Evolutionary Psychology
[The
things that you are reading for this course cover a lot of material. You’d
be wise to read all of it, carefully. Still, the fact is that some of that
material is especially central to the objectives of this course whereas other
bits aren’t quite as important, and I will be constructing the exams
accordingly. I’m putting together this document to help you identify
the things in the readings that matter most, so that can sensibly prioritize
the amount of time you devote to reading, re-reading, studying, and thinking
about the various different pieces of information presented in these readings.]
[This
list is specific to the readings. As for lecture material: You can
pretty well assume that the more time I spend on something in a lecture, the
more I consider it to matter. The lecture “outlines” that I
post on the class website are also designed to highlight lecture material that
matters most.]
Introduction to the course
Course syllabus
All of it!
Cosmides
& Tooby, 1997 (“Evolutionary psychology: A
primer”)
Three complementary levels of explanation
in evolutionary psychology
Difference between evolutionary
psychology and the “standard social science model”
Five basic principles underlying research
in evolutionary psychology
The function of the brain
Adaptive problems and their defining
characteristics
Modules and functional specificity
The properties of reasoning and learning
circuits
Why it is that our modern skulls house a
Stone Age mind
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA)
Adaptationist logic
(and its implications for understanding “nature” and
“nurture”)
Confer, Easton, Fleischman, Goetz,
Lewis, Perilloux, & Buss, 2010
(“Evolutionary psychology: Controversies, questions, prospects, and
limitations”)
Natural selection
Adaptations, by-products, and noise
Ultimate explanations and proximate
explanations
The concept of “design
features”
Shortcomings of explanations based on
domain-general mechanisms
Domain-specific learning mechanisms
(“learning adaptations”)
How recent environmental novelties affect
human evolved psychology
The role of genes in evolutionary
psychology
Limitations of evolutionary psychology
Part 1: Gene’s-eye view of human cognition and
behavior
Dawkins:
Chapter 1 (“Why are people?”)
What Dawkins means by “selfish”
Key
misunderstandings / misconceptions / fallacies to avoid
Distinction
between the function and consequence of reproduction
Individual
selection and group selection
The
gene as the unit of heredity
Dawkins:
Chapter 2 (“The replicators”)
How
“survival of the fittest” relates to “survival of the
stable”
The
concept of a replicator
Longevity,
fecundity, and copying-fidelity
Why
competition matters
Organisms
as containers / vehicles / survival machines
Dawkins:
Chapter 3 (“Immortal coils”)
Two important things that DNA
molecules do
Alleles as rivals
The concept of a gene pool
The definition of a
“gene” that Dawkins uses (and why that definition is useful)
What it means to say that
there is a gene “for” something
How and why differences
matter in the competitive struggle to survive
The concept of a
“good” gene
Selection of genes for mutual
compatibility
Connection between evolution
and frequencies of genes in the gene pool
Gangestad,Thornhill,
& Garver-Apgar, 2005 (“Adaptations to
ovulation: Implications for sexual and social behavior”)
Evolutionary rationale for attraction to
mates with “good genes”
Evolution of “sexually antagonistic
adaptations”
The ovulatory shift hypothesis (and its
underlying logical basis)
Psychological research testing the
ovulatory shift hypothesis
Dawkins: Chapter
4 (“The gene machine”)
Relationship between genes,
cells, and bodies
Linkages between sense
organs, cognition, muscle movements, and fitness
Adaptive benefits of memory
How genes control the
behavior of their survival machines
Adaptive solutions to
time-lag problems
Adaptive solutions to the
problem of making predictions in unpredictable environments
Evolutionary bases of memory,
learning, mental simulation, communication
Communication and altruism
Communication and deception
Nairne
& Pandeirada, 2008 (“Adaptive memory:
Remembering with a stone-age brain”)
Functional analysis of memory, and why
it’s useful
The likely and unlikely
characteristics of evolved memory mechanisms
The effects of survival
processing on recall
Dawkins: Chapter
5 (“Aggression: Stability and the selfish machine”)
Other ‘survival
machines’ as part of the EEA
John Maynard Smith
The concept of an
“evolutionarily stable strategy” (ESS)
How the concept of ESS
relates to the concept of “good genes”
How an ESS analysis helps to
explain aggression and non-aggression
Dunbar,
2014 (“The social brain: Psychological underpinnings and implications for
the structure of organizations”)
The social-brain hypothesis
Theory of mind
Relation between species-typical group
size and neocortex size
Relation between individuals’
social network size and mentalizing ability
Structure of human social networks
Dawkins: Chapter
6 (“Genesmanship”)
Green Beard Altruism
William Hamilton
Kin selection
Kinship and the degrees of
relatedness
Cost/benefit analysis as
applied to altruistic decision-making
Uncertainty in
“knowing” who kin are, and the implications
Cuckoos and other brood
parasites
Mimicry and evolutionary arms
races
Part 2: Psychological
adaptations pertaining to survival and sexual reproduction
Schaller, Kenrick, Neel, & Neuberg, 2017 (“Evolution and human motivation: A
fundamental motives framework”)
What the concept of “motivation”
means within an evolutionary framework
Functional modularity of motivational
systems
The evolutionary logic behind the renovated
pyramid/hierarchy (shown in Figure 1)
Life-history theory, trade-offs, and
implications for motivational systems
Kenrick, 2016 (“Rate yourself on
the new motivational pyramid: A new scale of fundamental evolved
motives”)
The list of fundamental motivational
systems
Variables that have implications for the
strength of specific motivational systems
Öhman
& Mineka, 2003 (“The malicious serpent: Snakes as a prototypical
stimulus for an evolved module of fear”)
Fear of snakes in humans and other
primates
Research documenting the learning of fear
responses to snakes
Research documenting how snakes capture
attention
The concept of a fear module
Zebrowitz, 2017 (“First impressions from faces”)
Four
overgeneralization effects (baby-face, familiar-face, unfit-face,
emotional-face)
The
adaptive logic explaining why these overgeneralization effects occur
Research
documenting implications for first impressions
Schaller & Park, 2011 (“The behavioral
immune system (and why it matters)”)
The “behavioral immune system”
The smoke detector principle and the principle
of functional flexibility
Research documenting implications for
psychological phenomena
Research linking the behavioral immune system to
cross-cultural differences
Dawkins: Chapter
7 (“Family planning”)
Bearing and caring as reproductive
strategies
Costs and benefits associated with the
production of greater numbers of offspring
The “Beau Geste Effect”
Logic underlying the “selfish gene
theory” explanation (as opposed to a “group
selection”
explanation) for population regulation
Dawkins: Chapter
8 (“Battle of the generations”)
Parental
investment
Parent-offspring
conflict
Robert Trivers
Aging,
menopause, and the concept of “grandchild altruism”
Dawkins: Chapter
9 (“Battle of the sexes”)
Gamete size and
the evolution of divergent sexual strategies
Sex differences
in obligatory parental investment
Sex differences
in mating behavior
Female
strategies that reduce likelihood of male exploitation
Evolutionary
stable strategies in the context of courtship and mating
Handicap
principle
Schmitt, et al., 2012 (“A
reexamination of sex differences in sexuality: New
studies reveal old truths”)
Sexual strategies theory and what it does (and
doesn’t predict)
Research
documenting sex differences in mate preferences
Research documenting sex differences in desired
number of sex partners
Bjorklund & Shackelford, 1999
(“Differences in parental investment contribute to important differences
between men and women”)
Reasons for, and
benefits of, fathers’ parental investment in offspring
Psychological
implications of sex differences in obligatory parental investment
Psychological
implications of maternity certainty / paternity uncertainty
Fink
& Penton-Voak, 2002 (“Evolutionary
psychology of facial attractiveness”)
Specific facial
features that influence judgments of facial attractiveness
Possible reasons
why symmetrical faces and “average” face are attractive
Facial features
associated with hormone levels and possible reasons
why those
“hormone markers” are attractive
Effects of
menstrual cycle on female preferences for male facial features
The
multiple-message hypothesis and the redundant-signal hypothesis
Buss, 2001 (“Cognitive biases and
emotional wisdom in the evolution of conflict between the sexes”)
Error management
theory and its implications for evolution of cognitive biases
The
“sexual overperception bias” and the
“commitment skepticism bias”
Strategic
interference theory and its implications for the arousal of various emotions
Research
documenting sex differences in jealousy
Buss,
2017 (“Sexual conflict in human mating”)
Sexual deception
strategies and anti-deception defenses
The
“commitment skepticism bias” as an anti-deception defense
Sexual
exploitation and defenses against sexual exploitation
Research
documenting sex differences in sexual regrets
Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2011 (“Can men detect
ovulation?”)
Psychological
hypotheses that follow from an evolutionary analysis of female ovulation
Research
documenting effects of ovulatory cycle on women’s social behavior
Research testing
whether men respond to women’s ovulation cues
Part
3: Other challenges, other adaptations, other implications
Daly & Wilson, 1996 (“Violence
against stepchildren”)
Research documenting violence against
stepchildren
Possible explanations for step-parent
investment and for conflict within step-families
Practices that help solve the problem of
conflict and violence within step-families
Lieberman & Smith, 2012
(“It’s all relative: Sexual aversions and moral judgments regarding
sex among siblings”)
Negative implications of incest for
offspring health and survival
Psychological mechanisms that serve the
function of incest-avoidance
Cues that help to distinguish siblings
from non-siblings, and their implications
The “Westermarck effect” (and
research on the Westermarck effect)
Schaller,
2018 (“The parental care motivational system and why it matters (for
everyone)”)
The parental care
motivational system and how it works
Research
documenting implications for risk-averse responses to potential threats
Research
documenting inhibitory relationship between mating and parenting motives
Dawkins,
Chapter 10 (“You scratch my back, I’ll ride on yours”)
The concept of
the “selfish herd”
Alarm calls and
the various theories for why they occur
Mutualism
(symbiosis) involving multiple species
Evolutionary
origins of reciprocal altruism within a species
Psychological
requirements for delayed reciprocal altruism
The
“Sucker,” “Cheat,” and “Grudger” strategies
Delton
& Robertson, 2016 (“How the mind makes welfare tradeoffs:
Evolution, computation, and emotion”)
The equation
(analogous to Hamilton’s rule) associated with reciprocity theory
The concept of a
welfare tradeoff ratio (WTR)
The concept of
internal regulatory variables, and how they influence a WTR
McCullough
et al., 2008 (“An adaptation for altruism? The social causes, social
effects, and social evolution of gratitude”)
The three
characteristic features of gratitude that are relevant to prosocial behavior
Research
documenting gratitude as a prosocial emotion, distinct from other emotions
Theory and
research linking gratitude to the evolution of reciprocal altruism
The concept of
upstream reciprocity and how gratitude might be linked to it
Shariff
& Tracy, 2011 (“What are emotion expressions for?”)
Functions served by the
emotion expressions
Specific physiological functions of
various emotion expressions
Specific communicative functions of
various emotion expressions
Dawkins,
Chapter 11 (“Memes:
the new replicators”)
Cultural
evolution, and ways in which it is (and isn’t) analogous to genetic
evolution
The concept of
the meme, and ways in which it is (and isn’t) analogous to a gene
How longevity,
fecundity, and copying-fidelity apply to memes
Competition
between memes
Ways in which
memes and genes can reinforce each other, and oppose each other
Li
et al., 2018 (“The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis: Implications for
psychological science”)
The concepts of
evolutionary mismatch and adaptive lag
Sources, types,
causes, and consequences of mismatches
Implications of
mismatches for relationship satisfaction and for selection of leaders
Schmalor & Heine, 2019 (“In genes
we trust: On the consequences of genetic essentialism”)
The concepts of
psychological essentialism and genetic essentialism
Research on the
consequences that can occur when people genetically essentialize
gender,
race, sexual orientation, criminality, illness, and obesity
Things that can
reduce genetic essentialism
Lewis
et al., 2017 (“Evolutionary psychology: A how-to guide”)
[This reading is optional. You
won’t be tested on it. You might find it useful
sometime, especially if you’re
interested in actually doing evolutionary
psychological research; and, if so,
I think that I should leave it to you to identify
which parts of it might matter most
to your future endeavors.]