PSYCO104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Morning Sickness, Teratology, Biproduct

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCO104
• Professor: Geoff Hollis

Document Summary

An individual"s direct reproductive success in passing on genes through the productions of o spring. Classical tness + the e ects of one"s actions on the reproductive success of genetic relatives, weighed by genetic similarity. Adaptations -inherited and reliably developing characteristics that solve some particular problem of survival or reproduction. By-products- characteristics that are carried along with adaptations, but do not solve an adaptive problem. Noise- e ects produced by random events such as mutations, rapid changes in environment, chance e ects during development, etc . Sometimes behaviors will appear to address current or historic problems of survival or reproduction, just like a physiological adaptation might. Current generations are shaped by the selective pressures acting over previous generations. When selective pressures are wildly changing, this may result in pervasive behaviour that does not appear adaptive. Disgust is an expression that is well-suited for expunging food from our mouth, and additionally will partially block the nasal cavity.