CHAPTER 2

EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EXPERIENCE

THINKING ABOUT THE BIOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR

MG. JOHANNA ANDREA FOLLECO
 Dichotomies about behavior

The tendency to think about behavior in terms of dichotomies is illustrated by two kinds of questions
commonly asked about behavior: (1) is it physiological, or is it psychological? (2) is it inherited, or is it
learned?
Inicialmente todos los fenómenos acontecidos por medio de la naturaleza eran adjudicados a Dios,
posteriormente, en el periodo del renacimiento, nace la ciencia moderna en la que la observación
directa de los fenómenos cambia la forma de pensar en el origen de los mismos.
 ANTECEDENTES

Descartes (1596–1650). The universe is

composed of two elements: (1) physical matter,
which behaves according to the laws of nature
and is thus a suitable object of scientific
investigation—the human body, including the
brain, was assumed to be entirely physical, and
so were nonhuman animals; and (2) the human
mind (soul, self, or spirit), which lacks physical
substance, controls human behavior, obeys no
natural laws, and is thus the appropriate purview
of the Church.
IS IT INHERITED, OR IS IT LEARNED?

. . . Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-

formed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to become
any type of specialist I might select—doctor,
lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes even
beggar-man and thief. (Watson, 1930, pp.
103–104)
 ETHOLOGY

At the same time experimental psychology was taking

root in North America, ethology (the study of animal
behavior in the wild) was becoming the dominant
approach to the study of behavior in Europe. European
ethology, in contrast to North American experimental
psychology, focused on the study of instinctive
behaviors (behaviors that occur in all like members of a
species, even when there seems to have been no
opportunity for them to have been learned), and it
emphasized the role of nature, or inherited factors, in
behavioral development.
PROBLEMS WITH THINKING ABOUT THE BIOLOGY OF
BEHAVIOR IN TERMS OF TRADITIONAL DICHOTOMIES
• There are two lines of evidence against physiological or-
psychological thinking (the assumption that some aspects of
human psychological functioning are so complex that they
could not possibly be the product of a physical brain).
The first case is Oliver Sacks’s (1985) account of “the man who
fell out of bed.” This patient was suffering from asomatognosia,
a deficiency in the awareness of parts of one’s own body.
AUTOCONCIENCIA
 NATURE-OR-NURTURE
GENÉTICA O EXPERIENCIA
A MODEL OF THE BIOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR
Twin are when two eggs gets fertilized by two sperms,
basically the same process, but two. Twin can be identical
where they look exactly the same with a slight difference
and then they can be fraternal where they look different but
you can tell them both apart. The twins can look EXACTLY
ALIKE…BUT their DNA is still differer. One can be right
handed and the other can be left. Twins are unique because
they are different but the same at the same time. For
example, say if there are two twins named Alley and Ashley,
Alley may be more of a tomboy and Ashley is more as a
girly girl. Even though they are totally different their still the
same as in looks and their bond is really really close.
 HUMAN EVOLUTION

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

Aportó evidencia de que las especies provienen de especies preexistentes y sugiere un curso
evolutivo
Aportes:
Documentó la evolución con base en el registro y observación de fósiles
Describió estructuras similares entre especies, sugiriendo la existencia de ancestros en común
Argumentó que la evolución surge de un proceso de selección natural que se transmite de una
generación a otra
 HUMAN EVOLUTION

Evolution and behavior

Social Dominance.
Muchas especies establecen una jerarquía de dominancia
social.
Importancia de la jerarquía social en la evolución:
Mayor o menor posibilidad de cópula y de tener descendencia
más saludable y numerosa.
Courtship display –cortejo-
Romper las barreras reproductivas con cambios en el
comportamiento de cortejo para poder asegurar la
reproducción.
 HUMAN EVOLUTION

• COURSE OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

Evolution of vertebrates.
Evolution of amphibians.
Evolution of reptiles.
Evolution of mammals.
Emergence of humankind.
 THINKING ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION
1. Evolution does not proceed in a single line.
2. We humans have little reason to claim evolutionary supremacy.
3. Evolution does not always proceed slowly and gradually.
4. Few products of evolution have survived to the present day—only the tips of the branches of the
evolutionary bush have survived.
5. Evolution does not progress to preordained perfection. Increases in adaptation occur through changes to
existing programs of development; and, although the results are improvements in their particular
environmental context, they are never perfect designs.
6. Not all existing behaviors or structures are adaptive. El ombligo no tiene una función adaptativa, es solo el
product del cordón umbilical.
 THINKING ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION
7. Not all existing adaptive characteristics evolved to perform their current function. Exaptations. Estructuras
creadas para una finalidad pero que terminan siendo determinantes para otra función. Ejemplo: el (falso)
pulgar del panda, cuya finalidad originaria era desplazarse por los árboles, hoy le sirve para coger y
manipular mejor el bambú del que se alimenta.
8. Similarities among species do not necessarily mean that the species have common evolutionary origins.
Estructuras homólogas proceden de un origen común y las estructuras análogas proceden de origenes
diferentes.
9. There is now considerable evidence that Homo sapiens mated (aparearon) with the other Homo species
(e.g., Homo neanderthalensis) they encountered both within Africa and as they migrated out of Africa.
Many Homo populations that once coexisted.
 EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

The brain has increased in size during

evolution.
Most of the increase in size has occurred in
the cerebrum.
An increase in the number of convolutions—
folds on the cerebral surface—has greatly
increased the surface area of the cerebral
cortex, the outermost layer of cerebral tissue
 PSICOLOGÍA EVOLUTIVA

Evolutionary psychologists try to understand human behaviors through a consideration of the pressures
that led to their evolution.
La tendencia a aparearse con machos más evolucionados se observó en varias especies de mamíferos.
Ejemplos de temas de estudio:
Diferencias sexuales
Monogamia vs poligamia
Poliginia (un hombre y dos o más esposas) vs poliandria (una mujer y varios esposos). La poliandria no se
observa en los mamíferos, solo en las especies en las que la contribución del macho es mayor que la de
la hembra
 PSICOLOGÍA EVOLUTIVA
Monogamia vs poligamia
Western cultures promote monogamy, but are humans
monogamous? Many of our students believed so until they
were asked to consider the following three points; then they
were not so sure:
• Many human cultures do not practice monogamy.
• Even in Western cultures most people bond with more than
one partner during their lives.
• Infidelity is common.