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Introduction Psychology 3106. Introduction Why study psychology from an evolutionary perspective? Well, umm we are animals after all Darwin talked about.

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Presentation on theme: "Introduction Psychology 3106. Introduction Why study psychology from an evolutionary perspective? Well, umm we are animals after all Darwin talked about."— Presentation transcript:

1 Introduction Psychology 3106

2 Introduction Why study psychology from an evolutionary perspective? Well, umm we are animals after all Darwin talked about evolutionary psychology William James talked about evolutionary psychology

3 Evolution and Social Science Most psychologists adhere to the ‘Standard Social Science Model’ This of course affects research, theories, hypotheses etc. It is almost completely at odds with Evolutionary Theory, and dare I say, with reality….

4 SSSM - Assumptions 1) The Blank Slate Most of us can see this is silly, but, the SSSM seems to accept it 2) Biology is Irrelevant If experience is all that matters, biology really has no effect now does it 3) There are only a few learning mechanisms

5 Why the SSSM is wrong… Development NEEDS biology So, when you hear say language, you learn language, as a kid. No matter how many hockey stats I flash at you, you will not become a hockey stats expert by the age of 4. Why?

6 Another example or two… Why can’t my parents’ dog learn to speak English? BECAUSE SHE IS A DOG Why can’t you remember where you cached 30 000 seeds six months ago? BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT A CLARK’S NUTCRACKER There is such a thing as human nature

7 Nature vs. Nurture The SSSM divides nature and nurture, this is silly as you cannot have one without the other The interaction principal Genes do not just set some sort of limit. They interact with the environment So, say learning, needs a mechanism and so forth to allow experience to change behaviour

8 The SSSM and the natural sciences We cannot study behaviour in a vacuum We cannot ignore biology Exempting the behaviour of organisms from the principles of biology is like exempting the behaviour of atoms from the principles of physics We cannot ignore evolution of sociality in other species and us

9 Why study animal behaviour Tells us a lot about ourselves (as I hopefully have explained in the last few slides) Could be usefully applied You know, like conservation, or invasive species Cuz it is cool

10 Why? This butterfly is brightly coloured and ornamented It is also quite poisonous Why?

11 Tinbergen’s Four Whys Causal or Proximate mechanisms Genetics development Functional or Ultimate mechanisms The function, what it accomplishes The evultion of the behaviour

12 Why are the four whys important? To truly understand behaviour (or any characteristic) we must have all the explanations Please don’t mix up cause and funtion

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