COMM ST 126 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Domain Specificity, Cognitive Psychology, Information Processing
2 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in psychological research. An integration of evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Four elements of evolution: variation, heredity, competition, natural selection. Taken together elements produce descent with modification and also build what appears to be good design. Individual organisms may be similar but are not identical to each other. Variation disappears when an allele reaches the point of fixation-- when it either disappears from the population or replaces the ancestral alleles entirely. Many characteristics that vary from individual to individual are passed on from parents to offspring. Not all individuals have the same representation in the next generation-- differential survival and reproduction. Characteristics which confer an advantage will become more common, and those conferring a disadvantage will disappear.
