Evolutionary

Theories
How Would You Study
These?
• How are self-esteem and conscientiousness related? Survey to look at
correlations
• Do people remember novel stimuli better than non-novel stimuli?
Experimental study
• Does reading a novel while in public increase perception of
smarty-pants-ness?
• Do people who wear glasses have different mood fluctuations than
those who don’t wear glasses?
Evolutionary theory suggests that you would chose 5 year old. Cause they have a higher chances of
survival and passing on your genes… 1 year old more likely to die (less closer to reproductive age)
20 year old cause he has more chances of reproductive success.
Quiz
You are on a boat that overturns. It contains your 5-year-old and 1- good financial prospects
year-old children (of the same sex). The boat sinks and you can save good looks According to the theory: wom
only one. Whom do you choose to save? a caring and responsible personality
financial, caring, and ambition
5-year-old physical attractiveness
1-year-old ambition and industriousness Men will chose looks and exciti
  an exciting personality personality
That same boat (you are slow to learn lessons) contains your 40-
year-old and 20-year-old children (both of the same sex). Neither Who will mourn more at the death of a child? Choose the answer in
can swim. As the boat sinks, whom do you choose to save? each pair:
40-year-old a. father or mother
20-year-old b. parents of the father or parents of the mother
  c. younger parents or older parents
Would you rather marry (or have you married) someone older or   It depends on the probability of
younger than yourself? Which will elicit more grief? Choose the answer
child in eachWoman
is there's. pair: have 10
older a. death of a son or death of a daughter
Older cause they
younger b. death of an unhealthy child or death of a healthy child
chance of produc
is another factor

According to the theory: men prefer younger cause

Of the following six, which three are most important in the
they are more likely to reproduce
selection of your mate?
Woman tend to prefer older
Evolutionary Theory
Natural Selection
Based on the notion that we will reproduce
During reproduction some errors happen. Most of the time these mistakes
are insignificant. Some mistakes are good, some mistakes are bad. Nature
selects some characteristics over others. The undesirable characteristics in
animals die off… this is essentially natural selection. Nature doesn’t always
select characteristics that help it survive…. For ex: why does a peacock
have such vibrant colors??? It isn’t all about survival… but also about
reproduction
Evolution simply means change over time.
even if you live to be a 100-year-old, if you fail to mate and produce children, your
genes will die with your body. Thus, reproductive success, not survival success, is
the engine of evolution by natural selection.
 The Basics
Survival Adaptations Mate Competition

In this pic sharp teeth is a survival adaptations to In this pic, the strong one
kill prey will get to pick its mate. So
the antlers are for
reproduction
The 2 classes of adaptation:
survival adaptation: mechanisms that helped our ancestors handle the “hostile
forces of nature.”
Reproduction: help us compete for mates. These adaptations are described in an
evolutionary theory proposed by Charles Darwin, called sexual selection theory
 Sexual Selection
Theory
Sexual Selection – The evolution of characteristics not because of survival
advantage, but because of mating advantage. Not everything will benefit
survival… it may even make the chances of survival lower
Intrasexual Competition – Members of the same sex compete with each
other, and the winners gain mating access to the opposite sex. In humans,
intrasexual example could be like a boxing or wrestling match. Whatever
qualities lead to winning will be passed down
Intersexual Competition – Members of one sex prefer certain qualities in mates. For
ex why peacock has all those color, intelligence, kindness. This occurs in both sexes.
In humans, could be physical appearance and kindness.
 Gene Selection Theory
Genes that are better able to encourage the organism to reproduce, and thus replicate themselves in the organism’s offspring,
have an advantage over competing genes that are less able.

Who do we take care off Evolution theory suggest that your mom’s mom is you
Genes increase their own closest/most loved grandparent cause the certainty is
the highest.
replication in two ways:
Parental certainty and investment. It is
disproportionate in the sexes
 Influence individual bodies to
survive & reproduce
Inclusive Fitness
You wanna take care  Influence individual bodies to
of people who have
similar genes to you help other bodies that are It also suggests we will care for similar genes
likely to contain copies of
themselves
We aren’t actually thinking about this. These are evolved in our
characteristics
genes can boost their own replicative success in two basic ways. First, they can influence the odds for survival and
reproduction of the organism they are in (individual reproductive success or fitness—as in the example with the
 Evolutionary Psychology
aims the lens of modern evolutionary theory on the workings of the human mind
Psychological Adaptations - Mechanisms of the mind that evolved to solve specific problems of survival or
reproduction. These kinds of adaptations are in contrast to physiological adaptations, which are adaptations that
occur in the body as a consequence of one’s environment. One example of a physiological adaptation is how our skin
makes calluses. First, there is an “input,” such as repeated friction to the skin on the bottom of our feet from
walking. Second, there is a “procedure,” in which the skin grows new skin cells at the afflicted area. Third, an actual
callus forms as an “output” to protect the underlying tissue—the final outcome of the physiological adaptation (i.e.,
tougher skin to protect repeatedly scraped areas). a psychological adaptation is a development or change of a
mechanism in the mind. For example, take sexual jealousy. First, there is an “input,” such as a romantic partner
flirting with a rival. Second, there is a “procedure,” in which the person evaluates the threat the rival poses to
the romantic relationship. Third, there is a behavioral output, which might range from vigilance (e.g., snooping
through a partner’s email) to violence (e.g., threatening the rival).
Things that we do as humans that can be explained through evolution

As a psychological adaptation, a woman being jealous for flirting with another female. Thus, humans became
jealous because she needs the man for the child. She needs parental investment from the dude.
Callus on hand:
Food preferences:
 Evolutionary Psychology
ological adaptations interact with culture

ulture may activate or activate certain

lective (Japan) vs individual (USA)

us what is found attractive may differ between cultures.

her culture norms such as religion, virginity

evolutionary psychology, culture also has a major effect on psychological adaptations. For example, status within one’s group is important in all culture
achieving reproductive success, because higher status makes someone more attractive to mates. In individualistic cultures, such as the United States,
tus is heavily determined by individual accomplishments. But in more collectivist cultures, such as Japan, status is more heavily determined by
ntributions to the group and by that group’s success. For example, consider a group project. If you were to put in most of the effort on a successful
oup project, the culture in the United States reinforces the psychological adaptation to try to claim that success for yourself (because individual
hievements are rewarded with higher status). However, the culture in Japan reinforces the psychological adaptation to attribute that success to the
ole group (because collective achievements are rewarded with higher status). Another example of cultural input is the importance of virginity as a
sirable quality for a mate. Cultural norms that advise against premarital sex persuade people to ignore their own basic interests because they know
at virginity will make them more attractive marriage partners. Evolutionary psychology, in short, does not predict rigid robotic-like “instincts.” That is,
ere isn’t one rule that works all the time. Rather, evolutionary psychology studies flexible, environmentally-connected and culturally-influenced
aptations that vary according to the situation.
 Sexual Strategies Theory
Sexual Strategies Theory – Humans have evolved a menu of mating strategies, which are selected
based on culture, social context, parental influence, and personal mate value. (based on sexual
selection theory)
Sex differences in mate preferences and competition
Parental investment
Woman have more parental investment if they have a child, but men have low compared to women. These
differences in parental investment have an enormous impact on sexual strategies. For a woman, the risks
associated with making a poor mating choice is high. She might get pregnant by a man who will not help to
support her and her children, or who might have poor-quality genes. And because the stakes are higher for a
woman, wise mating decisions for her are much more valuable. For men, on the other hand, the need to
focus on making wise mating decisions isn’t as important. That is, unlike women, men 1) don’t biologically
have the child growing inside of them for nine months, and 2) do not have as high a cultural expectation to
raise the child. This logic leads to a powerful set of predictions: In short-term mating, women will likely be
choosier than men (because the costs of getting pregnant are so high), while men, on average, will likely
engage in more casual sexual activities (because this cost is greatly lessened). Due to this, men will sometimes
deceive women about their long-term intentions for the benefit of short-term sex, and men are more likely
than women to lower their mating standards for short-term mating situations.
For thinking long term men and woman don’t think differently
 Existing Evidence of Sex Strategies
Theory
On average, men…
• want more sex partners than women
• have sex sooner in a relationship
• are more willing to consent to sex with strangers
• and are less likely to require emotional involvement in order to have sex.
• have more frequent sexual fantasies and fantasize about a larger variety of sex partners
• are more likely to regret missed sexual opportunities
• lower their standards in short-term mating, showing a willingness to mate with a larger variety of
women as long as the costs and risks are low.
 Sexual Strategies
Theory
Women Slight differences Men
 Possession of resources  Youth
 Access to resources  Health
 Commitment
 Attractiveness
 Error Management Theory
deals with the evolution of how we think, make decisions, and evaluate uncertain situations—that is, situations where there's no
clear answer how we should behave
Whenever making a judgment in the face of uncertainty, selection will create cognitive biases that function to minimize costly errors.
Probability factor
The snake in the leaves example in the book: you go around or walk through?
choices are called “cost asymmetries.” If during our evolutionary history we encountered decisions like these generation after
generation, over time an adaptive bias would be created: we would make sure to err in favor of the least costly (in this case, least
dangerous) option (e.g., walking around the leaves). To put it another way, EMT predicts that whenever uncertain situations present
us with a safer versus more dangerous decision, we will psychologically adapt to prefer choices that minimize the cost of errors.
Same example with the height and ambulance: we perceive an ambulance coming towards us as louder vs when its going away
(auditory looming bias)
Same thing with male overperception bias: Men often misread sexual interest from a woman, when really it’s just a friendly smile or
touch.
 Evolutionary
explanations
• Some kids hate broccoli: kids want high energy foods. Bitterness is not
good for em
• Biological dads are less likely to hurt kids than un related step dad:
you were hurting your genes
• More ppl are scared of spiders than electricity:
• Infants like strangers until they learn to crawl: they rely on ppl for
movement
• Men more often perceive strangers as sexually interested than
woman do: for the reasons stated before
 Critiques
• Tendency to work backwards from data to theory: They find
differences between men n woman and then make a theory… not
how science is supposed to work.
• Reinforces nature of social scripts: men vs woman… not as simple
• Deterministic consequences of these theories: our behavior is
determine by our genes, which isn’t the case. Multiple other factors…
multiple levels of analysis
 Conclusion
• Evolutionary theory can be applied to psychology
• Helps form a foundation for human nature