Term
| Darwin & Natural Selection |
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Definition
living forms evolved over time in response to their interactions with environments
Natural selection is the key to evolution: process by which nature selects those characteristics in organisms that promote survival
Selecting for traits/characteristics that give members an advantage
Genes are responsible for the inheritance of these characteristics |
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Term
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Definition
Explains the origins of psychological mechanisms
All psychological processes come from evolution
Behavioral manifestations have to do with reproductive advantage |
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Term
| Parental investment theory |
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Definition
| sex that invests more in offspring, should be far more choosy about potential mates than the sex that invests less in offspring (Trivers 1972). |
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Term
| Resulting Reproductive Issues |
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Definition
Successful intrasexual competition –winning contests between members of one sex
thereby gaining preferential sexual access to members of the opposite sex |
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Term
| Intrasexual Competition: Young Male Syndrome |
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Definition
May have evolutionary roots
Manifest by posturing, risk behavior or violence in response to sexual selection pressure
Elicited by specific situations
Evidence |
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Term
| Resulting Reproductive Issues |
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Definition
Mate selection
females want best available male b/c of her > investment = resources
Males maximize mating opportunities = men fertility, youth, beauty |
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Term
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Definition
Personality is genetically determined
Human behavior is the product of a complex biological organism
Underlying genetics and biology influence processes in personality |
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Term
| Behavioral genetic approach |
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Definition
Studying genetic determinants of individual differences
1. Experimental,
2. Non-experimental (no intervention), human twin and adoption studies |
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