chapter 12

• A species can produce more offspring than the environment can hold leading to a struggle for survival
• 1. Natural Selection
• 2.Random Mutation

• survival of the fittest
• traits that promote the survival of species are passed on to future generations
• best able to survive

random combination of genes often leads to detremental mutation

• 1. members of a species with adpatations thta lead to a mating advantage will reproduce more.
• 2. characteristics preferred by members of the opposite sex will be passed on to future generations

• do not need to directly reproduce to pass on genes
• by helping a sibling you may indirectly pass on your genes

• Our primary goal in life is to perpetutae copies of our genes to the next generation
• the need for our genes drives our behavior

• behaviors are adpative because they solve problems not because they perpetuate genes
• takes many generations to determine whether a behavior has contributed to evolutionary fitness
• a given behavior cannot be adpative for all environments
• ignore psychological mechanisms

all selection process occurs in the brain

• socail scientists focus on culture determining social behavior
• tabula rosa
• minds are a blank slate and personality development is based on experience

• assume a predisposition to act in some ways and to avoid acting in others
• nature vs. nurture

an evolutionary selected neural system that has been developed to solve a specific problem

• females of a species are more biologically valuable than males in terms of reproduction
• they have to invest more and their reproductive system is limited

what we do and what we do to make ourselves desirable depends on whether we are looking for long term or short term mate

• women prefer men who have...
• resources
• slightly older
• strong and possess a tall athletic build
• display affection toward children

• men prefer women who...
• 18.5 years of age
• attractive with proper waist to hip ratio
• show signs of fidelity

• Females attracting males
• Self promotion
• Makeup and cosmetic surgery for a youthful
• appearance
• play hard to get
• Competitor derogation
• Point our competitor’s flaws and smear their
• reputation.

• a.
• Females attracting males

• i.
• Self promotion

• 1.
• Makeup and cosmetic surgery for a youthful
• appearance

• 2.
• Play hard to get

• ii.
• Competitor derogation

• 1.
• Point our competitor’s flaws and smear their
• reputation.

• a.
• Women prefer men who

• i.
• Are physically attractive

• ii.
• Are physically attractive to other women

• b.
• Men prefer women who

• i.
• Consent to have sex after a short period of time

• ii.
• Lack aversive characteristics such as low sex
• dive, physical unattractiveness, need for commitment, and hairiness.

• i.
• Self promotion

• 1.
• Wear revealing and sexy clothing

• 2.
• Make sexual advances

• ii.
• Competitor derogation

• 1.
• Identify competitors as teases, infected with
• STD, gay or bisexual, frigid, or rarely showering

• i.
• Self promotion

• 1.
• Brag about income, career, and athleticism

• 2.
• Make an immediate showing of wealth

• ii.
• Competitor derogation

• 1.
• Identify competitor as gay or bisexual, infected
• with an STD or in a committed relationship.

• a.
• Love helps to bind couples to one another
• through sickness and health, for richer or poorer.

• b.
• Jealousy is an evolutionary adaptation that
• protects long term relationships.

• c.
• Jealousy like love is adaptive

• a.
• Analyzes…

• b.
• 2 by 2

• i.
• Either a signal that has occurred or no signal

• a.
• Examines how error costs affect performance on
• discrimination tasks

• b.
• Men are more jealous and intolerant of sexual
• infidelity

• c.
• Women are more jealous and intolerant of
• emotional infidelity

• Offering
• to help genetically related individuals

• i.
• rB>C

• 1.
• B= benefit

• 2.
• C= cost incurred by actor

• 3.
• r= proportion of genes shared by actor and
• recipient

• ii.
• Benefit of what you are doing for the recipient
• must be greater than the cost to you.

• iii.
• We most likely act

• 1.
• For ourselves

• 2.
• Our children and immediate family

• a.
• Example: nepotism- preferential treatment of
• blood relatives

• 3.
• More distant relatives

• 4.
• Non-relatives

fear or distrust of strangers

• 1.
• Willingness to help unrelated people

• a.
• Enhancing everyone’s ability to survive

• 1.
• Consuming more than one’s chare of benefits
• and/or paying less than one’s chare of costs.

occurs because evolved mechanisms fail to activate appropriately

activation of an evolved mechanism by stimuli or situation other than those for which it is evolved

• cost-benefit analysis
• --> extended family, elderly not contributing much, won't be reproducing, those who are sick...

• psychological systems are designed for the production and regulation of violence
• provoked by threats to one's resources or ones sexual repoduction adaptive behavior
• males are more violent than females due to sexual selection and the propenstiy for risk taking

• spouses at greater risk of violoence than genetically related individuals
• children are more likely to be killed by a step-parent

• alcohol-gateway drug
• encountered this in nature in very ripe fruit with more nutritional value
• we are made to like sweet things overly ripe fruit will ferment to produce alcohol

• adpative in some contexts (ex. may not be able to find food)
• more anorexic women
• -below weight
• - menstrual cycle changes
• -bad for reproduction

Phobias represent ancient threats to our species ancestors

more likely to develop fear tp certain objects than other mor edangerous things

repeated exposure to CS imapirs ability to enter into subsequent associative learnign

presentation of CS in the absence of UCS

• not falsifiable
• engages in adaptationism
• legitimizes status quo
• accepts a rigid biological determinism

a chacacteristic that may have evolved for a specific reason int he past but is used in totally different ways in the present.

• theoretical framework for a constuct
• emprical framework for how the consruct is measured
• empirical relationships amoing and between 2 frameworks