Psychology 1100E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Genetic Variation, Flynn Effect, Heritability

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1100E
• Professor: Irene Cheung

Document Summary

Genes, evolution and behaviour: darwi(cid:374)(cid:859)s first deductio(cid:374): Organisms have an enormous capacity to overproduce. Populations, with few exceptions, remain remarkably stable. In other words, animals will reproduce like mad if they did not face obstacles (environment, predators, disease, food shortage, food chain etc. ) Yet darwin noticed population stayed stable (no more or less) If there is a drought and the vegetation dies, the insects will die. Therefore, the finches that eat insect will eventually die off and those that eat seeds will survive. If you are more attractive, you are more likely to have children. There is a struggle for survival: darwi(cid:374)(cid:859)s seco(cid:374)d deductio(cid:374): I(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals differ i(cid:374) their (cid:272)hara(cid:272)teristi(cid:272)s a(cid:374)d (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:455) of these differe(cid:374)(cid:272)es are herita(cid:271)le . Those individuals who possess adaptive characteristics will reproduce more successfully than those who do(cid:374)(cid:859)t a(cid:374)d will pass o(cid:374) these characteristics to their offspri(cid:374)g: the theory of evolution.