Origins of Dichotomous Thinking
o Cartesian dualism – the idea that human brain and mind are separate entities
Universe is comprised of physiological and psychological
o Ethology – study of animal behavior in the wild
Instinctive behavior – occur in all like members of species without being
learned
Emphasizes the role of nature (inherited factors)
Problems w/ Thinking about Behavior in Terms of Dichotomies
o Evidence against physiological-psychological debate
Complex psychological changes can be produced by damage or
stimulation to the brain
Ex: Asomatognoisia – deficiency in the awareness of parts of one’s
own body
o Left side of body, damage to right parietal lobe
o Changes in self-awareness are complex, but result of
damage
Nonhuman species possess abilities that are assumed psychological and
purely human
Ex: chimpanzees are self-aware and are capable of high
psychological complexity
o Nature-or-nurture
Not just one or the other, but a combination of both
Can’t ask “how much comes from either”, it comes from both
o Biology of Behavior
All behavior is a product of three interactions
Organisms genetic endowment, which is product of evolution
Its experience
Its perception of current situation
Human Evolution
Darwin
o Evolve – undergo gradual orderly change from preexisting species
o Natural selection – leads to evolution of species that are better adapted for
survival
Evolution and Behavior
o Social Dominance
, Chapter 2
Evolution, Genetics, and Experience
Males establish hierarchy of social dominance
Let them know who’s boss, dominant male wins encounters
Why important?
Dominant males copulate more
Dominant females produce more and healthier offspring
o Courtship Display
Animals court through signals, must be reciprocated
Species – group of organisms reproductively isolated from other
organisms
Members can produce fertile offspring by only mating with other
species members
New species branch from existing ones when a reproductive barrier
approaches, fertilization becomes impossible
Barrier might be behavioral
Only suitable exchange of displays between couple leads to reproductions
Course of Human Evolution
o Vertebrates
Chordates – animals with dorsal nerve chords
Chordates evolve to have spinal bones to protect nerve chords
Spinal bones = vertebrae, animals that possess = vertebrates
7 classes 3 classes of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals
o Amphibians
Advantages
Terrestrial food sources
Escape pools to fresh water
Fins and gills to legs and lungs
Larval state must live in water
o Reptiles
Evolved from amphibians
Lay eggs
Doesn’t need water at all
o Mammals
Females feed young with secretion from mammary glands
Stopped laying eggs, nurture young in watery bodies
Primates = humans
20 different orders of mammals
16 families of primates
o Humankind
Hominini – primates of the tribes of human
Composed to six genera
o Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Sahelanthropus, Orrorin,
Pan, Homo
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