Prior to 10, 000 years ago, how did most humans live?

Most humans lived in groups, hunted animals, and gathered other food sources

About half of all humans were involved in some type of agriculture

No, we all seem to similar facial expressions as reflecting similar emotions

What are “how” questions called?

What are “why” questions called?

How many muscles does our face have that are immediately related to creating facial expressions?

What is one common way in which evolutionary psychologists ask “why” questions?

To ask what type of advantage a particular behaviour or method of processing gave our ancestors as well as ourselves

What is the adaptive purpose of being able to properly read different facial expressions?

The value of comprehending facial expressions is that it helps one to better survive by not confusing when we need to avoid a situation with when we would want to approach the situation.

Is there a set of complex brain structures for making, recognizing, and discriminating between facial expressions?

Yes – the fusiform area (FFA) located in the temporal lobe

Why do evolutionary psychologists study the types of tasks that humans do well, as well as the physiological and cortical resources devoted to those tasks?

What do good theories help us explain?

They answered this question by looking at the history of the human head louse and the human body louse. It turns out that the body louse only infests clothes. They estimated that humans have been wearing clothes for at least the last 42, 000 to 72, 000 years. This is supported by archaeological findings of clothing fibers from 36, 000 years ago

The challenge is in integrating scientific knowledge drawn from a variety of areas (genetic factors, biological factors, cultural factors, paleontology, neurosciences, etc.

It assumes that there is a scientific similarity in processes across all organisms

The genes involved in humans experiencing red and green are located on a different chromosome than those involved in seeing blue. What does this suggest?

We not only want to create hypotheses in order to understand our data, but we also want to do what?

We also want to consider what type of finding would show that our hypotheses are wrong.

When asking “why” questions in evolutionary psychology, it is critical that we not only consider what evidence supports the hypothesis under study, but also which other type of evidence?

What did Kuhn call the topics we study and the types of questions we ask?

: Charles Darwin’s thought greatly shaped the scientific paradigm of psychology in the latter part of the 19^th century. What caused a paradigm shift in the field of psychology during the 20^th century?

The paradigm influenced by Darwin was replaced by a focus on environmental factors and their influence on learning.

The assumption that human organisms come into the world largely as a blank slate (tabula rasa) – we then learn from experience.

What is the view of the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM)?

That human organisms come into the world largely as a blank slate (tabula rasa) – we then learn from experience. Thus, humans are completely malleable.

What do those who have adopted the SSSM view emphasize?

They emphasize the plasticity of humans and the ability to learn and unlearn almost any human process.

As the 20^th century came to a close, psychology began to integrate what?

Psychology began to integrate some of the conceptual insights of the 19^th century with the empirical focus of the 20^th century. In the 21^st century, we are seeing the beginning of a willingness to reconsider the evolutionary significance of cognitive, emotional, and instinctual processes. This includes a reorientation and willingness to consider their functional significance.

The facts that infants are experts at mimicking adult expressions and that babies without the ability to hear initially make babbling sounds like every other baby suggest what?

That humans come into the world with a variety of programs already built into our system.

A variety of studies have shown us that experience, particularly early in life, helps to determine what?

Rather, a general set of principles that determine the scientific questions we ask and the manner in which we perform our research.

·         How to survive

·         How to reproduce

·         How to organize society

They both based their theories on their travels studying the plants and animals of the world

What is the difference between Darwin and Wallace’s theories?

·         Darwin sought to apply the theory of evolution to all life on earth – he gave us a logically reasoned presentation supported by relevant data and careful observation

·         Wallace saw humans as more difficult to conceptualize within evolutionary terms (consistent with the intellectual thought of his day) – he thought that humans had a special divine association

What was happening in the field of geology around the time that Darwin came out with his theory?

The field of geology (and related fields) were describing long-term changes in the earth’s crust, as well as attempting to understand the nature and location of newly discovered fossils.

What was the intellectual thought of Darwin’s time focused on?

Which aspect of medical school did Darwin especially dislike?

He did not like the fact that they performed gruesome demonstrations of operations on live animals – especially since this was prior to the development of anesthesia

The coasts of South America, in Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, and Peru

At beginning of the voyage, what did Darwin, like others of his time, assume?

By the end of his travels, what new ideas had Darwin adopted?

By suggesting that life on earth is not static. According to Darwin an important aspect of life on earth was change through adaptation to the environment.

During his trip to the coast of South America, Darwin read carefully the work of whom? How did this impact on Darwin?

Sir Charles Lyell – his Principles of Geology. Lyell suggested that the earth’s physical features could be understood in terms of geological and climatic processes that had occurred continuously and uniformly over very long periods of time. Darwin took this idea and applied it to life processes.

What makes his books seminal is the well-organized presentation of data in support of his theory. These data were initially collected on his travels to the Galapagos Islands.

When Darwin first arrived on the Galapagos Islands, what were the two most amazing things Darwin observed?

1.       The number of plants that he found – he estimated that of the 185 species of flowering plants that he found, some 100 existed only on these islands

2.       The discovery that species of birds found on one of the 10 islands were different from those found on the rest of the islands. Particularly intriguing were the differently shaped beaks of finches from the different islands.

Darwin realized that not only is variation a crucial aspect of nature, but that great variation can exist in a relatively small geographical area.

In which year was Darwin’s, The Origin of Species, published?

Darwin read An Essay on the Principles of Population by whom?               

How did Thomas Malthus’ book, An Essay on the Principles of Population, influence Darwin?

Malthus presented the struggle for existence as a principle ruling human populations – especially as they increased in number. Darwin adopted this idea and incorporated it into On the Origin of Species.

According to Darwin, what was the meaning of “origin” as he used it?

“Origin” represented for Darwin one long logical explanation of the way in which natural selection accounts for the diversity of life found on our planet.

How did Darwin know that in each generation there are variations that appear to happen randomly?

He knew this because many of the animal and plant breeders of his time capitalized on this knowledge to breed animals or plants with particular characteristics. He saw this same process happening naturally on the Galapagos Islands.

How many different species of finches are there on the Galapagos Islands?

What is the biological concept of species?

The biological concept of species suggests a group that only breeds among the group and does not seek to breed with other groups.

As a result of a variety of studies having shown massive support for Darwin’s theory of evolution, how is natural selection now seen in the field of biology?

Natural selection is now seen as one of the major unifying factors in biology

Which Pope of the Catholic Church concluded that “new knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis”?

Pope John Paul II, in 1996

What is one animal commonly used to illustrate natural selection? Why?

The peppered moth in England. During the industrial revolution, when the soot made the trees darker – the dark moths thrived. After the introduction of pollution controls, the soot no longer darkened things and the light-coloured moths increased in numbers.

In 1982, a species of finch from one of the other Galapagos Islands began breeding on another of the islands named Daphne Major. A different species of finch already existed on this island. Both species competed for some of the same food. However, the newly arrived species consume twice as much of one of the important seed foods as did the existing species of finch, which resulted in a reduction in food supply. Further, the new species was also able to chase the other species away.

The situation in which a single species develops into multiple species, as in the case of the finches depending on ecological niches

What is the complexity of the evolutionary process?

It extends by including the world of culture and the societies in which we live

Darwin later extended the theory of natural selection to include what?

It is described in his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex

The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex was divided into three parts. Provide a brief description about each of these parts.

·         First part: expanded on the theory of natural selection and more explicitly set out the case for the similarity between humans and other animals

·         Second part: examined sexual selection in relation to animals

·         Third part: examined sexual selection in relation to humans

Secondary sexual characteristics (ex: mammary glands in females and physical size in males)

According to Darwin, sexual selection depends on what?

It depends on the success of certain individuals over others of the same sex. Darwin also saw that besides same-sex competition, there is also competition to attract members of the opposite sex.

How will the entrainment of the menstrual cycle in animals aid the dominant female in having her choice of mate?

Darwin suggested two mechanisms  that influence which physical characteristics are passed on to the next generation – what are these two mechanisms called?

Natural Selection is composed of three steps. What are the three steps?

1.       Natural selection is focused on characteristics that vary in a given species

2.       Natural selection focuses on those characteristics that help an organism survive in the context of its particular environment

3.       An organism that survives can mate and thus pass on those characteristics, whereas organisms that do not survive cannot

Sexual selection takes place on two levels. What are these levels?

1.       Characteristics that make one more attractive to a mate will be passed on to future generations

2.       Within the same sex, characteristics such as strength or cunning that allow one to compete and control reproduction will also have a greater chance of being passed on to future generations because animals without these characteristics will have less opportunity to mate.

The question of natural selection especially as it related to animals

In which works did Darwin extend his thoughts of natural and sexual selection to cognitive and emotional processes?

How did Darwin answer the question, “how might psychological functions have evolved”?

Living in social groups produces an increase in cognitive ability

Apart from how natural and sexual selection extend to the psychological realm, what are some other topics Darwin covered in his notebooks?

Darwin also presented notes on the following:

·         Memory

·         Habit

·         Imagination

·         Language

·         Aesthetic feelings

·         Emotion

·         Motivation

·         Animal intelligence

·         Psychopathology

·         Dreaming

As pointed out by Gruber, Darwin was interested in showing the evolutionary continuum between humans and other animals in which two ways?

1.       Nonhuman animals show rudimentary examples of problem solving and consciousness

2.       Human action is not always fully guided by conscious rational thought

Darwin’s suggestion that nonhuman animals show rudimentary examples of problem solving and consciousness helped to establish research in which field?

Comparative psychology – at the beginning of the 20^th century

Research suggests that humans are not the only species to use tools. Provide some examples of nonhuman animals who use tools.

·         A number of primates use sticks to pull termites from their nests

·         Orangutans use leaves as napkins

How did Darwin substantiate his suggestion that human action is not always fully guided by conscious rational thought?

Darwin noted in his notebooks the manner in which humans make selections and classification outside of awareness. In other words, humans are not always logical or rational in the manner in which they behave or experience the world.

Darwin did two things that greatly advanced intellectual thought – what were they?

1.       He linked all life on earth – including human beings – with other life forms

a.       Suggested the advantage of looking across species for similar process and physiological mechanisms and asking how certain how certain processes in complex life forms may have evolved

b.      The great intellectual advantage to this procedure is that one does not need to suggest different mechanisms of form, physiology, or behaviour for each species

2.       Darwin suggested a close and complex relationship between life on earth and the planet itself (environmental factors shape the evolution of life, and it is impossible to fully understand life without understanding the environment in which life takes place.

In the Descent of Man, does Darwin suggest that humans and other higher mammals have similar mental faculties? What is the implication of this way of thinking?

·         Yes. For Darwin, humans and other animals differed only in degree of functioning

·         The implication of this way of thinking is that all animals are the proper study of a psychological science

Descartes. He stated that animals and humans were qualitatively different.

Darwin encouraged comparative psychology when he gave which British physiologist his notebooks on animal behaviour?

George Romanes focused on the question of animal intelligence and examined the behaviour of a variety of species including ants, spiders, reptiles, fish, birds, elephants, and monkeys, as well as domestic animals. What was the result of his work?

The result of his work was what came to be regarded as the first comparative psychology textbook, Animal Intelligence, published in 1883. The main thesis was that there was a similarity in intellectual reasoning between humans and other species.

He has been criticized for the scientific methods he used.

·         EX: accepted anecdotal stories of animal achievements from others without verification

·         Used anthropomorphic thinking (assumed that animals reasoned as he did)

Which animal did Romanes believe to be the most intelligent?

“Lloyd Morgan Canon” – Morgan suggested that is assessing animal intelligence, one should not ascribe particular actions of an animal to higher mental states if these actions could be explained by lower mental processes.

How did Descartes justify the study of animal behaviour?

The ability to combine which two fields of study gave Galton the resources necessary to study variation and adaptation in relation to human abilities?

How does Galton begin his book, Hereditary Genius (1869)?

“I propose to show in this book that a man’s natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world”

What is the main thesis of, Hereditary Genius (1869)?

The main thesis was that intellectual abilities can be found in families with a frequency that cannot be explained by environment alone

What was Galton’s biggest contribution to psychology? What were his methodological contributions?

·         Main contribution: His suggestion that that not only did genius run in families, but specific abilities were inherited. In doing so, Galton laid the ground work for the future study of individual differences in ability.

·         Methodological contributions:

o   His desire to make the study of ability more quantitative resulted in the development of the correlation coefficient

o   He plotted his correlation data on a scatter plot – drawing the best-fit line through the values, which created what we now call “regression line”

o   Galton collected information on twins as a way of understanding the effect of inheritance and the environment on individual characteristics

He was particularly interested in physical traits such as the relationship between the height of parents and the height of their adult children.

Although the mechanisms of heredity were not well understood in Galton’s time, what was known that is still very much implicated in modern research?

Following Darwin, both James Angell (1909) in the United States and Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1905) in Germany wrote papers on Darwin’s influence on psychology. What did both authors write about?

Both authors not only made links between mental processes and physiological processes, they called attention to the manner in which evolutionary though emphasized developmental processes and fostered studies in the area.

Haeckel, a zoologist, showed the difficulty of differentiating human embryos at various stages of development from those of other animals. From this, which suggestion did he make?

He made the overall suggestion that the development of a human, beginning with conception (ontogeny), could be seen as paralleling the evolutionary history of the species (phylogeny). This became known as the “biogenetic law” – stated as “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”.

Before Sigmund Freud completed medical school, what did he train as?

The nature of the neuron

To whom did Freud credit his interest in?

To an early reading of Darwin

Although Freud incorporated Darwin’s emphasis on ____________ into his work, he emphasized sexual selection over natural selection.

According to Freud, what was the major driving force for human life and interaction?

The sexual instinct

;)

Some evolutionary researchers suggest that Freud misread Darwin – in which ways may he have done this?

·         Parent-offspring relationships – Darwin never suggested these represented sexual rivalry

·         Some have suggested that incorporation of certain behaviours by one generation would result in future generations displaying these behaviours

Freud adopted Darwin’s interest in morals. How did he see these as developing?

Which suggestion of the neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, influenced Freud?

His suggestion that in our brains there are more primitive brain areas underlying more advanced ones. Thus, it is quite possible for the psyche to be in conflict with itself, or at least to have different layers representing different processes.

How did Freud look to understand the nature the more primitive processes described by John Hughlings Jackson?

To understand the nature of these more primitive brain processes, Freud looked to the description of dreams and wish fulfillment

Which one of Freud’s books utilizes the ideas of primitative brain processes and sought to place psychology on a firm scientific basis?

The Project for a Scientific Psychology, by Freud, was based on three separate ideas – what were they?

1.       Reflex processes – ex: according to Freud, humans avoid ideas or feelings that are unpleasant stimuli

2.       Associationism – ideas that are presented together in time will be mentally called forth together – Freud suggested that if, as a child, you are in a fearful situation such as an automobile accident, then riding in a car could make you feel fearful or anxious

3.       The nervous system is capable of retaining and discharging energy – This psychic manipulation of energy allowed for the possibility that higher cortical processes could inhibit the experience of lower ones – this process is called “repression”

·    This energy was initially called “Q” but late came to be known as “libido” or “sexual energy” ;)

What was the term “libido” or “sexual energy” originally called?

“Q”

What is the overall statement of the psychoanalytic perspective regarding evolutionary history?

The overall statement of the psychoanalytic perspective is that our evolutionary history has emphasized survival and sexual activity and built these instincts into our brain. Anxiety is the result of society and culture having inconsistent rules for the expression of sexuality and aggression. This anxiety and our inability to acknowledge these instinctual experiences lead to defense mechanisms and neurosis.

How does The Project for a Scientific Psychology see the brain?

It sees the brain as basically a blank slate upon which experiences become connected with one another, driven by instinctual processes of sexuality and self-preservation.

+

What did Jung do in an attempt to reconstruct a history of the psyche?

The environmental factors that influence instinctual processes

For which academic purpose did Jung spend time in Africa, American Southwest, and other non-European areas?

To determine whether the psychic structure of all humans was similar

How did Jung answer his question, “Do individuals throughout the world have similar dream patterns?”

He answered this question in the affirmative and suggested few differences in the psychic structure of humans throughout the world. He referred to this structure as the “collective unconscious” or, the manner in which all humans are similar.

What does the collective unconscious reflect?

The manner in which the expressive predispositions of current-day humans are the result of evolutionary pressures on our ancestors. This collective unconscious is passed on to generations across time.

How did Jung refer to the universal patterns available to all humans?

He referred to them as archetypes.

The wise of man like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings

;) ;) ;)

James was particularly interested in the functional aspects of psychological processes – asked questions like, “What purposes do they serve”

·         Ultimate causes: reflect the long-term evolutionary history and selective pressures on a particular trait

·         Proximate causes: reflect the conditions of one’s lifetime

Functional approaches are distinguished from structural ones as ways of describing behaviours

What was did the European psychology and William James’ time emphasize? What did it seek to do?

·         It emphasized structure

·         It sought to take a behaviour and decompose it into components (ex: a reaction time measurement to a blue rather than  a red light could be decomposed into the time required to see that the light had been turned on plus the time required to distinguish blue from other colours.

Instinct, according to James, was the “faculty of acting in such a way as to produce certain ends, without foresight of the ends, and without previous education in the performance”

·         How a silk worm “knows” how to make a cocoon

·         How a bird flies south in the winter without previously being taught

How did William James describe the nervous system physiologically?

He described the nervous system as a pre-organized bundle of reactions that are called forth by particularly sensory stimuli.

What was William James’ response to those who suggested humans are different from other animals in terms of a lack of instincts?

James (1983) suggested that “Man has a far greater variety of impulses than any lower animal; and any one of these impulses, taken in itself, is as ‘blind’ as the lowest instinct can be”

James suggested that because humans have a sense of memory and can consider the outcome of their actions we act out responses for the sake of what?

According to James, given that humans have memory, a power of reflection, and the ability to draw inferences, then once instincts combine with experience, the resulting action can be ___________________

In a rather complex process, James suggested that reason itself cannot inhibit instincts. Explain.

Through imagination, cognitions can bring forth an opposite impulse, which can neutralize the original impulse. Environmental impulses may bring forth a range of impulses, which may actually be contradictory to each other, but given that they are originally unstable, they can be modified by other impulses created in reaction to our cognitive processes.

·         Basically – James saw humans as beginning life with a large number of reflexive actions, from sneezing, hiccupping, and startling to moving limbs when touched or stimulated. Later, emotional and sexual impulses as described by Darwin come forth and, with experience, humans begin to modify and even create situations for bringing forth instinctual experiences. In the final analysis, these impulses are used in the service of human purposes and goals.

James saw evolution as extending beyond physiological processes. Explain.

According to James, the environment “adopts or rejects, preserves or destroys, in short selects” the fate of the person with new ideas and, in turn, those ideas that are selected modify the current environment, “just as the advent of a new zoological species changes the faunal and floral equilibrium of the region in which it appears.”

At the end of one of his essays, James presents a very intriguing idea: He suggests that evolution occurs within individuals as much as it occurs where else? What is the implication of this?

·         As much as it occurs between individuals and their environment

·         The implication of this is that our internal physiological processes and our current set of thoughts, feelings, and actions serve as an environment for natural selection in terms of spontaneously arising internal taneously, using Darwin’s principles of variation and the complex relationship between an organism and its environment

How did John Watson approach the theory of evolution?

Watson’s work sent psychology on which course?

It sent psychology on the course of emphasizing environmental explanations for behaviour and rejecting the theoretical value of internal concepts such as instincts. This called into question the value of studying such topics as consciousness and other internal processes.

Watson set the course of only studying observable behaviour with which paper?

His, Psychology as the Behaviourist Views it in 1913

Which was the only one of Darwin’s ideas was Watson in support of?

Watson endorsed Darwin’s thesis that there were no fundamental differences between human behaviour and animal behaviour

According to Watson, what was the proper study of psychology?

The study of behaviour and not the mind

Watson saw the goal of psychology as identifying environmental conditions that direct behaviour

Partly as a reaction against those who sought to infer conscious processes from behaviour in animals, and partly from the failure of introspection in humans as a technique for describing mental processes, Watson created a psychology based on what?

Watson created a psychology based on observable behaviours alone. This position allowed for and supported the development of a strong stimulus-response psychology.

How did Watson view talent, penchants, tendencies, and abilities?

He assumed that they existed and that they were part of the individual, but he believed that they could be overridden by environmental factors.

Though Watson’s experiments with little Albert and the fear response appear in many introductory textbooks, what is typically excluded?

What is left out is the finding that fear conditioning did not always work, was of short duration, or worked better with evolutionally relevant objects, such as animals, but less so with a bag of wool or with person-made objects such as a wooden toy. Also, if the child was able to self-regulate through such procedures as sucking his thumb, then fear conditioning did not work.

B.F. Skinner became the 20^th century’s most vocal proponent of what?

Beginning with his 1938 book, The Behaviour of Organisms

It was to demonstrate that an animal, generally the laboratory rat or pigeon, could be taught to make specific responses if, after the occurrence of the desired response, the animal was given a reward, generally food. This procedure came to be known as operant conditioning. The basic procedure noted that behaviour could be elicited or shaped if reinforcement followed its occurrence. Consequently, if these behaviours ceased to be rewarded, their occurrence would decrease. Thus, the emphasis was on behaviours and the rewards that followed them, as opposed to the environmental stimuli evoking them.

In the highly controversial book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, published in 1971, what did Skinner suggest?

Skinner suggested that such concepts as freedom, will, dignity, and other concepts referring to the mind or internal states have no explanatory value. According to Skinner, one should only be interested in the relationship between behaviour and consequences.

The relationship between behaviour and consequences. *(In this manner, any type of complex behaviour was seen to be the result of learning simple behaviours that were then chained together.

Although Skinner saw both operant and classical conditioning as products of evolution, what did his larger metatheory suggest? What was the larger implication of this?

·         His larger metatheory suggested the individual was shaped by environmental conditions.

·         The larger implication of this was that humans came into the world ready to be influenced by the reinforcement contingencies of the environment to determine their development and actions in the world.

In terms of perception, what did the Gestalt movement demonstrate? Does this support the evolutionary or behaviorist perspective?

·         It demonstrated the variety of visual processes that work in an automatic manner.

·         This finding supports the evolutionary perspective

In terms of facial expressions, what did Paul Ekman (1973) demonstrate? Does this support the evolutionary or behaviorist perspective?

·         Ekman demonstrated that facial expressions and their interpretation appear similar throughout the world, in spite of the culture in which one has grown up

·         This finding supports the evolutionary perspective

What did John Bowlby find when he studied children who had grown up in orphanages during WW2?

Is this finding in opposition of the evolutionary or the behaviorist perspective?

·         He found that these children, although they had their physical needs met, responded differently to interpersonal human contact than did children raised with loving, giving caregivers.

·         This finding is in opposition of the Watson position, as he believed that children did not need emotional responses in infancy.

What did Harry Harlow find in his experimental work on monkeys raised in isolation with artificial mothers?

Even though feeding was associated with the wire mesh mother, the infant monkeys would still run to the cloth mother when they were afraid.

·         This runs counter to the behaviourist position that learning is not related to the evolutionary significance of the stimuli

Provide an example of how some researchers who studied learning in rats were punching holes in the behaviourist paradigm. What was the significance of this study?

·         Garcia, Kimeldorf, and Koelling (1955) demonstrated a type of one-trial learning that can be best understood in terms of its evolutionary significance.

o   In a series of studies, Garcia and colleagues paired a particular food with radiation, which produced sickness in the animals. In this situation, the rats would no longer eat that food. Thus, only a single trial could produce food avoidance.

·         The significant of this study was that it helped psychology ask why certain processes were special and could be learned so quickly, or even why certain processes exist at all.

Except for the period following WW2, with social psychology’s emphasis on group behaviour in terms of team processes, obedience, and persuasion, psychology has largely focused on what?

The evolutionary perspective invites greater consideration of what?