evolutionary psychology organization management .pptx

evolutionary psychology

1. INTRODUCING EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY DYLAN EVANS & OSCAR ZARATE

2. “Evolutionary psychology is the combination of two sciences – evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology.” -Introducing Evolutionary Psychology, Dylan Evans & Oscar Zarate EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY These two sciences are like two pieces of jigsaw puzzle.

3. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Cognitive psychology is the most powerful theory of mind ever developed. There are two main ideas: 1. ACTIONS ARE CAUSED BY MENTAL PROCESSES 2. THE MIND IS A COMPUTER It attempts to explain why humans act the way they do. We are all amateur psychologists. We constantly offer explanations for our actions and for actions of others. Brain is just a physical machine that runs the program called mind. The brain is the hardware, the mind is the software.

4. EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 . The book presented a body of evidence that diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. According to Evolutionary Biology, human beings are descended from ape-like ancestors and ultimately share a single common ancestor with all other living things on earth. This common ancestor, the first living thing, lived about 4 billion years ago.

5. GENES The basic unit of hereditary passed from parent to child. Genes are made up of sequences of DNA and are arranged one after another at specific locations on chromosomes in the nucleus of cells. They contain information for making specific proteins that lead to the expression of a particular physical trait such as hair color or eye color.

6. WHAT DRIVES EVOLUTION? 1) HEREDITY Heredity means the transmission of genetic characters from parents to offspring. The offspring tends to resemble their parents because they inherit genes from their parents. 2) MUTATION A mutation is a change in genetic sequence. It leads to genetic variations among species. Positive mutations are transferred to successive generations.

7. 3)ADAPTATION & NATURAL SELECTION ADAPTATION Adaptation is a biological mechanism where organisms adapt or adjust to changes in their current environment or in a new environment. Characteristics that distinguish each species gives the appearance of having been “designed” for a particular purpose. EXAMPLE- A characteristic that seems to have been “designed” for a particular purpose is eye.

8. NATURAL SELECTION Natural selection is a mechanism for evolution, where it selects those genetic mutations that make the organism most suited to its environment and hence more likely to survive and reproduce. Natura non facit saltum EXAMPLE- The Evolution of the Eye. Richard Dawkins compared natural selection to “ blind watchmaker ”

9. FITTING THE PIECES of JIGSAW PUZZLE TOGETHER Evolutionary psychology is the combination of cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology. Combination psychology - tells us that the mind exhibits a very complex design. Evolutionary biology - tells us that complex designs in nature can only come about by natural selection Therefore, the design of the mind must have evolved by a process of natural selection. COMBINATION PSYCHOLOGY EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

10. THE HUMAN MIND AND WHAT IT FINDS EASY LEARNING A LANGUAGE American linguist “Noam Chomsky” showed that a general-purpose learning program could not learn a language under the same condition as normal human children. Children pick up language they hear from adults present around them. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Chomsky concluded there is an innate “language acquisition device” (LAD) in mind which knows of rules human languages can have. Human languages have limited number of structures which are collectively referred as “Universal Grammar”, language develops naturally.

11. MODULARITY The mind could not possibly be a single general-purpose program . Instead it has to be a collection of programs each with its own rules. Fodor called these special purpose programs modules . MODULES AND ADAPTATIONS A modular mind is more complex than a single general-purpose program. As per evolutionary psychology the various mental modules are adaptations designed by natural selection . Some modules evolved relatively recently after the human species split from that of our closest relative, the chimpanzee. MODULES

12. OUT OF AFRICA About a long time ago a portion of our precursors started to emigrate out of Africa. Life first appeared in the African Savannahs. ADAPTIVE PROBLEMS Adaptive problems faced by our hominid ancestors – AVOIDING PREDATORS EATING RIGHT FOOD FORMING ALLIANCES & ALLIANCES PROVIDING HELP TO CHILDREN & OTHER RELATIVES READING OTHER PEOPLES’S MINDS COMMUNICATING WITH OTHER PEOPLE SELECTING MATE

13. MENTAL MODULES DEVELOPED BY ANCESTORS TO FACE THE CHALLENGES 1) PREDATOR-AVOIDANCE MODULE Detect possible predators. Being able to distinguish real dangers from those that weren’t and in case of real dangers – trigger avoidant or defensive behaviour. 2) FOOD PREFERENCE MODULE Selecting food between nutritious food and poisonous food. Desire for fat and sugar. Disgust to avoid poisonous food. 3) ALLIANCE FORMATION MODULE Primates live in tightly-knit social groups which leads to benefits as well as troubles. Harder to get caught by predators in a group. Competition for basic resources increases.

14. RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM An alliance is an “I will help you if you help me” arrangement. It is all about exchanging favours – which biologists refer reciprocal altruism . There is a problem with such arrangement called freerider . Freerider problem – There is always a risk that one of the members of the alliance may take the benefits without paying the costs.

15. MIND-READING MODULES Mind reading involves understanding other people’s thoughts based on their actions and words. This module is also referred as Theory of Mind module as it seems to operate on basis of how human mind works. This module uses the similar theory used in “folk psychology” and in cognitive science. GROUP SIZE & SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE During the course of hominid evolution the size of groups in which our ancestors lived increased dramatically. This helped in developing better social reasoning capacities and bigger memories.

16. MATE SELECTION MODULES Mate selection is vital for the genes to be passed down to next generation. Selecting an apt mate is extremely important because the survival of offspring depends on them in terms of genes and parental care . GENES- Factors that determine good quality genes: PARENTAL CARE- Willingness of mate to invest time and energy in helping to raise the offspring. PHYSICAL APPEARNCE BODY SYMMETRY

17. DIFFERENCE IN MATE PREFERENCES Due to the similar environment of evolution mind of men and women are similar. But choosing a mate is different, it relies on: LONG TERM & SHORT TERM MATING STRATEGY Natural selection favoured women who were more cautious about having casual sex than men. Men are more inclined to pursue short-term strategy than women as it is less costly and benefits are potentially much greater to them. a. Male selection module b. Female selection module

18. ATTRACTIVENESS,AGE, REPRODUCTION Men prefer younger women as the fertility rate is higher in case of younger women. While women prefer older men because older men are able to provide more resources to the offspring. HOW JEALOUSY EVOLVED? Men got worried if the woman is having casual sex while women got worried about if the man holds affection for another woman.

19. MAPPING THE MIND The aim of evolutionary psychology is to understand modules in the human mind. CRITICISM OF THEORY OF PAN-ADAPTATIONISM Evolutionary psychologists argue that human mind is built of adaptations out of natural selection instead of consisting of modules. Though not all biological adaptations are due to natural selection many are just side effects of external changes.

20. TWO FEATURES OF MENTAL MODULES ARE HUMAN BEAHVIOURS INEVITABLE & UNCHANGEABLE? Human behavior is entirely built upon adaptations and natural selection hence it can change with due time. THE FUTURE OF PSYCHOLOGY The study of human psychology in future will be entirely transformed by the Darwinian approach. We are learning much about the human mind by studying its evolutionary history. 1. INFORMATIONAL ENCAPSULATION 2. DOMAIN SPECIFICITY