1、Evolution, Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology and Human Uniqueness,MSc Psychological Research Methods PSYC073P Epistemology and Philosophy of Science December 12th 2006,Stephen Walker,Overview,There will inevitably be some overlap with nature/nurture issues (Dec 5th) There is also a a contrast betw

2、een evolutionary or biological psychology and social constructionist or psychosocial approaches (Nov 28th) At least two kinds of reductionism will be illustrated: explaining behaviours as adaptations, and explaining behaviours in terms of neural circuits that control them.,Outline,I will start off b

3、y looking at animal behaviour, where evolution has relevance. “Evolutionary Psychology” is based on the claim that human psychology is strongly determined by human evolution. The evidence for these claims is often extremely weak, but I will look at a few recent examples. I will also look briefly at

4、the evidence concerning the course of human evolution.,Paper Handout,*NB* the paper handout includes only a small fraction of the slides in this presentation: a pdf of most of the slides will be available on the intranet The paper handout includes a list of alternative books on human evolution which

5、 are in BK library on page 6 Any pieces of work mentioned in the presentation should have its citation listed on pages 7 Tomasello et al., 2005),Almost all animal behaviour is genetically pre-programmed (by evolution) to fit an ecological niche (Darwin, 1859; Tinbergen, 1951; Manoli and Baker, 2004)

6、,Human Uniqueness on behavioural grounds,Darwin (1859) The Origin of Species,Chap VII “Instinct”. Not defined, but three main examples The instinct of the female cuckoo to lay small eggs in other birds nests, and the egg-ejection behavior of the newly hatched cuckoo chick;,Slave-making instincts in

7、some species of ant The cell-making instinct of the honeybee The behaviors were seen by Darwin as not necessarily dependent on anatomical characteristics,Darwin on Honey bees,Darwin thought that the honey comb was “absolutely perfect in economising labour and wax” on the grounds of geometry. But it

8、also “can be explained by natural selection having taken advantage of numerous, successive, slight modifications of simpler instincts”. These were based on spheres as in bumble bees, with S. American stingless bees intermediate. NB thousands of solitary bees which do not store honey,Another of Darwi

9、ns examples:cuckoos,Another of Darwins examples:cuckoos,Darwin (1859) page 185 function and form.uk,“. the acutest observer by examining the dead body of the water-ouzel would never have suspected its sub-aquatic habits; yet this anomalous member of the strictly terrestrial th

10、rush family wholly subsists by diving,grasping the stones with its feet and using its wings under water.” Actually has some anatomical adaptations: 3rd eyelid, nostril flaps and oil gland 10 times larger than non-aquatic perching birds. But Voelker (2002) agrees that the thrush is the closest relati

11、ve and suggest that dippers diverged only 4m years bp,Darwin (1859) page 185.uk,And the behavioural adaptation would have come first Thrushes foraging in streams instead of solid ground would then find enlarged oil glands useful,Dipper diet includes aquatic insect larvae,Caddi

12、s fly larvae build themselves cases, in various ways depending on the species. The Darwinian position would be that they inherit the behaviours required for this task. But in fact Stuart and Currie (2002) found that there was little relation between the types of behaviours and the structural end-pro

13、duct across a variety of species. Do species need a genetic blueprint for the end-product?,Evolution connects the human species with the rest of the animal kingdom,Lappin et al., 2006; standard texts,EVOLUTIONARILY CONSERVED MOLECULAR GENETIC MECHANISMS FOR PATTERNING THE EMBRYONIC BRAIN . Reichert,

14、 H., Gould, 1997 “An adaptationist programme has dominated evolutionary thought in England and the United States during the past forty years. It is based on faith in the power of natural selection as an optimizing agent.” We fault the adaptationist programme for its unwillingness to consider alterna

15、tives to adaptive stories.”,spandrels and exaptations are side effects of natural selection,Evolutionary psychology, originally on the fringe of academic psychology., has gained respectability within the last decade. Articles written from an evolutionary psychological perspective are found in the fi

16、elds most prestigious outlets; it has professional societies and journals of its own; college courses and textbooks are devoted to it; and there are academic positions specifically designated for evolutionary psychologists.,Bjorklund, D. F., genetically susceptible individuals who lose too much weig

17、ht may trigger these archaic adaptations. This hypothesis accounts for the occurrence of AN- like syndromes in both humans and animals and is consistent with changes observed in the physiology, cognitions, and behavior of patients with AN.,Guisinger table,Depression,Allen, N. B., and (iii) a reducti

18、on in risky behaviours,Kenrick, D. T., Li, N. P., where others can help , a distinct and specific facial expression of pain from infancy to old age, consistent across stimuli, and recognizable as pain by observers. .there has been skepticism about the presence or extent of pain, judgments of malinge

19、ring, and sometimes the withholding of caregiving and help. an evolutionary account can generate improved assessment of pain and reactions to it.,Darwins “The expression of the emotions in man and animals” (1872),Peleg et al. (2006). Hereditary family signature of facial expression. PNAS 103(43), 15

20、921-15926,Correlated facial expressions in congenitally blind subjects and their seeing relatives, anticipates genes.,Further examples,Rhodes, G. (2006). The evolutionary psychology of facial beauty. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 199-226. face preferences may be adaptations for mate choice becaus

21、e attractive traits signal important aspects of mate quality, such as health Averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphism are good candidates for biologically based standards of beauty,Atran, S., and b) that in any case, although the data showed humans having more white matter than the average prima

22、te, they did not show a difference between humans and great apes.,Brain re-organization: expansion of the frontal lobes,The sherwood 2005,Allman et al 2005,Von Economo neurons (VENs) are a recently evolved cell type which may be involved in the fast intuitive assessment of complex situations. As suc

23、h, they could be part of the circuitry supporting human social networks. We propose that the VENs relay an output of fronto-insular and anterior cingulate cortex to the parts of frontal and temporal cortex associated with theory-of-mind We propose that in autism spectrum disorders the VENs fail to d

24、evelop normally,Allman et al., 2005,Hutsler, 2003 7 autopsies: 50-97 yrs of age. No chimpanzees,Human Brain Asymmetries,Sun, T., Alba et al., 2003) Since modern apes show some evidence of tool use it is likely that the hands became adaptively useful from the very earliest stages of bipedalism.,Chimp

25、anzee tools,The hand and tools: Castiello 2005,Findings from patients with brain damage who have difficulty in grasping objects are difficult to reconcile with neurophysiological findings, .,as the patients lesions are confined to regions that, in monkeys, do not seem to be involved in grasping-rela

26、ted visuomotor transformations -,Napier (1980),Napier infants,Napier, ape hands,Napier, power and precision grips,Napier Screwtop,The hand and tools: conclusion,The consequence of evolution is that humans have domain-general potential for manual skill The hands can be used for anything anatomically

27、possible There is no evidence for completely steretotyped movements, even for the precision grip (Wong and Whishaw, 2004),Wong, Y. J., Tomasello et al., 2005),Almost all animal behaviour is genetically pre-programmed (by evolution) to fit an ecological niche (Darwin, 1859; Tinbergen, 1951; Manoli Ch

28、oi et al. 2005),Human Uniqueness on behavioural grounds,Reading,As last week for nature/nurture Any of the papers quoted. Or a debate initiated by Lickliter, R., & Honeycutt, H. (2003). Developmental dynamics: Toward a biologically plausible evolutionary psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 129(6), 819-835. Or take a brief look at one of the books on human evolution listed in the handout.,Books on Human Evolution (alternatives)on