CAS AN 263 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Estrogen, Estradiol, Progesterone
CAS AN 263
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1 Notes
Misconceptions about the interaction of behavior and biology:
➔One-on-one relationship between genes and behavior
◆Ex: no one gene for aggression
➔The Naturalistic Fallacy: if something is “natural” or
biological it is right or justified
◆Ex: Male aggression against women
➔Behavior is either Nature or Nurture
◆Not true… all traits are a result of the interaction
between genes and environment
➔If something has a biological basis it can’t be changed
Biological anthropology approach to the study of human behavior
➔Focus on things humans have in common throughout different
cultures
◆What behaviors do we share in common as a species?
◆Explore reasons why human cultures may differ
What are some models for how behavior and biology do interact?
➔Biology and behavior behave in a facultative manner
◆Biology based behaviors are not necessarily less
labile or context dependent (alterable) than
culturally constructed behaviors
◆Facultative: occuring in response to change
➔Consider: differential investment in offspring
◆Cultural ideology?
◆Historical accident?
◆Sex-biased investment is also seen across animal
species
◆Triver’s Willard Hypothesis: Natural selection should
favor biased investment in offspring according to
anticipated future reproductive success
●Because of variance in reproductive success
between males and females in mammals, expect
mother’s in good condition should favor
investment in sex with greatest variance in RS,
whereas mothers in poor condition should favor
the other sex
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◆Differential treatment of sons depends on the
situation
◆Where wealth is passed down through male heirs and
where wealthy men have more than one wife find high
investment in sons
◆Sons lead to higher parental reproductive success
◆Change the situation, change the pattern of investment
●Where daughters lead to higher parental
reproductive success they are more highly valued
and cared for
●No evidence of a biologically based innate system
of male preference, but biologically based
motivational system in which parents evolved to
respond to a wide range of social and
environmental cues relevant to productive and
reproductive contributions of offspring
○Biologically based motivational system
➔Tinbergen’s 4 Biologies
1) Phylogeny (evolutionary history)
■Species are more similar to those that they are
more closely related to
2)Adaptation (ultimate function)
■Relationship between trait and
survival/reproductive success
3) Mechanism (proximate function)
■Hormonal, neurobiological, psychological causes
4) Ontogeny (development)
■Genetic, environmental, and accidental
contributions to behavior across the lifespan
from fetus to adulthood
➔Proximate vs. Ultimate Approaches
◆Proximate
●How things happen
●Physiology
●Immediate causation
◆Ultimate
●Why things happen
●Evolutionary explanation
●Adaptive significance
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