Summary book evolutionary psychology
Foundations of evolutionary psychology
Chapter 1: the scientific movements leading to evolutionary psychology (lecture 1)
3 essential ingredients of natural selection = changes over time due to the differential
reproductive success of inherited variants
Charles Darwin: it was the first theory that contribute the evolutionary biology
1. variation
2. inheritance (=overerving)
3. differential reproductive success
causal process which changes, new species, true with scheme
Sexual selection mating = paring success
- intra in same sexes some fight or winning
- inter qualities in individuals are more likely to the other sexes
Particulate inheritance genes (modern synthesis), this provided the missing ingredient to
Darwin’s theory of natural selection genes cannot be acquired by experience Mendel
Hamilton also inclusive fitness = gene’s eye view of selection
Inclusive fitness = inclusive fitness can be viewed as the sum of an individual’s own
reproductive success (classical fitness) plus the effects the individual’s actions have on the
reproductive success of his or her genetic relatives.
Robert new theories: reciprocal altruism (wederkerig), parental investment, and parent–
offspring conflict.
Sociobiology = evolutionary of social behavior explain social behavior
3 common misunderstandings about evolutionary theory
- human behavior is genetically determined (=vaststellen)
- if it’s evolutionary, we cannot change it
- current mechanisms are optimally designed
Identify when Neanderthals (=voorhistorische mensen) went extinct (=uitgestorven)
30 kya. Humans comes from mammals (zoogdier)
Freud – Psychoanalytic theory =
Why does radical behaviorism (= the idea that a few highly general principles of learning
could account for the complexity of human behavior, the power to learn, environment) went
into scientific decline (=verval)?
First, rats, monkeys, and even humans seemed predisposed to learn some things very easily
and to not learn other things at all. Second, the external environment is not the sole
determinant of behavior. Something goes on inside the minds and brains of organisms that
must be taken into account when explaining behaviors.
,The cognitive revolution was based on information processing— descriptions of mechanisms
inside the head that take in specific forms of information as input, transform that information
through decision rules, and generate behavior as output.
Chapter 2: the new science of evolutionary psychology
Adaptive function, 3 theories:
1. Creationism = intelligent design matter of religion and belief, the supreme being is
created
2. Seeding theory = life did not originate on earth
3. Evolution by natural selection the only scientific theory
3 key products of evolution:
1. Process adaptations adaptation because to survive, bijv. Navelstreng
2. By products no functional design (buikknop)
3. Random effects (noise) change effects, bijv in environment or accidents
adaptation = an inherited and reliably developing characteristic that came into existence
through natural selection because it helped to solve a problem of survival or reproduction
during the period of its evolution Adaptions are species typical
Levels of Evolutionary Analysis in Evolutionary Psychology:
- general evolutionary theory natural selection, gene replication, adaption
, Two Strategies of Generating and Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses
- theory-driven = top-down hypothesis can be generated, bijvoorbeeld by middle level
theories
- observation-driven = bottom-up starting with an observation
Evolved psychological mechanism = are information-processing devices that exist in the form
they do because they have solved specific problems of survival or reproduction recurrently
over human evolutionary history. The output of an evolved psychological mechanism is
directed toward the solution to a specific adaptive problem.
Hypothesis is created test it
Studies that test evolutionary hypotheses using two or more data sources are better than
studies that rely on a single source, because the data sources can have limitations
Four classes of adaptive problems follow from modern evolutionary theory:
1. problems of survival and growth
2. problems of mating
3. problems of parenting
4. problems of genetic relatives
6 procedures for identifying adaptive problems
- knowledge of human structures
- traditional tribal (stammen) societies
- paleo archeology (oude periode)
- task analysis
- current psychological mechanisms. Such as a fear of heights, a taste for fatty foods
Problems of survival (humans)
Foundations of evolutionary psychology
Chapter 1: the scientific movements leading to evolutionary psychology (lecture 1)
3 essential ingredients of natural selection = changes over time due to the differential
reproductive success of inherited variants
Charles Darwin: it was the first theory that contribute the evolutionary biology
1. variation
2. inheritance (=overerving)
3. differential reproductive success
causal process which changes, new species, true with scheme
Sexual selection mating = paring success
- intra in same sexes some fight or winning
- inter qualities in individuals are more likely to the other sexes
Particulate inheritance genes (modern synthesis), this provided the missing ingredient to
Darwin’s theory of natural selection genes cannot be acquired by experience Mendel
Hamilton also inclusive fitness = gene’s eye view of selection
Inclusive fitness = inclusive fitness can be viewed as the sum of an individual’s own
reproductive success (classical fitness) plus the effects the individual’s actions have on the
reproductive success of his or her genetic relatives.
Robert new theories: reciprocal altruism (wederkerig), parental investment, and parent–
offspring conflict.
Sociobiology = evolutionary of social behavior explain social behavior
3 common misunderstandings about evolutionary theory
- human behavior is genetically determined (=vaststellen)
- if it’s evolutionary, we cannot change it
- current mechanisms are optimally designed
Identify when Neanderthals (=voorhistorische mensen) went extinct (=uitgestorven)
30 kya. Humans comes from mammals (zoogdier)
Freud – Psychoanalytic theory =
Why does radical behaviorism (= the idea that a few highly general principles of learning
could account for the complexity of human behavior, the power to learn, environment) went
into scientific decline (=verval)?
First, rats, monkeys, and even humans seemed predisposed to learn some things very easily
and to not learn other things at all. Second, the external environment is not the sole
determinant of behavior. Something goes on inside the minds and brains of organisms that
must be taken into account when explaining behaviors.
,The cognitive revolution was based on information processing— descriptions of mechanisms
inside the head that take in specific forms of information as input, transform that information
through decision rules, and generate behavior as output.
Chapter 2: the new science of evolutionary psychology
Adaptive function, 3 theories:
1. Creationism = intelligent design matter of religion and belief, the supreme being is
created
2. Seeding theory = life did not originate on earth
3. Evolution by natural selection the only scientific theory
3 key products of evolution:
1. Process adaptations adaptation because to survive, bijv. Navelstreng
2. By products no functional design (buikknop)
3. Random effects (noise) change effects, bijv in environment or accidents
adaptation = an inherited and reliably developing characteristic that came into existence
through natural selection because it helped to solve a problem of survival or reproduction
during the period of its evolution Adaptions are species typical
Levels of Evolutionary Analysis in Evolutionary Psychology:
- general evolutionary theory natural selection, gene replication, adaption
, Two Strategies of Generating and Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses
- theory-driven = top-down hypothesis can be generated, bijvoorbeeld by middle level
theories
- observation-driven = bottom-up starting with an observation
Evolved psychological mechanism = are information-processing devices that exist in the form
they do because they have solved specific problems of survival or reproduction recurrently
over human evolutionary history. The output of an evolved psychological mechanism is
directed toward the solution to a specific adaptive problem.
Hypothesis is created test it
Studies that test evolutionary hypotheses using two or more data sources are better than
studies that rely on a single source, because the data sources can have limitations
Four classes of adaptive problems follow from modern evolutionary theory:
1. problems of survival and growth
2. problems of mating
3. problems of parenting
4. problems of genetic relatives
6 procedures for identifying adaptive problems
- knowledge of human structures
- traditional tribal (stammen) societies
- paleo archeology (oude periode)
- task analysis
- current psychological mechanisms. Such as a fear of heights, a taste for fatty foods
Problems of survival (humans)
