danger. For example, research studies show that you are more likely to fear snakes and spiders than other predatory animals such as lions and tigers. Humans were not innately fearful, but they are prepared to be conditioned to fear. From an evolutionary point of view, this may be due to the fact that snakes and spiders are more difficult to spot. It made sense to our ancestors to look more carefully for poisonous creatures before sticking their hands or limbs into woodpiles or a bush for example. Over time, that ability to recognize and quickly react to these small creatures became a trait that many humans inherited as an instinctive human reaction. In fact, a young child who has never heard of the dangers of snakes or spiders may have a dramatic reaction to seeing one, possibly rooted in evolutionary psychology.
Explain pregnancy sickness as an evolutionary adaptation.
Symptoms: nausea, vomiting, food aversions: results in avoiding potentially dangerous foods. It corresponds to the time in prenatal development when embryo is most susceptible to effects of teratogens. Modern women acquire aversions to foods that are high in toxins (e.g., meat, coffee, alcohol) Despite variability, pregnancy sickness in universal Reduction in incidence of spontaneous abortions for women who experience pregnancy sickness i.e.: Thalidomide babies
What are some methods commonly used for testing evolutionary hypotheses? What are some common data sources used when testing evolutionary hypotheses? Briefly, why or how are these methods and data useful for testing evolutionary hypotheses?
Testing evolutionary hypotheses about human biological adaptation using cross-cultural comparison Physiological data from a range of human populations living in different environments can provide valuable information for testing evolutionary hypotheses about human adaptation. By taking into account the effects of population history, phylogenetic comparative methods can help us determine whether variation results from selection due to particular environmental variables. Some of the sources include: 1. Archeological records 2. Traditional societies 3. Self-reports 4. Observations 5. Public records 6. Modern human products Some methods include: 1. compare species 2. compare genders (male and female) 3. cross cultural methods 4. physiological methods 5. genetics 6. comparing different individuals within a species (within subjects) 7. comparing the same individual within different contexts 8. experiments
How might some forms of psychopathology or "negative" emotions (e.g., anger) actually be beneficial to humans?
They cause us to deal with the source of danger, serving as a functional survival function. Negative emotions aid in our survival. Bad feelings can be vital clues that a health issue, relationship or other important matter needs attention.
Discuss the assumptions and major focus of evolutionary developmental psychology. What, if anything, does a developmental perspective add to evolutionary psychology?
the theory of evolution by natural selection was originally proposed by Darwin (1859), who acknowledged in The Origin of Species the relationship between development and his theory, painstakingly describing the process of embryology and using it as part of his indisputable evidence for evolution. The purpose of this approach is to bring the functional way of thinking about biological mechanisms, such as the immune system, into the psychological field, as well as approaching psychological mechanisms in a similar way. In short, evolutionary psychology is focused on how evolution has shaped the mind and behavior. Though applicable to any organism with a nervous system, most research focuses on humans. All evolutionarily-influenced characteristics in the phenotype of adults develop, and this requires examining not only the functioning of these characteristics in adults but also their ontogeny.
