PSYC 3100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Group Selection, Prosopagnosia, Pleistocene

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3100
• Professor: Hank Davis

Document Summary

Darwin s ideas are important to psychology because theory of evolution by natural selection is not just a theory about the past, but the theory details a process that continually shapes organisms. Theory argues that all living things are sculpted not by a conscious designer like a human engineer but by the inanimate force of natural selection. Proposed process, a mechanism, that could cause evolution natural selection. Darwin s argument: natural populations (giraffes, daisies or, people) could grow exponentially darwin selected more leisurely reproducer he could think of, elephants. Assumed that female elephant would begin reproducing by age 30 and would produce 1 offspring/ 10 years, up to total 6 offspring, then die of old age. Calculated that after 500 years a female would have 15 million living descendants, and so on. Every time elephant a reproduces, offsprings use food, water and other resources that would otherwise be available for offspring of elephant b.