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Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and adaption
Evolutionary psychology esay social
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Evolutionary Psychology is the theoretical approach to psychology that explains useful mental and psychological traits such as perception, memory, language, and human behavior. Evolutionary psychology started a revolution of new ideas being articulated and being built on top of one another like stairs. It is incredible to think that this is a relatively new science in our history as humans. Evolutionary psychology started with a basic idea of simple organisms and has combined into the study of human nature.
Evolutionary Psychology concentrates on three main facets. The first facet states that the human mind comprises a collection or psychological adaptations, which started through the process of the concept of natural selection. The first
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More than a couple people come to my mind concerning evolutionary psychology. The progression started with Erasmus Darwin who theorized that all species evolved from a single tiny organism. This was the foundation for evolutionary psychology. The second key figure that shared a brilliant idea about how evolution might have started with simple organisms, but it also leads to simple organisms as well was Jean Baptiste Lamarck. He also posited that acquired characteristics are biologically transmitted by our offspring and that makes us the people we are …show more content…
Some of the strengths regarding to evolutionary psychology include that this field is something that is timeless. This field was started in the 1700’s and still reconciles with us today. There are still researchers and psychologists that are finding more and more about how we have evolved as a human race and how our behaviors have evolved from what seemed like nothing to now being intricate beings. We all work in different ways, but do the same behaviors, at least most of us do. Timeless is a concept that sometimes gets a bad reputation, because it does not seem like we are any closer to a definite answer to how we behave. In reality though, that just means that we are finding more and more to what we didn’t know in the first place and it is a field of study that hasn’t reached a stopping point. This could be seen as a weakness as well. It could be a weakness in the fact that this branch of psychology is so diverse that it could take longer than originally expected to find all of the needed answers to fully understand its magnitude of human
The main idea behind this paper was to answer this question: "Who are you?" The article makes you think about how psychologists are able to determine whether a trait being physical or psychological is hereditary, is it taught over your upbringing by your parents, or is that just part of your own personal make up. The article states that “most humans feel that the way that they act and perceive the world is built around an environmental basis rather than being a genetic trait. ”(Are You a Natural)
The development of psychology like all other sciences started with great minds debating unknown topics and searching for unknown answers. Early philosophers and psychologists such as Sir Francis Bacon and Charles Darwin took a scientific approach to psychology by introducing the ideas of measurement and biology into the way an indi...
Keith Henson a writer in evolutionary psychology once said that “Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environment.” Evolution was first introduced by a naturalist by the name of Charles Darwin. Darwin had written an autobiography, at the age of 50, On the Origin of Species (1859) explaining how species evolve through time by natural selection; this theory became known as Darwinism. “Verlyn Klinkenborg, who writes editorials and vignettes on science and nature for the “New York Times”” (Muller 706) questions Darwin’s theory in one of his essays he wrote called Darwin at 200: The Ongoing Force of His Unconventional Idea. Both articles talk about the theory of Darwinism, but the authors’ use different writing techniques and were written in different time periods. Darwin himself writes to inform us on what the theory is, where as Klinkenborg goes on to explain why Darwinism is just a theory. Today, evolution is still a very controversial topic among many. It comes up in several topics that are discussed everyday such as in politics, religion and education.
The discussion as to whether nature or nurture were the driving force shaping our cognitive abilities, was for a long time considered interminable. In the 18th century, Locke and the English empiricists claimed that individuals were born with a tabula rasa and only experience could establish mind, consciousness and the self. On the continent, Leibniz envisaged the self as a monad carrying with it some knowledge of a basic understanding of the world. Until the 1960s, this dispute was still very vivid in the behavioral sciences: B. F. Skinner's school of behaviorism in the USA postulated (as reflexology did earlier) general rules for all types of learning, neglecting innate differences or predispositions. K. Lorenz was one of the protagonists of ethology in Europe, focusing on the inherited aspects of behavior. It was Lorenz who ended the antagonistic view of behavior in showing that there indeed are innate differences and predispositions in behavior where only little learning occurs. Today, it is largely agreed upon that nature and nurture are intimately cooperating to bring about adaptive behaviors. Probably only in very few cases ontogenetic programs are not subjected to behavioral plasticity at all. Conversely, the possibility to acquire behavioral traits has to be genetically coded for.
Evolutionary theory is developed from Darwin’s argument that “suggests that a process of natural selection leads to the survival of the fittest and the development of traits that enable a species to adept to its environment. “ Many have taken this a step further by saying that our genetic inheritance determines not only our physical traits but also certain personality traits and social behaviors. There is such a controversy over significant behaviors that unfold because many believe that we are already pre-programmed human species. It has also been argued that evolution is reflected in functioning and structure of the nervous system and that is has evolutionary factors that have a significant influence on everyday behavior. With what is being said means that if we follow the evolutionary theory, then it would be said that we are already pre-programmed from before birth to follow certain protocols in life. Whether it is from finding a mate or by getting a job. It also believed that this theory gives use cues from our own system to follow, providing us with certain aspects of life from our ancestors. By believing in this theory we can determine that the importance of heredity when influencing human behavior. Behavioral geneticists and evolutionary psychologists have both agreed that not only do genetic factors provide specific behaviors or traits but it also shows the limitations on the emergence of such traits or behaviors. What this means is that our genetics will determine how tall we will be to how ...
A complex and relatively new field of study, behavioral genetics is particularly interesting because is sheds light on the inner workings of a favorite subject: ourselves. Human behavioral genetics is broadly defined as the examination and characterization of genes as a basis for human behavior. The link between genetics and behavior was first recognized by Sir Francis Galton, a 19th century scientist and cousin of the very famous Charles Darwin, who studied the heritability of mental abilities of close relatives and family members (Stigler, 2010). Since then, genetics has been linked to many more behavioral phenotypes from eating and mating activities to substance abuse, social attitudes, violence and mental abilities. Geneticists are able to study this by analyzing parallels in physical and behavioral characteristics of families and populations (Rothstein, 2005). However, as with many other new scientific fields, the study of behavioral genetics and its implications has been the subject of increasing scrutiny and co...
The purpose of this academic piece is to critically discuss The Darwinist implication of the evolutionary psychological conception of human nature. Charles Darwin’s “natural selection” will be the main factor discussed as the theory of evolution was developed by him. Evolutionary psychology is the approach on human nature on the basis that human behavior is derived from biological factors and there are psychologists who claim that human behavior is not something one is born with but rather it is learned. According to Downes, S. M. (2010 fall edition) “Evolutionary psychology is one of the many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior”. This goes further to implicate that evolutionary psychology is virtually based on the claims of the human being a machine that can be programmed to do certain things and because it can be programmed it has systems in the body that allow such to happen for instance the nervous system which is the connection of the spinal cord and the brain and assists in voluntary and involuntary motor movements.
Buss and Reeve. (2003). Evolutionary Psychology and Development Dynamics: Comment on Lickliter and Honeycutt. Psychological Bulletin, 129(6), 848-853.
The evolutionary theory is the concept that species evolve over time through the mechanism of natural selection of survival and reproduction. Natural selection means acting on the assumption that various living organisms were produced by genetic diversity and mutation. The evolution theory may also be referred to as the philosophizing science. This theory states that all phenomena are derived from natural causes and can be explained by scientific laws without reference to a plan or purpose.
What is evolution and how does it work? Evolution is the theory of how one form of life changes into another form. Evolution also is the change in a population’s inherited traits from generation to generation. Evolution helps to explain why an animal, human, and plant looks the way it does and acts the way it does; it gives an explanation of the history of life. Genes come in many varieties, and the evolution helps to make it happen.
As all people know it is the nature of human beings to disagree with each other, in cases such as evolution being able to coexist with religion, people almost always have different opinions. Evolution argues that all organisms that once lived or that are still alive on earth today share were descendent from the same common ancestor. The concept of religion and evolution is a topic that is being spoken about worldwide. People either oppose the idea of evolution and religion can coexist or they either support it. Usually, the strict religious people are the ones who oppose the idea because they believe it is against their faith. Others on the other hand, may not believe in neither but they believe that in order to be a scientist and believe in evolution, you must be an atheist. An atheist is a person who does not believe in God. Evolution and religion are seen to be incompatible by many people however; some people believe they can coexist.
Evolution is a systematic mechanism through which the modern day has evolved from his ancestors. The Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is based on the premise that we all
Evolution is the complexity of processes by which living organisms established on earth and have been expanded and modified through theorized changes in form and function. Human evolution is the biological and cultural development of the species Homo sapiens sapiens, or human beings. Humans evolved from apes because of their similarities. This can be shown in the evidence that humans had a decrease in the size of the face and teeth that evolved. Early humans are classified in ten different types of families.
Like physiology, anatomy and biology, evolutionary psychology examines human behaviour from a Darwinian perspective. That is, like physical traits, psychological ...
As everyone knows, the history of human evolution originated from more than five million years ago (Pickrell, 2006). Human is the most intellective living being on the Earth, even in the developed universe. With the development of human being, the beginning of human started to be discovered. This essay will focus on the evolution history of human being. It will explain three most significant time slices of human evolution.