Trait Theory: Biological Trait theory categorizes people on the basis of their skin color, ethnicity, gender, and their body built. In this case, Mr Obkuku is a built black male, a mesomorph. Well known stereotype that people with darker skin tend to commit more crimes; especially trafficking narcotics and theft.
Nurture debate is concerned with whether certain behavioral traits are inherited or acquired. The Nature side argues that people are born either good or bad, they are born pre-wired with influence of genetic inheritance. The Nurture side argues that people are good or bad based on experiences. Nature and Nurture are the two main schools of thoughts today, ruling out reasoning that isn’t scientific. Although many experts are beginning to believe that both biological and environmental factors play a role in behavioral traits, the main debates today are over intelligence, homosexuality and 'the psycho
Although there are five approaches mentioned, there are three approaches in Chapter 3 of the Fuentes textbook that can be seen as being the most viable and useful approaches to studying the evolution of human behavior. These three approached include evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology, and dual inheritance. Evolutionary psychology as it suggests applies evolutionary reasoning to psychological phenomena. The goal of this approach, as told by Symons (1992:137), is to uncover the “the psychological mechanisms that underpin human…behavior, and…the selective forces that shaped these mechanisms”. EP embraces several key concepts including modularity, historicity, adaptive specificity, and environmental novelty.
There are multiple subfields when it comes to psychology. The subfields that I will be discussing are biological psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, cultural psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and clinical psychology. Biological psychology, in simple terms, is when you take in account biological characteristics to understand the behavior of animals and people and how they affect one’s mentality. Biological psychology can be researched in many different ways and for many different reasons. Some ways it can be researched is by debilitating or increasing neural function, evaluating the nervous system’s activity, or by using different genetic manipulation/studying methods.
There are existing evidence proposing that sexual selection among humans has been relatively weak. The canine tooth dimorphism that is characteristic of many primates that exhibit extreme male competition for mates is absent in humans. Also, the biparental care and social monogamy that humans display is the same of species that exhibit very little male competition for mates, and the ability of men to monopolize woman while they are fertile is deterred by concealed ovulation. However, the presence of sexually dimorphic ornamentation, weaponry, courtship displays, and intrasexual competition does indicate some level of sexual selection. The body mass of men is about 15-20% greater than that of the female, this is comparable to certain primate species where the males express a modest degree of competition for mates.
Given the broad areas of interest falling under the purview of biological psychology, it will probably come as no surprise that individuals from all sorts of backgrounds are involved in this research, including biologists, medical professionals, physiologists, and chemists. Indeed, Tolman stated, “I believe that everything important in psychology can be investigated in essence through the continued experimental and theoretical analysis of the determiners of rat behavior at a choice-point in a maze.” Behaviorism dominated experimental psychology for several decades, and its influence can still be felt today. Given that any behavior is, at its roots, biological, some areas of psychology take on aspects of a natural science like biology. Reflecting the diversity of the field of psychology itself, members, affiliate members, and associate members span the spectrum from students to doctoral-level psychologists, and come from a variety of places including educational settings, criminal justice, hospitals, the armed forces, and industry.
Throughout the reading in our textbook and other sources, there is much evidence that supports and refutes the newest major theory, Evolutionary Psychology. Two main pieces of supporting evidence would be natural selection and sexual selection. Alongside those, there is also evidence that negates this theory: no universal human behavior and the modern environment may alter our biology. To begin, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) first showed that all current species evolved from other life-forms through “survival of the fittest”, or natural selection (Rathus). Individuals with certain mental or physical characteristics that enable them to survive and reproduce are more likely to pass these certain characteristics on to the next generation (Himmelheber).
One of the most common debates is nature versus nurture; evolutionary psychology leans mostly toward the nature side of this debate. I have a major issue with that, as a psychology major we discuss this debate a hundred times and the end result is always the same; it’s most likely pretty even. There is significantly more to being a person than just how we have biologically evolve to survive; we do know that. Our minds are so incredibly complicated that we can’t possibly try to explain them in purely biological terms like evolutionary psychology and sociobiology do. From these forms of research we can learn so much about humanity, about our history, and about cause for development in humans, but it can’t be our only focus.
Human beings are selfish, selfless, empathetic, and apathetic. Humans are capable of committing the most violent crimes, ignoring desperate pleas, but they’re also capable of helping and saving strangers in life-threatening situations. The motivation and reasons for helping others can be argued from multiple perspectives. Evolutionary psychology posits people help due to kin selection and due to the norm of reciprocity, social exchange theory argues that people help to maximize social rewards and minimize social costs, whereas according the empathy-altruism hypothesis, when people feel empathetic towards another, they will help because of altruistic reasons (Arsonson, Wilson, Fehr, & Akert, 2017). Prosocial behaviour is an important topic because
Evolutionary psychology is based on Darwinism and is used to explain human nature by making an effort to understand what motivates us to behave the way that we do. It implies that everything we do is either consciously or unconsciously motivated by the intent to either prosper, evolve, or to reproduce. Although we would like to believe we are moral beings, evolutionary psychology suggests that we may be driven solely by the instinct to survive. In doing so, our behavior may sometimes be naturally inclined to be of selfish motives. Evolutionary psychology shows that even when unintentional, our decisions are ultimately driven by self-gain and reproductive success, all in an effort to survive and adapt to our forever expanding world and culture.
Psy20150 Essay. Name: Clodagh Finnerty Student Number: 13362386 ‘It has been argued that two events led to the development of the modern discipline of Psychology: the foundation of Wilhelm Wundt’s Institute of Experimental Psychology, and the introduction of a new theory of evolution, described in Darwin’s Origin of Species. Critically assess the impact of these events on Psychology and society.’
The criteria for mate choice can be initially given by humans and will certainly be different from humans’ criteria in sexual selection.
The Evolutionary perspective of Psychology is a theoretical approach to explain human behavior and attempts to explain useful behavioral or psychological traits. Evolutionary Psychologists believe that the human brain has evolved over time to better solve recurring problems, and these adaptations now affect human behaviors. Emotion on its own is an adaption, and how we feel can drastically affect our behaviors, some emotions, anxiety or worry for example, are not only a product of emotional adaptations but evolved to become survival mechanisms like the fight or flight response or developmental attachment. Brain plasticity also comes from human evolution, and gives our brain the ability to change over time. Decision making and problem solving,
Evolutionary Psychologists are making a mistake in supposing that modern human behavior can be explained by our evolutionary history. Although applying the evolutionary theory to the way we as humans act, there are still problems with the evolutionary theory. In this essay, I argue that (i) Humans do not solely act based on instinct like evolutionary history would suggest and (ii)not everyone’s behaviors are for reproductive success. I will start off this essay by explaining what evolutionary psychologists think human motives are ( Giving examples from famous Evolutionary Psychologist Darwin books that he has written about Evolutionary Theory). I will then present the two most cogent arguments against Darwin’s theory.
Chapter 1 (History, Theory, and Research Strategies) – 7/10/2017 This chapter was a fantastic introduction to the different developmental theories and how they have changed with time. It provided a basic understanding of the how development has been studied, and what factors have been identified as playing a role in one’s development. I want to focus on the eight major theories of developmental science. But first, what is developmental science? Developmental science is a multifaceted field of study committed to the understanding of human constancy and changes throughout life.
