Evolutionary Psychology

• Behavioral.Genetics, is the science of how genes and environments work together to influence behavior.
• Adoption.Study confirms basic expectations about the influence of genetics and environment on behavior
• Monozygotic twin refers to identical twins (clones) and from a single zygote and have the same DNA.
• Dizygotic.twin refers to fraternal twin (siblings born at the same time) and from two zygotes and share 50% of their DNA.
• Quanttitative.Genetics, the scientific discipline in which similarities among individuals are analyzed based on how biologically related they are
• How did we learn of these behaviors?

  • Biologically Programmed

  1. Behaviors are the result of the powerful influence of revolution
  2. Important elements of evolution as they impact psychology
• Basics of Evolutionary Theory

  • Natural Selection
  • Adaptation
• Natural Selection, is the process by which certain traits become more or less common in a population due to their impact on reproductive success.
• Adaptation, is the result of natural selection. It’s the process by which organisms develop traits that enhance their ability to survive and reproduce in a specific environment.
• Sexual.Selection.Theory, traits and behaviors in organisms that cannot be accounted for by survival selection alone
• Intrasexual.Competition, members of one sex compete against each other and the winner gains the opportunity to mate with a member of the opposite sex. This type of competition often involves physical contests or displays strength and skill.
• Intersexual.Selection, preferential mate choice occurs when members of one sex choose mates based on certain desirable qualities. These qualities might include physical attractiveness, signs of good health or intelligence.
• • Genes play a fundamental role in guiding how an organism is built and behaves
• Two primary ways that genes can increase their likelihood of replicating:

  • Individual Reproductive Success
  • Inclusive Fitness
• Individual.Reproductive.Success, also known as fitness focuses on how well an organism can survive and reproduce.
• Inclusive.Fitness, refers to the influence genes have on promoting the survival and reproduction of genetic relatives.
• EvolutionaryPsychology aims the lens of modern evolutionary theory on the working of the human mind
• Psychological adaptation - is the primary focus of evolutionary psychology. This involves the mechanisms that evolved to solve specific problems of survival or reproduction.
• Two major theories of evolutionary psychology

  • Sexual Strategies Theory
  • Error Management Theory
• Physiological.adaptation, occur in the body as the consequence of one’s environment
• • Individualist.culture - heavily determined by the individual accomplishments
• Collectivist.culture - heavily determined by contributions to the group and by the group’s success
• Sexual Strategies Theory, describes the psychology of human mating strategies and the ways in which women and men differ in those strategies
• Short-term Mating, casual, low commitment sexual relationships with many partners that do not last a long time
• Long-term Mating, serious committed sexual relationships with relatively few partners.
• Error.Management Theory, describes the evolution of biases in the way we think about everything
• 1. EMT predicts that whenever uncertain situations present us with a safer versus more dangerous decision we will psychologically adapt to prefer choices that minimize the cost of errors
• • Visual.Descent.Illusion - people will overestimate the distance when looking down from a height  so that people will be especially wary of falling from great height which would result in injury or death
• Auditory.Looming.Bias - people overestimate how close objects are when the sound is moving toward them compared to when it is moving away from them
• Sexual.Overperception.Bias - one of the best documented phenomena. EMT predicts that men have a sexual overperception bias: they often misread sexual interest from a woman, when really it’s just a friendly smile or touch