Human development studies began with Darwin and other evolutionists who shared his theories. Darwin wanted to prove his theory of evolution; he believed the only approach to this was him studying human development. (Boyd& Bee, 2006) The definition of a lifespan is the average or minimum length of time an organism, material, or object can be expected to survive or last. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) The definition of development based on biology is the process of an individual organism growing organically a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level. (Collins English Dictionary, 2003) Ultimately the two words conjoined define the methodical intra-individual change associated with progresses corresponding to age.
This study can be explained by the evolution of behaviour. The evolution of behaviour was originally founded by Darwin in 1859, this is the theory that all things have evolved over time from their ancestors through the natural selection process. Natural selection tells us that the strongest genes survive and are then passed onto the next generation whilst weaker genes eventually die out. Scientific evidence was provided to show that either species had adapted to their environment and therefore survive or become maladaptive and
The earth started with a basic set of words and has advanced into our modern languages. The interpretation of the languages has changed radically over the past 500 years. Modern languages have changed along with the constant advancing technology. The ways in which everything is interpreted has begun to influence our lives. People can effectively convey ideas and express more abstract thoughts, compared to past generations.
Introduction As our closest living ancestors, bonobos (Pan Americus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have often been used as an ancestral model to study social and cultural hominoid behavior. Chimpanzees and Bonobos' DNA differs only 1% from humans yet their social behavior is very primitive and different compared to humans. Molecular studies indicate that humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos are very closely related in a lineage that split into hominid and Pan lines approximately 6-7 million years ago, possibly following a divergence from the gorilla lineage about 1– 2 million years earlier (Caccone and Powell, 1989). Chimpanzees are great apes, under the Homo lineage, that have been known for their male dominant, meat eating and generally violent culture. Meanwhile bonobos, also great apes, are on a completely different behavior spectrum, they are a female dominant, more peaceful, and heavily sexually oriented society.
Primate brain evolution has been a topic of considerable controversy in the past twenty years, especially since the publication of Jerison's Evolution of the Brain and Intelligence (1973). Since that time, research has been directed at uncovering the selection pressures that led to increases in primate brain size. The two main hypotheses advanced to answer the question of why encephalization has occurred focus on foraging strategies and social intelligence (e.g. Clutton-Brock and Harvey 1980, Byrne and Whiten 1988). The two are not necessarily exclusive, but both claim dominion over the arrow of causality.
Why does the impact of human activity on the environment vary over time and space? Human activity has had a large impact on the environment over the last many hundred years; this has changed and become more prevalent as we enter the 21st century. The impact also varies depending on where it occurs different countries may have a greater impact or may be working harder in order to limit their impact; MEDC’s and LEDC’s will have different impacts and different methods of prevention due to their economic and political situations. Populations in the UK have been around for thousands of years dating right back to the Mesolithic era around 12000-6000 BP, due to the small size in the population and their lack of knowledge, just being hunter-gatherers they has little impact on the environment, this changes however as the population increase and more is discovered, the Neolithic era saw the first farmers appear and along with this the beginning of the clearance of the wild-wood, by 2500 BP almost half of the wild-wood had been cleared as farming technology developed and new fort towns had to be supported. The environment was gradually being degraded, but through the next 2015 years the impact was going to dramatically increase and rapidly speed up until we get to the present day where the earth is in major danger.
Hominid Development of Bipedalism There are many theories about why bipedalism came to be selected for by evolutionary process. The fossil record indicates that hominids started to use bipedal locomotion as their primary method of travel around 11 million years ago. Darwin's ideas indicate that changes in an organism usually respond to change in environment. People who study changes in the Earth have noted that during this time Africa was going through some changes that might have put pressure on these primates to change. ”Gradually, the African rain forests, deprived of intense humidity and rainfall, dwindled in extent; areas of savanna (grasslands) and scattered deciduous woodlands became more common (Ember, Ember, Peregine, 2011).
Genetic evidence sheds considerable light on the origins of the hominid lineage. An increasing body of fossil data helps us to understand where and when hominids came into existence. The first signs of hominid evolution are the morphological changes associated with bipedality, a locomotor pattern that offered fitness, advantages in a new environment. However, other behaviors remained similar to those of nonhuman primates. Dramatic progress came with the evolution of Homo erectus, who exhibited more "human" morphology and life ways.
Neurophysiological and Evolutionary Theories Daryl K. Bonelli PSY/390 October 27, 2013 Dr. Elizabeth Schnobrich Neurophysiological and Evolutionary Theories The process of higher thinking is one way to explain neurophysiological theory. By studying structure, and the functions of the brain, it can access, understand, and treat behaviors that are directly related to the brain, and its functions. The theory of evolution was first proposed by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) in 1801, which stated that organisms go through changes in adapting themselves to the environment for survival, and this is passed on to the next generation. The goal of this paper is to discuss neuropsysiological and evolutionary theories, this must include the theories from Hebb and Robert C. Bolles made to learning and cognition. Starting with Hebb, his work in the field has given valuable access to the human mind and how it assembles information for later use as the life span continues.
Mastering the social niceties of group living requires a lot of brain power. Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford thinks this might explain the enormous expansion of the frontal regions of the primate neocortex, particularly in the apes. "You need more computing power to handle those relationships," he says. Dunbar has shown there is a strong relationship between the size of primate groups, the frequency of their interactions with one another and the size of the frontal neocortex in various species. Besides increasing in size, these frontal regions also became better connected, both within themselves, and to other parts of the brain that deal with sensory input and motor control.