Chapter 2.1 Evolution, Genetics, and Experience PDF

CHAPTER 2.1 EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EXPERIENCE THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO FELL OUT OF BED PHYSIOLOGICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL? The patient felt fine when he woke, until he - The dichotom...

CHAPTER 2.1 EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EXPERIENCE THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO FELL OUT OF BED PHYSIOLOGICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL? The patient felt fine when he woke, until he - The dichotomy rose to prominence in the touched the thing in bed next to him. It was a Western world after the Medieval Ages severed human leg, all hairy and still warm! - Much of the scientific knowledge that At first, the patient was confused. Then, he accumulated during the Renaissance was at figured it out. One of the nurses must have odds with Church dictates. taken it from the autopsy department and put - However, the conflict was resolved by the it in his bed as a joke. Some joke; it was prominent French philosopher René Descarte disgusting. So, he threw the leg out of the - René Descartes argued that physical matter bed, but somehow, he landed on the floor (the brain) could be observed scientifically, with it attached to him. The patient became but that the mind (soul) has no physical agitated and desperate, and Dr. Sacks tried to substance and is thus under the scope of comfort him and help him back into the bed. religion Making one last effort to reduce the patient’s -Cartesian dualism was sanctioned by the confusion, Sacks asked him where his left leg church and and so, the idea that the human was, if the one attached to him wasn’t it. brain and the mind are separate entities Turning pale and looking like he was about to became even more accepted pass out, the patient replied that he had no THE PROBLEM WITH idea where his own leg was it had DICHOTOMIES disappeared. There are two lines of evidence against 2. Some nonhuman species, particularly physiological-or-psychological thinking: primate species, possess abilities that were 1. Complex psychological changes can be once assumed to be purely human, such as produced by damage to, or stimulation of self-awareness. parts of the brain - The Case of the Man Who Fell Out of Bed BIOPSYCH-KML CHAPTER 2.1 INHERITED OR LEARNED? Origin of Species where he described his - For centuries, scholars have debated theory of evolution whether humans and other animals inherit THREE OF DARWIN’S their behavioral capacities or acquire them SUPPORTING EVIDENCE through learning. Commonly referred to as 1. He documented the evolution of fossil the nature-nurture issue records through recent geological layers - The majority of early North American 2. He described striking structural similarities psychologists were committed to the nurture among living species, which suggested that side of the issue they had evolved from common ancestors - John B. Watson, father of behaviorism 3. He pointed to the major changes that had - Coinciding with North American been brought about in domestic plants and experimental psychology was European animals by programs of selective breeding ethology, which focused on instinctive behaviors THE PROBLEM WITH DICHOTOMIES EVOLUTION - It was changed after it was argued that - Evolution occurs through natural selection: behavior always develops under the heritable traits that are associated with high combined control of both nature and nurture rates of survival and reproduction are the - It is better to think of it as genetics and most likely ones to be passed on to future experience interacting rather than a generations dichotomy - Repeated cycles of this process lead to BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT evolution of the species that are better - Ontogeny: Development of individuals adapted to surviving and reproducing in their over their life span particular environmental niche - Phylogeny: Evolutionary development of MECHANISMS OF BEHAVIOR species through the age - Social Dominance: Males of a species often EVOLUTION establish a hierarchy of social dominance, - Modern biology began in 1859 with the sometimes through combat. The dominant publication of Charles Darwin’s On the male usually copulates more than lower- ranked males. BIOPSYCH-KML CHAPTER 2.1 - Courtship Display: The male usually levels in the amino acid phenylalanine can signals to the female to elicit a response, lead to intellectual disability if untreated. though copulation may fail if one of the pair - Was discovered by the Norwegian dentist fails to react appropriately to the signal. Ivar Asbjørn Følling when he noticed that the BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT urine of his mentally retarded children had a - Robert Tryon theorized that behavioral peculiar odor (samples of their urine showed traits can be selectively bred high levels of phenylpyruvic acid. - He experimented with rats by teaching them how to run a maze - He mated the males and females that entered incorrect alleys least frequently (maze- bright) and he mated the males and females that entered incorrect alleys most frequently (maze-dull) - By the 8th generation, the worst of the maze-bright strain made fewer errors than the best of the maze-dull GENETICS OF HUMAN PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES - All human traits are highly heritable  -Being raised in different family environments contributes little to the diversity of behavioral traits. - A Minnesota study of twins had results that showed that even if monozygotic twins were raised in different family environments, they were substantially more like one another than fraternal twins BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT -Phenylketonuria (PKU): Neurological disorder born from a genetic mutation. 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