PSYC 385 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Classical Genetics, Morning Sickness, Directional Selection
22 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC 385 – Midterm studying
Key Concepts
Class 2:
Lamarckian inheritance – “the inheritance of acquired characteristics”; hypothesis
that an organism can pass on characteristics that it has acquired during its lifetime
to its offspring
Blending theory – Basically takes male and female phenotype, add them up, and
divide by two, e.g. height; Darwin’s model of heredity (which was incorrect)
Genotype and phenotype – Genotype is set of genes in our DNA, which is responsible
for a particular trait; Phenotype is he physical expression, or characteristic of that
trait. Phenotype is observable thus includes behavior
Modern synthesis – Neo-Darwinian; emphasizes genetic mutation and selection;
fusion of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian evolution; The physical and behavioral
changes that make natural selection possible at the level of DNA and genes; holds
that natural selection accounts for evolution and denying the inheritance of
acquired characteristics
Sociobiology – E. O. Wilson: the evolution of social behavior and ensuing academic
and public firestorm; explicitly gene-centered approach and viewed organisms as
‘vehicles’ for the reproduction of genes; behavioral traits, like physical traits, can be
genetic adaptations and genes influencing phenotypic traits that result in higher
inclusive fitness for the organism will be selected for and will propagate in future
generations. Using this basic principle (Wilson claims) many human behaviors ex.
male promiscuity, incest avoidance, and hostility to strangers, are genetic
adaptations; some behaviors are at least partly inherited and can be affected by
natural selection
Standard Social Science Model (a.k.a. environmental determinism) – concept of
mind as blank slate; brain is general-purpose computer; culture and socialization
programs behavior; role of biology is relatively unimportant in understanding
behavior; physical environment rather than social conditions, determines culture;
ex. Behaviorism in psychology
Blank slate view of mind – humans are born without rules for processing data, data
is added and rules for processing it are formed by one’s sensory experiences
Naturalistic fallacy – ethology (studying animal behavior in context to see why
adaptive); innate seen deterministically; nature is seen as “right”; going from is to
ought
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The sociobiology debate – in 1970s and 1980s; debate between Wilson and Gould
and Lewontin, they accused Wilson of biological determinism and committing the
naturalistic fallacy because when speaking about gene-environment interaction he
said things like “genes hold cultures on a leash”
Nature-nurture dichotomy – false dichotomy; genes do not operate in isolation from
environmental factors, including culture, and their interaction is the primary
consideration
Adaptation and an adaptation – The process or action of adapting; an adaptation is
an inherited characteristic that increased an organism’s survival and reproduction
in an ancestral environment
Modification through descent/homology – Ex. Darwin’s finches; common ancestor;
parents pass on genes to children
Convergent evolution/analogy – independent evolution of similar features in
species of different lineages; creates analogous structures that have similar form or
function but were not present in the last common ancestor; ex. flight/wings of
insects, birds, and bats all evolved independently but serve the same function
Exaptations (pre-adaptations, spandrels) – a trait, feature, or structure of an
organism that takes on a function when none previously existed or differs from its
original function which had been derived by evolution; Pre-adaptations are selected
for one function but used for a new function (“co-opted adaptations”) ex. Feathers
seem first evolved for thermoregulation but now used in flight also; Spandrels are
now useful, but not the result of past function and are said to be non-adaptive in
origin (architectural constraint) ex. Brain size, language, music, chins
The adaptationist program/adaptationism – characterized by the telling of stories
involving natural selection, which account for the presence and particular forms of
traits by reference to their hypothesized adaptive significance; Darwinian view that
many physical and psychological traits of organisms are evolved adaptations; ex.
adaptation is umbilical cord, byproduct is bellybutton, random variation is concave
or convex shape of bellybutton
Common criticisms of evolution – General misgivings (Evolution is “just a theory”,
not in a scientific sense it isn’t); There are gaps in the record (Maybe, but patterns of
homology in existing organisms are strong enough evidence); Evolution works
simply by chance (Not quite, the point is more the NON-RANDOM persistence of
well-adapted phenotypes); It is not relevant to the present (No, obvious
evolutionary influences affect us today, ex. morning sickness)
Jonason and Dane’s (2014) four biases – Religious bias; Human exceptionalism bias,
i.e., rejection of evolutionary principles for human behavior; Environmental
determinism bias, i.e., belief in Standard Social Science Model (a blank slate);
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Genetic determinism bias, i.e., belief that evolutionary psychology thinks genes
alone determine behavior
Main findings of Perry and Mace (2010) – Studying social sciences (not psychology)
and religious studies and sociocultural and anthropology are negative predictors for
acceptance of relevance of evolution to human behavior; studying biosciences,
psychology, and biological anthropology have strongest positive relationships with
acceptance of the relevance of evolution to human behavior
Class 3:
Ultimate vs. proximate cause – Why a phenotype was naturally selected, or “why it
exists”; what is immediately responsible for a phenotype, or “how it works”
Tinbergen’s four questions – (Ultimate explanation, “why”) Why is something an
adaptation (function) and why did something evolve (phylogeny); (Proximate
causation, “how”) How something is caused (mechanism) and how did something
develop (ontogeny); Ex. behavior of crying human infant… Function: to elicit care
and protection from mother; Phylogeny: crying in all relevant nonhuman primates
in response o being put down; Mechanism: internal (limbic system) or external
(separation from mother, lock of food, cold); Ontogeny: peaks 6 wks, declines until 4
mos, stable until 12 mos, etc.; supported cross-culturally
Broad vs. narrow evolutionary psychology – In broad sense, any attempt to adopt an
evolutionary perspective to understand human behavior by supplementing
psychology with central tenets of evolutionary biology (evolutionary psychology;
any evolutionary approach to human behavior); In narrow sense, regards human
mind as integrated collection of cognitive mechanisms, which are adaptations, that
guide our behavior and form our universal human nature (Evolutionary Psychology;
domain specific cognitive adaptations)
Gottlieb’s probabilistic epigenesist model –
Bidirectional influences between environment, behavior, neural activity, and genetic
activity
Evolutionary mismatch hypothesis – mismatch between presumed ancestral
condition and the modern one; in evolutionarily novel contexts, key aspects of
psychological mechanisms may no longer be linked to the environment in the same
way; some other potential mismatches include: visual stimuli hypothesis (myopia as
a consequence of too much screen time), post partum depression (due to mismatch
with ancestral condition or could be an adaptation for attenuating maternal
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
