PSYC 3P37 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Selective Breeding, Falsifiability, Comparative Anatomy

• School: Brock University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3P37
• Professor: Michael Ashton

Document Summary

Evolutionary psychology (ep): study of psychological mechanisms as products of natural selection. Focus on human behaviors for this course (but ep can apply to any species) Tinbergen"s four questions about behavior: cause: underlying mechanisms, development: change across lifespan, function: role in survival, reproduction, evolution: change across generations. These four kinds of questions (and their answers) are not in conflict with each other. Need all four for full understanding of behavior. We will focus chiefly on (3) & (4), but partly on (1) & (2) Reasons to be cautious in interpreting research findings (non-)replicability of findings (small samples, cherry-picking, etc. ) Traditional (western) view genesis (bible) separate creation of all life forms about 6000 years ago: biblical account was inconsistent (and/or unable to explain) many facts. Deep layers of slow-changing rock suggest that earth is must older than 6000 years. Many fossils showing sequences of animal species (deeper, older rock layers tending to have fewer, less differentiated species)