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Lect. 5. Psyc. 307
Essential concepts
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Evolved psychological mechanisms (EPMs) | components of the mind that facilitate the production of behavior that helped solve an adaptive problem |
| evolution is the only known process | to shape the nature of biological organisms |
| evolutionary psychologists | study the psychological parts of human nature |
| adaptations | effectively and economically solved a challenge that ultimately impacts DRS, are inherited through genes, are reliably expressed |
| adaptations are reliably expressed | evident only in specific contexts, developmental periods, vary across individuals |
| adaptations develop over a time period (environment of evolutionary adaptedness) | in response to particular selective pressures |
| by-products | spandrels |
| spandrels | accompany adaptations, but don't solve survival or reproduction problems |
| noise | random effects |
| EPMs | relate specifically to EEA problem, mental processing modules, specific, inputs via decision rules |
| EPMs generate outputs | physiological events, inputs to other EPMs, behavior |
| EPM outputs | must on average have produced better outcomes than alternatives (DRS) (“effective”) |
| EPMs form relates to the context of human evolutionary history | and not necessarily of today, provide a non-arbitrary means for parceling the mind |
| just because an EPM can be used for a range of problems (IQ, working memory) | doesn’t mean it wasn’t designed to solve a particular problem |
| In most cases EPMs require environmental inputs to develop | callouses, male sexual anatomy, language |
| all species have | a nature (eating, mating behavior)=EPMs |
| psychological disorders maybe result of | interaction with non-EEA |
| all psychological traits have | meaningful genetic contribution |
| traits reliably expressed | but can vary to some degree across individuals due to environmental interacations |
| human nature | adaptations over time to particular selective pressures |
| EPMs are processing modules | of the mind |
| EPMs determine human nature | rationale for dividing up the mind |
| EPMs problem specific or | domain general (working memory, IQ, classical conditioning) |
| support for problem specific EPMs | food conditioning best with smell, but fear conditioning with sight |
| learning vs EPMs | false dichotomy: interaction ex. language needs input |
| convergent validity | the degree to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should be related, are in fact related |
| comparative assessments | compare similar species wrt a given trait (ex. sleep patterns) |
| types of evidence | archaeological, historical, comparative, cross-cultural, naturalistic observation, surveys, human products, physiological, nervous system and genetic, experiments |
| archaeological evidence | artifacts present clues to nature of EEA (tools, cave drawings) |
| survey evidence | self-report (easy, but biased), other report (biased), question form |
| cross cultural evidence | reliably expressed across cultures, explain anomalies |
| naturalistic observation | only allowed in public places |
| human products | incite into human thought (teams, fast food, internet) |
| genetic evidence | how alleles show up in particular nervous system |
| experiments | can't compare humans with and without selective pressure |
| guidance from evolutionary theory | top-down process (survival, mating, raising offspring, kin interaction) |
| mama bear syndrome | one's inner beast releases itself on its prey to show dominance, stemming from protection instinct. |
| traditional societies | resemble EEA |
| general psychology evidence | bottom up process (Why do humans have descent illusion?) |