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Summary Evolutionary Psychology (minor Psychologie en het Brein)
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- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Samenvatting van het boek 'Evolutionary Psychology'
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Evolutionary PsychologyChapter 1 – The Scientific Movements Leading to Evolutionary
Psychology
Goal of evolutionary psychology: understanding the human mind/brain mechanisms in evolutionary
perspective. 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 brain designed? What are its mechanisms or 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 interact with the design of the human mind to
produce observable behavior?
Landmarks in the history of evolutionary thinking
- Evolution before Darwin
o Evolution = change over time
o Lamarck two major causes of species change: natural tendency to progress towards a
higher form + inheritance of acquired characteristics.
o Cavier theory catastrophism: species are extinguished periodically by sudden catastrophes
and then replaced by different species.
o Noticing variety of species, but with structural similarities, suggesting life was not static.
o Evidence of evolution by fossil record.
o Evidence from comparing embryological development between species.
o Many species possess characteristics that seem to have a purpose.
- Darwin theory of natural selection
o Adaptations as consequence of successful survival
o Three essential ingredients of natural selection:
Variation
Inheritance
Differential reproductive success: some individuals produce more offspring because they
possess the heritable variants that increase the individual’s chance of survival and
reproduction.
- Darwin theory of sexual selection
o Explains anomalies in theory of natural selection
o Adaptations as consequence of successful mating
Intrasexual competition = competitions between members of one sex. Qualities linked to
success in this competition, will be passed on to the next generation.
Intersexual selection = qualities desired in members of the opposite sex lead to choosing
these members as mates. Evolutionary change occurs because qualities desired in a mate
increase in frequency with the passing of each generation. Darwin called it female choice.
- Role of natural selection and sexual selection in evolutionary theory
o Natural selection is the primary cause of evolutionary changes, but not the only cause.
Genetic drift = random changes in genetic makeup of population. Due to: mutations,
founder effect (small portion of a population establishes a new colony and the founders
are not genetically representative of the original population) and genetic bottlenecks.
, o Evolution by natural selection is not forward looking and not intentional. Natural selection
acts on variants that happen to exist.
o Selection is gradual.
- Modern synthesis: genes and particulate inheritance
o Mendel inheritance is particulate = qualities of parents are not blended but passed on
intact to their offspring in distinct packets called genes.
o Modern Synthesis confirmed Darwin’s theory of natural selection and combined it with the
particulate inheritance.
- Ethology Movement
o Darwin said the theory of natural selection is applicable to behavior as well.
Behavior requires underlying physical structures.
Species can be bred for certain behavioral characteristics using the principle of selection.
o Ethology = study of proximate mechanisms and adaptive value of animal behavior.
Immediate influences on behavior
Developmental influences on behavior
Function of behavior
Evolutionary of phylogenetic origins of behavior
- The inclusive fitness revolution
o Classical fitness = measure of an individual’s direct reproductive success in passing on genes
through the production of offspring. broader definition needed inclusive fitness.
o Inclusive fitness = sum of an individual’s own reproductive success (classical fitness) + the
effects the individual’s actions have on the reproductive success of his/her genetic relatives.
- Clarifying adaptation and natural selection
o Three key shifts in evolutionary theory due to the inclusive fitness revolution
Challenging group selection (adaptations evolved for the benefit of the group). Group
selection was likely to be a weak force in evolution.
Inclusive fitness partially solved the ‘problem of altruism’, because altruism could evolve
if the recipients of help were one’s genetic relatives.
Adaptations are defined as evolved solutions to specific problems that contribute either
directly of indirectly to successful reproduction. Criteria for determining when it’s an
adaptation: reliability, efficiency and economy.
- Seminal Theories
o Theory of reciprocal altruism among non-kin
o Parental investment theory
o Theory of parent-offspring conflict
- Sociobiology controversy
Common misunderstandings about evolutionary theory
1. Human behavior is genetically determined human behavior is determined by both evolved
adaptations and environmental input that triggers the development and activation of these
adaptations.
2. If it’s evolutionary, we cannot change it behavior can change with knowledge, for example
knowledge of our evolved social psychological adaptations along with social inputs that activate
them gives us power to alter social behavior.
3. Current mechanisms are optimally designed evolutionary time lags results in our existing
evolved mechanisms may not be optimally designed for the current environment (but for the
previous one). Also, there’s the costs of adaptations; selection favors a mechanism when its
benefits outweigh the costs relative to other designs existent at the time.
,Milestones in the origins of modern humans
- Primates
- Bipedal locomotion; rapidly walk long distances in an energetically efficient manner + enabled
greater visual angle for detection of predators and prey + decreased surface area of the body
exposed to sun rays + freed up the hands.
- First tools – H. habilis.
- Migration out of Africa – H. erectus.
- Acheulean hand axe.
- Brain expansion – factors such as toolmaking, tool use, complex communication, climate and
social competition might have played a role.
- Domination of Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia.
- Sudden extinction of Neanderthals + sudden arrival of H. sapiens sapiens.
o Multiregional continuity theory (MCR): emergence of modern humans occurred in different
regions of the world due to gene flow between different groups, which interbred enough to
prevent divergence into separate species.
o Out of Africa theory (OOA): modern humans evolved in Africa, migrated and replaced all
previous populations.
Supported by anatomical, archeological and genetic evidence
Landmarks in the field of psychology
- Psychoanalytic theory (Freud)
o Sexuality is the driving force of human behavior regardless of age.
o Instinctual system
Life-preservative instincts – function of survival (corresponds with natural selection)
Sexual instincts – function of reproduction (corresponds with sexual selection)
o Combining life and sexual instincts into life instincts, combined with death instinct.
- Psychology of Instincts (James)
o Many instincts (many more than other animals). Not always blind or inevitably expressed. All
instincts have evolved through natural selection and were adaptations to solve specific
problems.
- Rise of behaviorism (Watson)
o Classical conditioning = when two previously unconnected events come to be associated.
o Radical behaviorism and a principle of operant conditioning = reinforcing consequences of
behavior were the critical cause of subsequent behavior. Humans have only few innate
properties and all behavior can be shaped easily.
The astonishing discoveries of cultural variability
Infinite cultural variability is a myth. Some traits are integrated in every culture, such as jealousy, as
well as emotional expressions.
The Garcia effect, prepared fears and the decline of radical behaviorism
Humans, and other organisms, are predisposed to learn some things very easily and to not learn
other things at all. Also, the external environment is not the sole determinant of behavior.
The cognitive revolution
Three forces: violations of the fundamental laws of learning + universal language + information-
processing metaphor with the rise of computers. This revolution started because the external
contingencies alone could not successfully account for the behavior being observed. Understanding
of the information-processing in the brain is needed to understand human behavior.
, Domain-general learning suggests that humans are born with mechanisms in the brain that support
and guide learning on a broad level. However, the problem is the combinatorial explosion; the lack of
specialized processing rules means there are infinite alternative options in any given situation. Thus,
to get a person to accomplish a specific task, special programming must sharply narrow the
possibilities. However, this couldn’t be answered in the cognitive revolution. This gap in information
led to the emergence of evolutionary psychology. This study field provided a specification of the
kinds of information-processing the human mind was designed to solve; the problems of survival and
reproduction.
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