PSYC 2230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Russ Feingold, Parental Investment, David Buss
12 Mar 2014
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Continued from last week: evolution: the progressive change in organism across time. Physical and behavioural elements that are beneficial and adaptive will continue to exist and be evident in the gene pool. Organism with adaptive characteristics will survive, reproduce, and pass on benefits to offspring. Interaction between genes and the environment leads to a process called natural selection. Male sexual motivation is strong and opportunistic: sexual selection: represents a special class of natural selection and occurs when there is a competition for mates, or when one member of a species is chosen" by the other. Thus according to evolutionary psychology, women competing for males would be motivated to engage in behaviours that enhance appearance. Summary: overall, motivation seems to be over determined; many factors, variables, systems seem to be operative. Instincts: genetically motivated behaviours that occur when certain conditions are presents an requires no learning: early instinct theories were popular in late 19th and early 20th centuries.
