PSYC 332 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Ethnocentrism, Reciprocal Altruism, John Bowlby

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 332
• Professor: Richard Koestner

Document Summary

Evolution and human nature: pure at birth, rousseau suggested, though society may corrupt us thereafter: french philosopher jean-jacques rousseau described human nature as fundamentally innocent and good. We are noble and: british philosopher john locke have suggested that human nature is basically a blank slate. At birth, people are ready to be: contemporary scienti c understandings of human nature focus on human evolution. We have evolved to survive and reproduce shaped into any form that their environments can produce. Principles of evolution: fundamental property of living things is that they propagate, according to darwin, most successful systems are those that reproduce viable copies of themselves for the next generation. It includes the organism"s own reproductive success but also the reproductive success of close relatives, with whom the organism shares genes. This was necessary to promote individual survival and reproduction. Without theory of mind, people would have a very dif cult time interacting with each other in social groups.