PSY 216 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Domesticated Red Fox, Evolutionary Psychology, Ascidiacea
Document Summary
Evolutionary psychology natural selection is responsible for the form most of our behavior and mental processes take. Some biological and behavioral variations increase survival and reproduction: organism"s offspring compete for survival, offspring that survive pass their genes to the next generation, thus, over time, the characteristics of a population change. Physical characteristics can have clear survival value turtle"s shell, skunk"s perfume, sweat glands for cooling; so too can psychological characteristics motives, emotions, and personality traits. If a wild fox cannot flee it will attack; wild foxes are naturally very dangerous. Starting with the offspring of 30 male and 100 female foxes by russian dmitry. Belyaev selected the tamest 5% of males and had them mate with the tamest 20% of females. For more than 30 generations of foxes that procedure was repeated (tame foxes were given a reproductive advantage) 40 years and 45,000 foxes later a new breed. Docile, eager to please, clearly domesticated and sold as house pets.
