Lectures Evolutionary psychology
,Index
Lecture 1 – Foundations of evolutionary psychology............................................................................ 5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5
What is evolution (via natural selection)? ..................................................................................... 8
Sexual selection .............................................................................................................................. 9
Lecture 2 – Adaptations for survival .................................................................................................... 15
What is evolutionary psychology? ............................................................................................... 15
What are psychological adaptations? .......................................................................................... 15
How to generate (and test) an evolutionary hypothesis?........................................................... 17
Adaptations for survival: Getting food ........................................................................................ 18
Adaptations for survival: Fear and disgust emotions .................................................................. 19
Lecture 3 – Men’s and Women’s long term mating strategies ........................................................... 21
Parental investment theory ......................................................................................................... 21
Evidence for parental investment theory .................................................................................... 22
Adaptive problems in long-term mating (more so for women) .................................................. 23
Adaptive problems in long-term mating (likely more so for men) ............................................. 28
Darwinian puzzle of homosexuality ............................................................................................. 30
Lecture 4 – Short-term sexual strategies ............................................................................................. 32
Short-term mating ........................................................................................................................ 32
Adaptative challenges for short-term mating for men ............................................................... 34
Costs for short-term mating ......................................................................................................... 36
Potential adaptive benefits of short-term mating strategy for women ..................................... 36
Lecture 5 – Challenges of parenting and problems of kinship ............................................................ 41
Differences in parental care ......................................................................................................... 42
I. Estimating genetic relatedness of offspring ............................................................................. 43
Tests of the paternity uncertainty hypothesis: Genetic Relatedness of Offspring. ................... 44
II. Ability of offspring to convert parental care into fitness ........................................................ 46
III. Discriminating investments between the children ................................................................ 46
Theory of parent-offspring conflict .............................................................................................. 47
IV. Investing resources in alternatives for own children ............................................................. 49
Lecture 6 – Problems of group living: Cooperation ............................................................................. 50
Altruism ......................................................................................................................................... 50
I. Altruism as byproduct or mistake ............................................................................................. 52
II. Kin altruism ............................................................................................................................... 52
III. Reciprocal altruism .................................................................................................................. 56
IV. Altruism via indirect reciprocity ............................................................................................. 59
, V. Altruism as peacock’s tail ......................................................................................................... 60
IV. Group selection and altruism .................................................................................................. 61
Lecture 7 – Problems of group living: Aggression, war and conflict between sexes ......................... 63
Aggression ..................................................................................................................................... 63
Adaptive benefits of aggression ................................................................................................... 64
Anger ............................................................................................................................................. 68
Warfare ......................................................................................................................................... 69
The male warrior hypothesis........................................................................................................ 70
Lecture 8 – Conflict between the sexes ............................................................................................... 73
Sexual conflict ............................................................................................................................... 73
Strategic interference theory ....................................................................................................... 73
1. Conflict about the occurrence of timing of sex........................................................................ 74
2. Conflict over sexual access ....................................................................................................... 74
Error management theory ............................................................................................................ 75
Sexual aggression and evolved defenses against sexual aggression .......................................... 76
Do men have psychological adaptations for sexual aggression? ................................................ 77
Do women have psychological adaptations to prevent sexual harassment? ............................ 78
Mate guarding............................................................................................................................... 78
Lecture 9 – Status, dominance & leadership ....................................................................................... 80
Dominance hierarchies ................................................................................................................. 81
Evolutionary theories of status .................................................................................................... 82
Psychological adaptations for status acquisition ........................................................................ 83
Sex differences .............................................................................................................................. 84
Subordinate strategies ................................................................................................................. 85
Status cues .................................................................................................................................... 86
Cues of submissiveness ................................................................................................................ 87
Emotions as status-adaptations ................................................................................................... 88
Leadership ..................................................................................................................................... 88
Adaptive problems in following a leader ..................................................................................... 89
Lecture 10 – Towards an integrated, unified psychology ................................................................... 92
Lessons from evolutionary psychology ........................................................................................ 92
Mainstream cognitive psychology ............................................................................................... 94
Evolutionary social psychology .................................................................................................... 96
Evolutionary theories of language ............................................................................................... 97
Evolutionary developmental psychology ..................................................................................... 98
Evolutionary personality psychology ........................................................................................... 99
, Evolutionary organizational psychology .................................................................................... 100
Evolutionary clinical psychology ................................................................................................ 101
Evolutionary cultural psychology ............................................................................................... 102
Evolutionary psychology of religion ........................................................................................... 103
Lecture 11 – Practice exam, Q&A about exam, assignments. ........................................................... 104
Other practice exam questions .......................................................................................................... 111
,Lecture 1 – Foundations of evolutionary psychology
Introduction
Picture of a skull and what it can say about the life back then.
- The skull was found in Northern of Spain in a cave complex.
- There were skeletons and skulls found of 28 individuals.
- The skull is 430 thousands years old → Skull of a Neanderthal.
- The skull is from an adult male.
- Based on the teeth you can predict what kind of diet the individual use.
- What was the social nature of these individuals?
o There is a hole in the skull and dents → Looking and these injuries scientists
predicted that the individual was beaten up by another individual that was
righthanded with an instrument → First evidence of human violence.
o You can also see some healing of the skull → Individual did not die
immediately because of this attack but was probably cared for by others.
Aim of the course → Try to study human behavior by taking a deeper historical perspective.
Why do humans do the things that they do?
- What are the qualities of romantic partners that we go for? Are there any sex differences?
- Why do people engage in homosexual relationships? What is the evolutionary explanation?
- Why do people break-up? Why do we loose attraction to one another?
- Why are we attracted to stimuli of sexual nature? Is there a difference between sexes?
- Why do we have good parenting skills?
- Why do we like certain foods?
- Why do we engage in arts?
- What is the attraction to social media?
- Why do we talk? Why are there so many languages?
- Why do we have religions?
- Why do we work?
- Why do we engage in sports?
- Why do we take risks?
- How do we deal with pandemics and viruses in our environment?
- Where does our morality come from?
- Why do we follow leaders?
- Why do we show violent behavior?
Why?
- Why do people do certain things?
- Can we explain them with existing theories in psychology?
- Could we gain insights by thinking about humans as a biological species, subject to the same
environmental pressures as other animals?
, Evolutionary psychology: Short overview
- Evolutionary psychology is the study of human behavior, affect and cognition from an
evolutionary perspective.
- Using evolutionary theory to understand why the human mind works this way and how it
has been designed.
o What are the functions of the mind and the brain?
- In effect, it means viewing humans as part of the animal kingdom, subject to the same laws
of evolution, natural selection, etc.
o This might seem contentious! (but there is really no alternative to explain human
behavior).
Every species has its own nature.
- The nature of a dog is different than the nature of a cat.
o A dog will immediately eat all the food you give him, even when he is full.
▪ A dog is evolved from wolves that live in packs → There is always
competition for food.
▪ The dog therefore thinks he needs to eat his food as quickly as possible
because he is afraid that another dog will come and eat it even if you have
only one dog.
o A cat will only eat when he is hungry.
▪ A house cat has evolved from wild cats that are solitary hunters.
▪ Cats have a territory and do not allow other cats in their territory.
▪ The house of the cat is his territory so the cat knows that there won’t be
another cat so they can leave their food without worrying that another cat
will eat it.
History of evolution
- Greek philosophers (600-400 BC) → Humans were acting the way we do because some kind
of air was floating through us that guide us.
- Aristoteles (300 BC).
- Medieval Christianity (16th century) → Humans are made by a god.
o Hierarchy → Humans are on top of all the animals with higher intelligence.
- Lamarck (18th century) → Humans and animals share certain things.
- Darwin (19th century) → Evolution theory.
- Mendel (19th century) → Came up with the mechanism of genes.
- DNA discovery and the Modern Synthesis in Biology (20th century):
o 1. function (evolution) and 2. mechanism (gene).
Evolution pre-Darwin → Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829).
- 1. The inheritance of acquired characteristics.
- 2. Use and disuse of traits (e.g., muscles).
- Example:
o The original short-necked ancestor of a giraffe keeps
stretching its neck to reach leaves higher up on a
tree during his development so he can reach the
leaves when he is an adult.
o This training of the neck and learning will be passed
on to the next generation which eventually leads to
,Index
Lecture 1 – Foundations of evolutionary psychology............................................................................ 5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5
What is evolution (via natural selection)? ..................................................................................... 8
Sexual selection .............................................................................................................................. 9
Lecture 2 – Adaptations for survival .................................................................................................... 15
What is evolutionary psychology? ............................................................................................... 15
What are psychological adaptations? .......................................................................................... 15
How to generate (and test) an evolutionary hypothesis?........................................................... 17
Adaptations for survival: Getting food ........................................................................................ 18
Adaptations for survival: Fear and disgust emotions .................................................................. 19
Lecture 3 – Men’s and Women’s long term mating strategies ........................................................... 21
Parental investment theory ......................................................................................................... 21
Evidence for parental investment theory .................................................................................... 22
Adaptive problems in long-term mating (more so for women) .................................................. 23
Adaptive problems in long-term mating (likely more so for men) ............................................. 28
Darwinian puzzle of homosexuality ............................................................................................. 30
Lecture 4 – Short-term sexual strategies ............................................................................................. 32
Short-term mating ........................................................................................................................ 32
Adaptative challenges for short-term mating for men ............................................................... 34
Costs for short-term mating ......................................................................................................... 36
Potential adaptive benefits of short-term mating strategy for women ..................................... 36
Lecture 5 – Challenges of parenting and problems of kinship ............................................................ 41
Differences in parental care ......................................................................................................... 42
I. Estimating genetic relatedness of offspring ............................................................................. 43
Tests of the paternity uncertainty hypothesis: Genetic Relatedness of Offspring. ................... 44
II. Ability of offspring to convert parental care into fitness ........................................................ 46
III. Discriminating investments between the children ................................................................ 46
Theory of parent-offspring conflict .............................................................................................. 47
IV. Investing resources in alternatives for own children ............................................................. 49
Lecture 6 – Problems of group living: Cooperation ............................................................................. 50
Altruism ......................................................................................................................................... 50
I. Altruism as byproduct or mistake ............................................................................................. 52
II. Kin altruism ............................................................................................................................... 52
III. Reciprocal altruism .................................................................................................................. 56
IV. Altruism via indirect reciprocity ............................................................................................. 59
, V. Altruism as peacock’s tail ......................................................................................................... 60
IV. Group selection and altruism .................................................................................................. 61
Lecture 7 – Problems of group living: Aggression, war and conflict between sexes ......................... 63
Aggression ..................................................................................................................................... 63
Adaptive benefits of aggression ................................................................................................... 64
Anger ............................................................................................................................................. 68
Warfare ......................................................................................................................................... 69
The male warrior hypothesis........................................................................................................ 70
Lecture 8 – Conflict between the sexes ............................................................................................... 73
Sexual conflict ............................................................................................................................... 73
Strategic interference theory ....................................................................................................... 73
1. Conflict about the occurrence of timing of sex........................................................................ 74
2. Conflict over sexual access ....................................................................................................... 74
Error management theory ............................................................................................................ 75
Sexual aggression and evolved defenses against sexual aggression .......................................... 76
Do men have psychological adaptations for sexual aggression? ................................................ 77
Do women have psychological adaptations to prevent sexual harassment? ............................ 78
Mate guarding............................................................................................................................... 78
Lecture 9 – Status, dominance & leadership ....................................................................................... 80
Dominance hierarchies ................................................................................................................. 81
Evolutionary theories of status .................................................................................................... 82
Psychological adaptations for status acquisition ........................................................................ 83
Sex differences .............................................................................................................................. 84
Subordinate strategies ................................................................................................................. 85
Status cues .................................................................................................................................... 86
Cues of submissiveness ................................................................................................................ 87
Emotions as status-adaptations ................................................................................................... 88
Leadership ..................................................................................................................................... 88
Adaptive problems in following a leader ..................................................................................... 89
Lecture 10 – Towards an integrated, unified psychology ................................................................... 92
Lessons from evolutionary psychology ........................................................................................ 92
Mainstream cognitive psychology ............................................................................................... 94
Evolutionary social psychology .................................................................................................... 96
Evolutionary theories of language ............................................................................................... 97
Evolutionary developmental psychology ..................................................................................... 98
Evolutionary personality psychology ........................................................................................... 99
, Evolutionary organizational psychology .................................................................................... 100
Evolutionary clinical psychology ................................................................................................ 101
Evolutionary cultural psychology ............................................................................................... 102
Evolutionary psychology of religion ........................................................................................... 103
Lecture 11 – Practice exam, Q&A about exam, assignments. ........................................................... 104
Other practice exam questions .......................................................................................................... 111
,Lecture 1 – Foundations of evolutionary psychology
Introduction
Picture of a skull and what it can say about the life back then.
- The skull was found in Northern of Spain in a cave complex.
- There were skeletons and skulls found of 28 individuals.
- The skull is 430 thousands years old → Skull of a Neanderthal.
- The skull is from an adult male.
- Based on the teeth you can predict what kind of diet the individual use.
- What was the social nature of these individuals?
o There is a hole in the skull and dents → Looking and these injuries scientists
predicted that the individual was beaten up by another individual that was
righthanded with an instrument → First evidence of human violence.
o You can also see some healing of the skull → Individual did not die
immediately because of this attack but was probably cared for by others.
Aim of the course → Try to study human behavior by taking a deeper historical perspective.
Why do humans do the things that they do?
- What are the qualities of romantic partners that we go for? Are there any sex differences?
- Why do people engage in homosexual relationships? What is the evolutionary explanation?
- Why do people break-up? Why do we loose attraction to one another?
- Why are we attracted to stimuli of sexual nature? Is there a difference between sexes?
- Why do we have good parenting skills?
- Why do we like certain foods?
- Why do we engage in arts?
- What is the attraction to social media?
- Why do we talk? Why are there so many languages?
- Why do we have religions?
- Why do we work?
- Why do we engage in sports?
- Why do we take risks?
- How do we deal with pandemics and viruses in our environment?
- Where does our morality come from?
- Why do we follow leaders?
- Why do we show violent behavior?
Why?
- Why do people do certain things?
- Can we explain them with existing theories in psychology?
- Could we gain insights by thinking about humans as a biological species, subject to the same
environmental pressures as other animals?
, Evolutionary psychology: Short overview
- Evolutionary psychology is the study of human behavior, affect and cognition from an
evolutionary perspective.
- Using evolutionary theory to understand why the human mind works this way and how it
has been designed.
o What are the functions of the mind and the brain?
- In effect, it means viewing humans as part of the animal kingdom, subject to the same laws
of evolution, natural selection, etc.
o This might seem contentious! (but there is really no alternative to explain human
behavior).
Every species has its own nature.
- The nature of a dog is different than the nature of a cat.
o A dog will immediately eat all the food you give him, even when he is full.
▪ A dog is evolved from wolves that live in packs → There is always
competition for food.
▪ The dog therefore thinks he needs to eat his food as quickly as possible
because he is afraid that another dog will come and eat it even if you have
only one dog.
o A cat will only eat when he is hungry.
▪ A house cat has evolved from wild cats that are solitary hunters.
▪ Cats have a territory and do not allow other cats in their territory.
▪ The house of the cat is his territory so the cat knows that there won’t be
another cat so they can leave their food without worrying that another cat
will eat it.
History of evolution
- Greek philosophers (600-400 BC) → Humans were acting the way we do because some kind
of air was floating through us that guide us.
- Aristoteles (300 BC).
- Medieval Christianity (16th century) → Humans are made by a god.
o Hierarchy → Humans are on top of all the animals with higher intelligence.
- Lamarck (18th century) → Humans and animals share certain things.
- Darwin (19th century) → Evolution theory.
- Mendel (19th century) → Came up with the mechanism of genes.
- DNA discovery and the Modern Synthesis in Biology (20th century):
o 1. function (evolution) and 2. mechanism (gene).
Evolution pre-Darwin → Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829).
- 1. The inheritance of acquired characteristics.
- 2. Use and disuse of traits (e.g., muscles).
- Example:
o The original short-necked ancestor of a giraffe keeps
stretching its neck to reach leaves higher up on a
tree during his development so he can reach the
leaves when he is an adult.
o This training of the neck and learning will be passed
on to the next generation which eventually leads to
