PSYCO104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Facial Symmetry, Behavioural Genetics, Quiz

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCO104
• Professor: Geoff Hollis

Document Summary

Natural selection is the idea that traits get propagated throughout a specied by differential reproductive success. Parisites and infections tend to create physical marks. Because of facial symmetry tedns to be indicative of good health, and preferences for facial symmetry get selected for. Psychology thus has been influenced by study of biology. As patterns of behaviour are complicated traits, they can be studied in terms of biological function. Functionalis is an approach based on principals of natural selection. Its goal is to understand the mind in terms of the functional value it provides. William james, heavily influenced by darwin, attempted to study the traits of the mind and the purposes they serve. The functional value of perciving, and preferring sweet tastes over. Its primary interest is in understanding how selective pressures shape human preferences and behaviour. People have general preference for legs which are slightly longer than the length of head+torso.