PSYCO104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Heredity, Intellectual Disability, Phenylketonuria

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCO104
• Professor: Clayton Dickson

Document Summary

Adaptive behavior: that which increases an organisms ability to survive and reproduce. Long time scale: selection of genetically-dependent behaviors which confer reproductive advantages. Short time scale: ability to modify behavior learning. Genetics, evolution and behavior: 1) evolution. Natural selection as a mechanism for change: 2) genetics. Species: specific and comparative behavior: 4) sociobiology. Reproductive and competitive pressures on social behavior. Idea of natural selection: darwin"s observations, large diversity of life forms different species, variation within species, heritability of traits selective breeding, struggle for existence competition species extinction, heritable variations could confer selective advantages. Theory of evolution: theory of evolution by natural selection: All living species, including humans, arrived at their present biological structures and mechanisms through a historical process involving random inheritable changes. Those changes that enhanced an individual"s ability to survive and reproduce in the environment conditions in which it lived were passed along in increasing number from generation to generation.