PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Usa Today, Ethology, Psy
Document Summary
If children are similar to their biological parents , it must be due to genes. If children are similar to their adoptive parent"s, it must be due to shared environment. 50% said parent"s were most important influence. It can be more explained due to similarities in genes than environment. Genes could cause childhood experiences and adult outcomes. Life is a race; minds are built to win. Figure out the mental toolbox that helped our ancestors win. The ancestral past determines the cognitive present. Motives, strategies, and cognitive mechanisms that were adaptive for our hunter-gatherer ancestors are now built-in. Evolution of specific behaviors and signalling systems. Genes occasionally mutate or recombine, yielding new traits. Traits that are maladaptive get weeded out. Fixed action patterns-prewired series of movements triggered by prewired releasing stimuli. Sneaky genes and the game of life. From a gene"s eye : point of view. In the beginning, there was the gene (dna)
