Psychology 3228 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ontogeny, Hominidae, Bonobo

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3228
• Professor: Scott Mac Dougall- Shackleton

Document Summary

Evolution and human behaviour september 21, 2016. Evolutionary theory developed primarily in regards to non-human animals. Influenced rise of human behavioural ecology and evolutionary psychology as new approaches. Evolution has resulted in animals being optimized to their environment. Use ecology theory and economic models to predict behaviour and evolution of behaviour. Gave rise to fields such as evolutionary psychology. Controversy around topics such as infanticide, mate choice, etc. Wilson"s predictions: failed to take into account integration between proximate mechanisms and ecology/evolutionary influences. Evolutionary psychology heralded itself as a new science . However, almost all of the theory and models had previously been developed in animal behaviour/behavioural ecology. Assumptions of the sssm: the blank slate (empiricism, irrelevance of biology, general laws of learning. Critique of the sssm (tooby and cosmides: misunderstands the nature of development. All environmental influences must act through genes ie. language development: humans vs apes.