• AS FIXED ACTION PATTERNS IN A VARIETY OF SPECIES
• Tinbergen (1974); he crated the card board dummy birds and varied the color of the sspot on the bill.
• ex)instinctual processes in birds was an alarm reaction to a predator flying overhead. The same bird of prey silhouette could produce a different reaction depedning on its direction, suggesting some complexity in reaction.

1. causation
2. development
3. evolution
4. function

1. The evolutionary perspective helps us understand _______________________________.

2. Until the nineteenth century, philosophers and scientists generally viewed world and life on it as ____________.

3. According to the author, the history of psychology can be conceptualized as an intellectual struggle between those who stress nature and those who stress nurture as more important in psychology.

4. Unlike modern evolutionary psychology, Darwin’s theory of natural selection did not emphasize _____________.

5. Data from around the world on sex differences indicate that when a murder is committed it is________________.

MORE LIKELY TO BE COMMITTED BY A MAN THAN A WOMAN

6. Considering psychology from an evolutionary perspective helps us to understand the tight coupling between_________________.

7. Ethology is the study of ______________________.

8. Describe features of imprinting.

Imprinting ought to be understood as a built-in characteristic of young birds, 18-36 hours old, tofollow the first moving object in front of them. A bird’s innate schema or innate template characteristic is understood as an innate brain pattern, or template with in the young birds behavior. The young birds tend to follow their mothers, or females of the same species, through the use of a social releaser recognizing the female’s mannerisms.  There is a limited time period, known as the critical period or sensitive period, that the young bird must imprint.  If the young bird does not imprint onto another creature, or object then it has been observed that the bird shows terror.  Birds, such as geese, can imprint onto other species other than their own, such as humans.

9.  What is the significance of imprinting and later sexual attraction in many bird species?

10. Describe a fixed action pattern?

A fixed action pattern is an action pattern released by a stimulus that always uses the same physiological mechanisms to achieve the same sequence of actions. It requires no learning it is characteristic of a species cannot be learned and once released it will continue in the absence of the triggering stimulus.

11. From an ethological perspective, Tinbergen (1963) suggested that there were four “ways” to be considered when studying behavior. Describe each.

causation- what are the physiological mechanisms that are activated by environmental cues that cause this behavior?

development-how did this behavior develop in the individual?

evolution-how was the behavior evolved?

function-what is the function or survival value of the behavior?

12. According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt, human ethology involves more than just extending animal processes to humans; it also has to take into account CULTURAL BEHAVIOR OF PATTERNS Why?

Eibl-Eibesfeldt could base this behavior on the way humans design uniforms and play organized sports, as well as practice culture.  Speech also plays a crucial role.  This criterion contributes to survival and fitness. 

13. According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt, adaptations reflect features of the ____________ relevant to survival.

15. One of Fisher’s important mathematical demonstrations was that natural selection progresses through

16. Dobzhansky explained the origin of species in terms of isolating mechanisms, which are factors that cause__________________.

17. The so-called “modern synthesis” combines the study of EVOLUTION with the study of GENETICS

20. According to Hamilton’s rule, it is the ----------- that benefits from an altruistic act.

 ORGANISM

21. Williams argued that the concept of _____________ was used too loosely and should only be used when no other explanation is plausible.

 ADAPTATION

22. Trivers developed a theory of reciprocal altruism that explains helpful behavior among _________

23. Trivers’ theory of parental investment predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will have evolved to be more _____________.

24. Wilson’s book Sociobiology created a controversy because the 1970s was a time when the social sciences assumed that _______________________. 

25. Bowlby proposed that we need to consider conditions in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness to understand the survival value of _______________.

26. The metaphor for the Standard Social Science Model_________________.

27. Describe Cosmides and Tooby’s five guiding principles of evolutionary psychology.

principle 1: the brain is a physical system. It functions as a computer. It’s circuits are designed to generate behavior that is appropriate to your environmental circumstances

principle 2: our neural circuits were designed by natural selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species evolutionary history

principle 3: consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg. most of what goes on in your mind is hidden from you. As a result, your conscious experience can mislead you into thinking that our circuitry is simpler than it really is. Most problems that you experience as easy to solve are very difficult to solve--they require very complicated neural circuitry.

principle 4: different neural circuits are specialized for solving different adaptive problems

principle 5: our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind.

28. According to Cosmides and Tooby, adaptive problems have been with us throughout our history as a species,

29. When the Wason selection task is framed as a(n) LOGICAL problem, most people answer incorrectly; however, when it is framed as a(n) SOCIAL EXCHANGE problem, most people answer correctly.

30. Describe assumptions of the evolutionary psychology perspective?

There are three assumptions.

 1) Universal human nature results from evolved psychological mechanisms.

2) These evolved psychological mechanisms are adaptations, constructed by natural selection over evolutionary times and

3) Structure of human mind is adapted to the way of life of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers and not necessarily to that of the current era.

31. Humans appear to be different from other ______ in that we walk upright, have little hair on our bodies, and have no natural predators.

 SPECIES

33._____ is the study of animals and what they do; it involves the naturalistic observation of behavior in an organism 19s natural environment.

34. ________ is a built-in pattern in which the newborn of some bird species will follow an object, typically their mother, that moves in front of them during the first day or so after birth.

35. The limited time period during which a behavior can be acquired is referred to as the ________________.

36. ______ is a measure of how much a behavioral pattern contributes to the survival of the offspring.

37.______ reflect features of the environment relevant to survival; for example, the human visual system reflects the transmission of light through air.

39. The question of why individuals would engage in behaviors that benefited others at their own expense is known as _____-

iors, sexual selection and parenting; for example, it explains why human females tend to be choosier about sexual partners than males.

43. The historical environment in which humans experienced difficulties, found food, mated and raised children, and formed and lived with others in social groups is known as the _________________.

44. The model of human behavior that assumes experience plays the major role and views the mind as a blank slate is known as the _________________________.

45. ______have two characteristics: first, they have been with us throughout our history as a species; and second, they have an influence on the reproduction of individual organisms.

40. ________ is a property that can be measured by considering the reproductive success of the individual plus the effects of an individual’s actions on the reproductive success of its relatives.

41. Because humans lived in small groups during the evolutionary past, they developed a tendency to do favors for others with the expectation that they can receive help when needed; this is known as _____________________.

42. The idea of ____________brings together questions related to mating behavior. People generally perform poorly on the logic problem known as the Wason selection task, unless it presented as a __________________.

47. Data from around the world indicate that when a murder is committed, it is ___ times more likely to have been committed by a man than by a woman.

48. Imprinting involves both the characteristic behavior of the mother and the innate brain pattern or the hatchling; Lorenz suggested imprinting worked like a ______.

49. Lorenz and Tinbergen experimented with the egg-rolling movement of the Greylag goose; they found that, once started, it continued even if the egg were no longer there, and they referred to this kind of movement as a ______________.

50. The _____________ combines the study of evolution by natural selection as developed by Darwin with the study of genetics as developed by Mendel.

51. Altruism is a problem for the theory of evolution by natural selection. Why? Explain how Hamilton’s and Trivers’ ideas helped resolve this problem. Can you think of any examples of altruistic behavior that are still left unexplained? 

52. How did Dobzhansky define a species? How did he explain the evolution of new species?

He wrote Genetics and the Origin of Species. Inside was explanation for how species actually came into existence. Mutations crop up naturally all the time. Some mutations are harmful in certain circumstances, but a surprising number have no effect one way or the other. These neutral changes appear in different populations and linger, creating variability that is far greater than anyone had previously imagined. When he studied fruit flies and argues that they might lose ability to interbreed completely.

53. Describe the environment of evolutionary adaptedness for humans. How does it contrast with modern life? Why is it important to consider the EEA when searching for explanations for human behavior? Give an example or two.

The Environment of evolutionary adaptedness refers to the historical environment in which humans experienced difficulties, found food, mated and raised children, and formed and lived with others.  We use the EEA to inform our considerations of our present-day behaviors and experiences, especially in terms of survival value.  

54. Contrast the Standard Social Science Model with the Evolutionary Psychology approach.

These two approaches reflect a much larger debate within psychology. What is it?

The Standard Social Science Model can be briefly described as “the mind is a blank slate.” The SSSM assumes that experience influences our behavior more than anything, and therefore experience demonstrates the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate. While the SSSM is a nurture approach, the evolutionary approach is more nature-nurture. The evolutionary approach argues that a full explanation of a physical or behavioral trait requires both evolutionary explanations, and environmental explanations. This sparks the debate of not nature vs nurture, but nature-nurture vs nurture.  

55. Evolutionary psychologists say there is a universal human nature. What do they mean by this? What assumptions are associated with this approach? What sorts of questions are easier to answer using this approach? 

innate behavioral processes; and adaptation overtime becomes key in the understanding of human behavioral processes.

ex) human infants have a "rooting relfex," in which the infant moves towards a mothers nipple.As well as in human infants and the relation to facial features, including large eyes and foreheads; it serves to relsea mechanisms that bring positive valenced affectionate responses from adults.