PSY 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Psycholinguistics, Epigenetics, Steven Pinker
Document Summary
Evolutionary psychology: is a field of psychology that emphasizes how evolutionary mechanisms may explain common patterns in human thinking, development, emotion, social behavior and more. Soft inheritance (lamark): lamarck believed organisms could evolve more complex characteristics during there lifetime. Species that adapt to the environment and survive better will continue to exist while the other more primitive die off. Hard inheritance (darwin): the fittest species pass their genes on to their offspring which gives them that advantage. Sexual selection (darwin): why some organisms have some characteristics that don"t seem necessary for survival. Intersexual: selection by the opposite sex for mating purposes. Intrasexual selection: same sex individuals compete for a partner of the opposite sex. (ex antlers) Lamark vs darwin: difference was darwin didn"t talk about same generation adaptions. Epigenetics: involve changes in expression of genes, influenced by the environment. It is as if chemical tags turn genes on or off. Evidence suggests these tags can be passed on.
