PSY 363 Final Exam Chapters 7-10

Describe David Livingstone Smith's (2008) evolutionarily informed theory of war. In your answer, explain what Smith means by the idea the people are both fascinated and repulsed by war. Finally, describe three specific evolutionarily informed mechanisms of dehumanization that Smith raises as it relates to human warfare.

War has always existed throughout human history and has been largely a male endeavor, involving access to resources and women. Yet it causes psychological stress, and many soldiers miss fire so they are not the ones killing. Additionally sides dehumanize the enemy by portraying them as either a predator (snake), and prey (rabbit), or a vermin (rat). Dehumanizing the enemy is highly evolutionarily relevant, and makes the enemy more "killable" when portrayed in these ways.

Briefly describe Bingham and Souza's (2009) idea of low costs associated with killing abilities in our hominid ancestors as key in helping understand human uniqueness. In your answer, address how their theory accounts for the democratization of humans as it relates to stone-throwing ability.

According to Bingham and Souza (2009), Hominid ancestors honed throwing ability, this skill is unmatched among primates. The immediate cost to oneself of killing someone by throwing a rock is small or minimal. For the first time in history of life, then, Bingham and Souza argue a species evolved the capacity to kill conspecifics remotely from a distance with nearly no costs to oneself. These remote abilities to kill led to egalitarian social structures and ultimately to democracy. One incredibly strong individual is no match for a group of medium sized males with a pile of rocks. One nasty leader can easily be overthrown by a group of intelligent, modest sized individuals. Being able to organize a group of individuals and design an effective plan to conspire against an unfair and powerful leader takes smarts more than biceps.

Describe Glass, Wilson, and Geher's (2012) work on training related to evolutionary psychology. In your answer, describe evidence relating to how far advanced evolutionary psychology is - along with hurdles that exist regarding the training of future evolutionary psychologists.

Even though major publications have evolutionary psychology articles, the authors show that it is increasingly difficult to obtain and evolutionary psychology education and that much of their interest was self initiated. (Med school test not having evolution questions to recently.

Describe the basic idea of evolved behavioral sex differences. In your answer, briefly describe how Geher's (2006) article in Entelechy uses metaphors regarding differences between dogs and cats to explore the academic issues at hand. Be sure to address how evolutionary psychologists and social constructionists differentially address issues of how and why males and females behave differently from one another.

Evolved behavioral sex differences is the idea that men and women show some natural differences as a result of evolutionary processes. They can act different ways due to facing certain adaptive hurdles. There is no relevance to any biological factors, cats and dogs behave differently than one another, and these are differences that become of society and constructions. Immutable is on evolutionary based explanations and anything goes focuses on society and political structures.

* Describe the idea of game theory and how an analysis of "hawk versus dove" strategies can help us understand the evolution of aggressive behavior. Make sure to include a discussion of costs and benefits of aggressive acts in your answer.

Game theory is the idea of trade-off acts that come with evolutionary benefits and may come with evolutionary costs as well. This theory sees individuals as players in a game with the goal of trying to optimize their own particular lot. For example, optimizing their own genetic fit. The "hawk versus dove" strategies show a hawk which is an individual who always behaves aggressively, and the dove which is an individual who never behaves aggressively. A hawk versus hawk will often end poorly with the risk of death or physical injury. In a hawk versus dove scenario, the hawk will do better and win whatever is at stake.

Describe the idea of genetic determinism - and address how the concepts of strategic pluralism and conditional strategies relate to this issue. In your answer, address how evolutionary psychologists address this issue addressing their particular approach to situationism.

Genetic determinism is the idea of people do things because of their genes and people don't have control over their behavior. This is shaped by history and current facts, some heritable components. Non conditional strategies are for example the deception by male starfish. Conditional you adapt with varying strategies, including deception. Context matters in applied research.

Ketelaar and Ellis (2000) argue that evolutionary psychology provides a coherent meta-theory for understanding all of psychology. Explain how these authors argue that evolutionary psychology is "progressive," leads to novel research questions, and is able to "digest anomalies" in a way that other field in the behavioral sciences don't.

In this concept, progressivity refers to the ability to generate novel research questions and, accordingly, the ability to provide new answers and new information about the world that would not be known otherwise. Digests anomalies is an applied evolutionary framework to understand the role of being a step-parent in family violence. Science needs a foundational idea, psychology they argue that provides a coherent meta-theory- theory ABOUT theories (paradigm). Everything follows from natural selection, in ev psych; led to insights about how we see humans now (reciprocal altruism). Understand behavior from wider perspective. Power to help us understand the human condition, progressive: helps us progress in understanding of what it means to be human, leads to new questions. Darwin was not a genius, he articulated the idea of natural selection and behavior, but this was only a simple idea that led to more understanding. Any scientific framework that answers and explains stuff not explained by other frameworks is a good scientific framework.

Describe the idea of interdisciplinarity along with modern trends in interdisciplinarity in higher education. Related to this point, address the issue of "evolutionary psychology's relatively interdisciplinary nature." Finally, address how, taken together, these points make a case for a positive future for evolutionary psychology within modern academia.

Interdisciplinary in higher education explains evolutionary psychology they collaborate across the departments and with scholars outside traditional psychology departments, You have to study multiple topics to understand these core ideas.

Explain the existence of male physical aggression in terms of intrasexual selection/competition. In your discussion, be sure to discuss the relevance of sexual dimorphism. Finally, address how, according to Buss (2005), homicide and murder may be thought to have adaptive benefits and may be related to intrasexual competition.

Intrasexual selection is where members of the same sex compete with each other for mates and compete. Sexual dimorphism is the physical difference between sexes (Male and Female). For example, how male peacocks look different than females. The bodies of males have evolved so that strong men could have access to females under ancestral conditions. Males are larger more than females by about 15%. The larger the body of the sex in a species often compete with the same sex physically for access to females. Buss (2005) points out that murders are often between people of the same sex or age and murdering someone removes them from having access to having offspring as well as reducing them from producing in the future.

Describe mental disorders from an evolutionary perspective. In your answer, address some specific disorders that have been studied from an evolutionary perspective along with the specific ideas from evolutionary psychology that have been applied to help elucidate these phenomena.

Mental disorders from an evolutionary perspective and understanding it pertains to the idea of evolutionary mismatch. Some psychological problems could be considered as adaptive under ancestral conditions but maladaptive under current conditions. Bipolar disorder could be caused by the amount of daylight under ancestral conditions and today we have artificial light. DSM criteria incomplete causes of depression like a death or a failure might lead to rumination but that is not necessarily a bad thing because it is designed for someone to figure out where they may have gone wrong. Depression caused by loss can lead to seeking social support. High mutation load could be the reason why these disorders return through generations in a family.

Describe how sexual selection theory has been used to help us understand the nature of art (Miller, 2000). In your discussion, briefly describe some research addressing specifically how art may be conceptualized as a courtship device.

Miller largely takes a fitness indicator approach to art, art forms as mechanisms by which individuals display their quality and these displays are used in courtship contexts. Art is attractive and hard to fake, so it is a signal of one's quality and even one's genetic identity. A woman who is ovulating will most likely prefer a poor artist than a lucky one.

Schmitt and Pilcher (2004) provide a clear sense how we can document evidence for an evolutionary adaptation. Discuss several of the forms of evidence that they describe - and be able to address how research by Profet on pregnancy sickness provides a strong model of how to document an evolutionary adaptation within evolutionary psychology.

The better we can collect data on a single topic, the better positioned we are to make claims about such evolutionary concepts and adaptations (Schmitt and Pilcher, 2004). Collecting data from samples of multiple cultures and multiple modes goes a long way toward helping us make evolution-based inferences. Multiple cultures and multiple models.

Briefly describe the interface of evolution and medicine. In your answer, address different areas of human health that are being elucidated by the application of an evolutionary perspective.

The evolutionary approach to medicine is focusing on the natural approach to solve problems. Looking back to things like evolutionary mismatch or even just evolved things that we adapted to as humans. One example is pregnancy sickness which before was treated with medicine, now we know it is the natural way of removing toxins from our foods to protect the fetus. Also diabetes and obesity. The foods we have available today such as foods high in fat or sugary foods weren't as widely available under ancestral conditions, and since we have that drive in times of famine these foods were a gift. The issue of obesity in western societies could very much be explained by evolution.

Briefly describe the mission of Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society (AEPS) along with specific areas of inquiry that it is trying to enhance. In your answer, be sure to describe the distinction between "basic" and "applied" research. Finally, describe one specific example (theoretically or documented) of the kind of applied evolutionary psychology that this society (AEPS) tries to foster.

The mission of the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society is to further our knowledge of how evolutionary psychology can be applied to help make the world a better place. To promote the use of evolutionary psychology is fields such as policy making, business, law, education, medicine, and mental health. Evolutionary psychology has laid the foundation for a variety of social, political, and ecological issues we now face. Basic gear to answer or to study a phenomenon but not to be used towards a specific problem. Applied gear to address a specific problem. One example of applied evolutionary psychology is the Binghamton neighborhood project by Wilson. Which was an effort to improve the quality of life by implementing applied evolutionary psychology. MORNING SICKNESS EXAMPLE, women are morning sick because they are getting rid of toxins in their body. Before evolutionary psychology women were given medicine for this that had a range of effects, now we know it is the body natural process to help the fetus who doesn't have the ability to ingest these toxins we can from things like vegetables.

Briefly describe issues regarding degree of interest in evolutionary psychology among students, the media, and professors. In your description, address points of conflict of interest, and discuss how this conflict of interest relates to the future of evolutionary psychology.

There are a lot of people interested, but other institutions and systems push in another directions.