Human Behavior and Evolution
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Course Introduction
This course explores the intersection of human behavior and evolutionary theory, examining how natural selection, adaptation, and evolutionary processes have shaped the psychological and social traits observed in modern humans. Topics include the evolution of cooperation, mating strategies, kinship, parental investment, language, and cultural transmission. Through a combination of empirical studies and theoretical perspectives, students will analyze how evolutionary frameworks can illuminate patterns of human cognition, emotion, and social interaction, offering new insights into fundamental questions about why humans behave the way they do.
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Evolutionary Psychology Neuroscience Perspectives concerning Human Behavior and Experience
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Chapter 1: Introduction to an Evolutionary Perspective
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Q1) The limited time period during which a behavior can be acquired is referred to as the
Answer: critical period or sensitive period
Q2) Lorenz and Tinbergen experimented with the egg-rolling movement of the Greylag goose; they found that, once started, it continued even if the egg were no longer there, and they referred to this kind of movement as a _____.
Answer: fixed action pattern
Q3) According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt, adaptations reflect features of the _____ relevant to survival
A) behavior.
B) environment.
C) organism.
D) species.
Answer: B
Q4) The model of human behavior that assumes experience plays the major role and views the mind as a blank slate is known as the _____.
Answer: Standard Social Science Model
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Chapter 2: What Is Evolution
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Q1) Sigmund Freud incorporated Darwin's emphasis on instinct into his work, but he emphasized _____ over _____.
A) genetics, environment
B) sexual selection, natural selection
C) mutation, adaptation
D) phylogeny, ontogeny
Answer: B
Q2) Newton suggested that the same forces that cause rocks to fall to the earth in England will also cause rocks to fall in Africa or Asia; this is an example of the scientific principle of _____.
Answer: parsimony
Q3) _____ is a process that results in heritable changes in a population over many generations.
Answer: Evolution
Q4) Watson argued that the proper study of psychology was A) behavior.
B) consciousness.
C) development.
D) emotion.
Answer: A
Page 4
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Chapter 3: Evolution and Genetics
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Q1) Although sickle cell anemia can cause a variety of physiological problems, its presence also confers a resistance to
A) cholera.
B) HIV.
C) malaria.
D) measles.
Answer: C
Q2) Sickle cell anemia is a classic example of _____, a process whereby two or more phenotypes can be influenced by a single gene.
A) codominance
B) karyotype
C) linkage
D) pleiotropy
Answer: D
Q3) The _____ represents the observed traits of the individual, including morphology, physiology, and behavior.
Answer: phenotype
Q4) Sperm cells and egg cells are collectively known as _____. Answer: gametes
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Chapter 4: Evolution of Brain and Function
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Q1) The third level of the triune brain is the _____ brain, which includes the neocortex and thalamic structures; this level is generally associated with problem solving, executive control, and an orientation toward the external world with an emphasis on linguistic functions.
Q2) The _____ includes regions devoted to sensory and motor processing and higher cognitive processes; it both sends and receives information from different areas within itself and to and from subcortical structures.
Q3) Many neuroscientists view evolution in terms of increasing the size of the A) brain.
B) cell columns.
C) convolutions.
D) neurons.
Q4) As primates evolved, there has been a shift from reliance on the _____ system to reliance on the _____ system.
A) auditory, olfactory
B) olfactory, visual
C) vestibular, auditory
D) visual, vestibular
Q5) The depressions or fissures on the surface of the brain are called _____.
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Chapter 5: Developmental Processes
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Q1) Flavell suggested four ways in which the early predisposition and abilities of infants involve other humans. Which of the following is NOT one of these ways?
A) Infants can perceptually analyze and discriminate human stimuli.
B) Infants find human faces, voices, and movements highly interesting.
C) Infants respond differently to adults than they do to other children.
D) Infants seek to attend to and interact with other humans.
Q2) Bowlby assumed that the relative immaturity of the human infant resulted in attachment being a _____ process in humans than in other primates.
A) faster
B) longer
C) shorter
D) slower
Q3) According to Bowlby, _____ is a process in which the mother is able to reduce fear by direct contact with the infant, providing a kind of support called a "secure base."
Q4) Discuss Bowlby's research on early attachment relationships. What did he find? Describe the procedure Ainsworth developed to examine attachment styles. What did she find?
Q5) Discuss Bjorklund and Blasi's (2005) six tenets of evolutionary psychology.
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Chapter 6: Emotionality
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Q1) A variety of reports from around the world suggest that making music with others leads not only to positive emotional feelings but also a sense of connectedness with others; one possible physiological mechanism associated with these experiences may be the release of _____ in the brain during music making.
A) dopamine
B) epinephrine
C) oxytocin
D) serotonin
Q2) Another word for "emotion" that is often used by researchers is A) affect
B) feeling
C) mood
D) valence
Q3) The areas of the right temporal lobe known as the _____ gyrus appears to respond selectively to faces as compared to other types of complex visual stimuli.
Q4) In accord with Darwin's principle of antithesis, Susskind found that fear and _____ were opposite emotions, based on three different physiological measures.
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Chapter 7: Language
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Q1) When children say "he runned" or "she goed," this is clear evidence that they
A) are applying a past tense rule.
B) just repeating what their parents said.
C) may have a language learning disorder.
D) still have not learned the rules of the language.
Q2) Pinker and Jackendoff posited three questions regarding the evolution of language. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
A) Which aspects of language are uniquely human?
B) Which aspects of language arise from the design of our brains?
C) Which aspects of language belong to more general abilities?
D) Which aspects of language differ from other cognitive processes?
Q3) The actual spoken sentence is called the _____, whereas the meaning of the sentence is called the _____.
A) external process, internal process
B) free morpheme, bound morpheme
C) overarching meaning, underlying meaning
D) surface structure, deep structure
Q4) The basic unit of sound in language is called a _____.
Q5) _____ is the study of meaning and how words relate to the things they refer to.
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Q6) The smallest meaningful unit in a language is referred as a _____.
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Chapter 8: Sex and Gender
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Q1) Research done at Israeli kibbutzim, which are communal societies, show that individuals brought up together from early childhood show a(n) _____ sexual desire toward each other even when they are not related.
A) aberrant
B) increased
C) reduced
D) unrequited
Q2) When there is direct fighting between males, as in the case of elephant seals, then it is obvious that the one who wins is more physically fit. What the advantage to the peahen of of choosing the peacock with the brightest tail?
A) It is exciting, so she is more likely to conceive.
B) There is a direct relationship between the his tail and his health.
C) There is no advantage, but there is not disadvantage, either.
D) The peacock can draw predators away from her and her chicks.
Q3) Although sperm carries the same amount of genetic material from the father as the egg does from the mother, it is the fact that the mother's egg provides the _____ necessary for the initial development of the organism that accounts for the difference in size.
Q4) What is the Red Queen hypothesis? In what way is sex like a lottery?
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Chapter 9: Sexual Selection
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Q1) Singh asked college males to rate female figures in terms of four characteristics: (1) attractive and sexy; (2) healthy; (3) youthful looking; (4) desire and capacity for having children. In general, the .7 _____ was rated highest for all four measures.
Q2) Compared with other primates, including humans, chimpanzee testicles are quite large; this is due to A) female choice.
B) same-sex competition.
C) sexual swelling.
D) sperm competition.
Q3) Discuss Trivers' (1972) theory of parental investment. What prediction does it make, and what evidence is there to support the theory?
Q4) One form of sexual selection is known as _____, which is most obvious in male-to-male competition; from this process would evolve characteristics, such as antlers on deer, that would enable one male to dominate another, and thus have the advantage.
Q5) Discuss the features that characterize attractiveness in males and females.
Q6) One of the indicators of sexual availability in primate females is _____, which is often accompanied by changes in color.
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Chapter 10: Kin and Family Relationships
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Q1) In all societies, one's beliefs about one's genealogical links are core components of the phenomenology of _____. Who I am is strongly related to who my relatives are. The idea of tribe is also related to one's core identity.
Q2) Although kinship systems vary somewhat from culture to culture, they all make certain key distinctions. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
A) age
B) closeness
C) generation
D) sex
Q3) In all societies, some kinship terms incorporate more than one genealogical relationship, but people are _____ oblivious to the distinctions that terminology obscures or ignores.
A) always
B) nowhere
C) often
D) sometimes
Q4) _____ states that a behavior will evolve if the cost to the individual is outweighed by the gain to another multiplied by the degree of genetic relationship.
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Chapter 11: Social Relations
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Q1) _____ processes are fast, largely automatic, and usually occur with little awareness; for example, we meet someone new and immediately have a feeling of whether we like that person or not.
Q2) Dunbar (2003) points out that at least five separate measures of social complexity have been shown to correlate with neocortex volume in primates. Which of the following is NOT one of those measures?
A) frequency of social play
B) grooming clique size
C) number of sexual partners
D) social group size
Q3) According to Fiske's theory of social relations, _____ is the type of relationship in which a group treats material objects as belonging to all; group members take what they need and contribute as they can.
Q4) Fiske's (1992) social relations theory suggests that everyday life can be seen as involving four basic social-cognitive processes. Describe each.
Q5) Like children's ability to efficiently absorb the language around them, as humans we absorb the social _____ of our culture, which tell us how we are expected to behave in a variety of situations.
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Chapter 12: Making Social Decisions
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Q1) What is social exchange? What is needed cognitively for social exchange? What areas of the brain seem to be involved?
Q2) If social exchange has been important over our evolutionary history, then we should be sensitive to those who accept benefits without fulfilling their side of the exchange. This assumed cognitive mechanism is referred to as the A) bounded rationality heuristic
B) cheater detection module
C) hazard management system
D) social contract algorithm
Q3) Researchers have estimated that the average group size of humans during prehistoric times was no more than A) 50
B) 150
C) 250
D) 350
Q4) Describe the Wason card selection task. How is it used to study social exchange? What are the findings?
Q5) Discuss the evolution of interpersonal and intragroup violence.
Q6) Discuss the evolution and function of social and moral emotions.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Health and Disease
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Q1) Barker (1967) proposed that a mother's nutrition during early pregnancy could influence both fetal and infant growth and, in turn, create a situation in which obesity and diabetes would result later in life; this idea is known as the _____ hypothesis.
Q2) A variety of studies suggest that early _____ relationships help influence later reactions to stress; for example, rat pups that received positive maternal care showed fewer negative hormonal responses to stress.
A) attachment
B) childhood
C) family
D) parental
Q3) People of Northern European descent do not lose the ability to digest lactose, as do most humans; were an adult from Asia to drink milk, he or she would feel ill and have genetic symptoms of bloating and diarrhea resulting from a _____ between his or her genetic makeup and the food source, whereas those from Northern Europe would not.
Q4) Neel (1962) suggested that certain genes may be advantageous in times of famine, in that they reduce energy expenditure; this idea became known as the _____ hypothesis.
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Chapter 14: Psychopathology
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Q1) _____ include feeling anxious, tense, and fearful of being with others as well as being troubled and unable to sleep; traditionally this was referred to as neurosis.
Q2) Although there is no single definition of a psychopathological process, five key characteristics are generally agreed upon. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
A) The person acts in maladaptive ways that are not in his or her best interest.
B) The person cannot fully consider alternative ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving.
C) The person has difficulty connecting with the environment or the self.
D) The person is deemed abnormal but may be given a special status in some cultures.
Q3) Disorders that have very similar end states--depression, for example--may have developed from distinctly different beginning conditions. Which of the following is NOT a typical beginning condition for depression?
A) Death of a significant person in one's life.
B) Decline in social status.
C) Extreme stress that elicits self-preservation instincts.
D) Loss of sense of agency.
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Chapter 15: Culture
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Q1) _____ has to do with the manner in which societies place value on various aspects of human existence; we often see these values reflected in the ways in which a society works and what is available to individuals.
Q2) Humans in their early years ______ what is around them to an even greater degree than other animals, and this is the likely beginning of culture.
A) explore
B) imitate
C) observe
D) react to
Q3) The field of cultural neuroscience is defined by a number of themes. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
A) The ability of the brain to recognize and store complex patterns.
B) The close connection between an individual and his or her environment.
C) The manner in which the brain is involved in social behavior.
D) The readiness of the brain to establish relationships and absorb information.
Q4) The preparation of food using fire led to the consumption of more meat, a cultural phenomenon, favored certain types of digestive structures and mechanisms, a physiological phenomenon. This is an example of culture-gene _____.
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