To study the evolution of human behavior, we must first understand the evolutionary foundation of modern human behavior. Using the knowledge we have about human behavior while observing for patterns that are consistent with evolutionary models. Taking advantage of natural experiments that produce different combinations of variables that can allows us to obtain new approach on human behavior. This chapter will focus on various aspects of human behavior from an evolutionary viewpoint. These involve the “ecology and demography of traditional human societies, patters of human behavior that have been shaped by sexual selection, the interaction between culture and biology in the expression of language, and the emergence of behavioral disease in an …show more content…
Anthropologists and other scientist use different types of method to study the evolution of human behavior, depending on their specific interest and expertise. First approach is the Paleontological Reconstruction; these reconstructions were constructed on the anatomy of existent of hominins and the archaeological remains, which they were connected. They were also found associated among behavior, anatomy, and ecology discovered in non-human primate species and in modern humans. Next is the Biological approach, which is understandable that human cultural behavior has affected human evolution. Biological and evolutionary heritage may have developed several methods behavior that has been discovered by others. Third approach is the Evolutionary Psychology, which emphasize on understanding the behaviors or cognitive modules adaptations. Evolutionary psychologist is convinced that our evolved behavior may indicate or should be explained in terms of theoretical environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Lastly, is the Human Evolutionary Ecology, which emphasize more on psychological experiments and surveys of individuals living in developed countries, also on the ecological factors that impact reproduction success in the few remaining hunter gathered …show more content…
This development perspective is based in large component on the fact that humans are mammals. Male and female mammals differ enormously in energetic investment in generating offspring. Female mammals produce not only eggs but also a body which fetal growth takes place. After birth, they are required to produce milk and care for their offspring until the age of weaning. Males are required to produce sperm at the time of fertilization, and that is all. Following investment, “which can take the form if provisioning a pregnant or lactating female or providing food for the young, is not required, and in many species, including most primate species, males do not directly participate or invest in rearing young” ((Standford, John, & Anton, 2013, p.
Ever heard a certain song that triggers your brain to recall something from the past. Then, you should know that you been conditioned to respond in a certain way when you hear that favorite song you known about for a long time. Throughout human history behaviorism has played a big role in the evolution of psychology. The three main characters that contributed on to the creation of behaviorism were Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner all helping behaviorism evolution into an important idea in psychology . Overall, behaviorism is very common around the world and being everywhere daily in ads or life situations.
Gen (1) revealed the creation of the world and everything in it such as light, waters, earth, sky, animal, plants, which also created the work week. Each day of the week was a gift given to us along with a day to rest and restore. Then humans were created in the image of God
According to Darwin (Date), there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental and perceived emotional faculties. In theory, every organism is engrained with complex, useful, and non-arbitrary bits of information that is essential to its survival. Organisms know when it is time to migrate, when it is best to hunt, and when mating should occur. According to Name (Date), these faculties are actually nonrandom parts of our development they must have come from either divine design or natural selection. The notion of whether or not divine design or natural selection is the result of an organisms faculties has sparked significant debate since Darwin first proposed his theory of natural selection
Human beings are still very much evolving. According to recent studies, genetic changes in women over the years have decreased the age at which they birthed their first child. In one study the age decreased as much as four years from age 26 down to age 22 (Allen 2011). Another concurrent study looked at women’s physical appearance in correlation with the number of children they had. The resulting data revealed that, “stout, slightly plump” women had more children. Researchers found that these characteristics are passed on from mothers to their offspring and so forth (Harrell 2009). Therefore, as these traits are passed from generation to generation, the population grows and these characteristics become more prominent in the population. All of these findings confirm that the evolution of human beings is still very much an ongoing process.
This essay will outline and compare both biological and behavioural perspectives on human behaviour. The history, major discoveries and theories will be discussed along with some of the most influential theorists in each of these two areas of psychology. This essay will also compare the two areas strengths and weaknesses in the field of psychology.
Female body shape is important in the sense that females developed certain body types because that increases their reproductive success since some body types are preferred more than the others. Women developed breasts which signal fertility and served as a mimicry of buttocks as as a result of bipedalism. Sexual Selection, a subset of Natural Selection, is believed to had caused the sexual dimorphism in the physical appearance of males and females. Sexual Selection is the process by which the reproductive success of an organism is
Even differences in human behavior reveals patterns of correlation. Different methods of upbringing may cause variety in human behavior. These various methods shape a person’s motivations, inclinations, and actions. The only way that humans can learn about human behavior is by wisdom and experience. However to learn about human behavior, the human behavior has
The central purpose of this essay is to critically discuss the importance of understanding human evolution and the history of psychology for the modern psychologist. For the human evolution, the essay will be addressing on how we and other species descended from our ancestors and how the different environment has helped to us to become more adaptable. Regarding the history of psychology, the essay will be discussing on how psychology branched off from the philosophy approach to become its own science. The essay will then go on discussing how the understanding of both human evolution and history of psychology would be used by modern psychologist.
The changes in allele frequencies help animals adapt to survive and reproduce in an environment. Through natural selection, different species will develop new physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics to yield a higher fitness in future generations. Also, specific populations of the same geographic area will produce different traits to adapt to that location, such as humans having a higher lung capacity at higher elevations. Thus, the more advantageous qualities will carry on to future generations. Many evolutionary theorists believe that male sexual aggression is one of these dominantly inherited traits. Finding many correlations between human and animal characteristics when it pertains to sexual violence. Research from Primatologists suggests the reasons sexual aggression has become an adaptive trait, as well as why some populations of species do not perform acts of sexual violence.
Evolutionary Psychology is a practice of social and natural sciences that studies human characteristics through the lens of modern evolutionary theory. This is exactly what Dunbar and his colleges attempt to do with “the family” in their book.
Physical anthropologists investigate evolution through various ways in order to give a well understanding of human evolution and these are relative dating research, theoretical research, fossil research and environmental research. I will try to expound how each research method is relevant to anthropological study.
The origin of modern human behavior is a subject in anthropology that accumulates much debate. Cognition is the dominant factor in such behavior, therefore raises the question, “when did this separation of intelligent or modern thought from the primitive come to daily behavior for our genus?” There are two such answers that hold experts in the field captive in debate: the rapid “imagination revolution” in the European-centrailized Upper Paleolithic, and the steadiness of cognitive growth provided first in Africa during the Middle Paleolithic. Although each argument provides supportive evidence for their perspective claims, the more naturally convincing shows this creative revolution taking place much earlier than the Upper Paleolithic. This explanations human cognition developing with no brisk advantageous revolutionary response, and instead by gradual means. This metamorphosis follows the pattern of biological human evolution. My argument combats the “imagination revolution” claim to the origins of creativity using specific artifacts dated earlier than those of European restrictions. Furthermore, it is the lack of excavation in Africa and the conditions of the terrain itself that pose problematic preservation of artifacts, unlike in Europe, to exonerate this innovative exclusivity. These pieces of evidence in Africa exemplify a higher process of thinking, commonly those showing deliberate means of bead and rock art used for both personal functions of expression. If art
In this dissertation was shall examine the ethological theory of instinct, and see whether it applies at the human level.
Human beings, like all other organisms, are a product of biological development and environmental interactions. Behavior itself is a phenotypic trait, and as such, reflects a history of specific interactions between genes, experience, and environment. Of the thirty-eight proposals used to explain the evolution of human behavior, sociobiology is the most plausible explanation. Sociobiologists, including Edward O. Wilson, believe that human behavior, as well as non-human behavior, can be partly explained as the outcome of natural selection. E. O. Wilson, the author of Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, popularized the term "sociobiology" as an attempt to explain the evolutionary mechanics behind social behaviors such as altruism, aggression, and nurturance. The fundamental principle guiding sociobiology is that an organism 's evolutionary success is measured by the extent to which its genes are represented in the next generation. It begins with the idea that behaviors have evolved over time, similar to the way that physical traits are thought to have evolved. This theory predicts that animals will act in ways that have proven to be evolutionarily successful over time. This can then result in the formation of complex social processes conducive to evolutionary fitness. An important concept in sociobiology is that temperamental traits within a gene pool and between gene pools exist in an ecological
In humanity, as in all of life, the most successful traits in producing offspring will also become the most prevalent. There is a belief that because we no longer fight for our survival, we will no longer evolve. Evolution, however, has no goal or foresight. Though we have seized the need to fight, and have triumphed to the top of the animal food chain, we continue to change and develop by whatever is most successful for production. This could be beneficial, but could also have detrimental effects. This paper will discuss these positive and negative possibilities, as well as how technology could greatly alter our evolutionary path.