The evolutionary approach argues that gender role division is a consequence of the adaptation to the challenges and circumstances faced by our ancestors. This suggests that the role differences we observe are more a product of our biological inheritance and evolution than social factors acting on our behavior. As evolutionary theory is a biological approach to gender development, it suggests that our genes have coded aspects of human behavior because they were or are adaptive. However a debate to this approach is the nature vs. nurture approach, nature supporting the evolutionary approach being that we have evolved through survival and adaptation to the situations and therefore passing on the adaptive genes of the survivors. Nurture on the other hand is a view, is a view proposed by the social approach suggesting that behavior is affected by socialization and environment.
The nature-nurture debate is all about whether genetics (nature) or our environment (nurture) is responsible for our behaviour and development. Early theorists believed that our personality, intellect, behaviour and gender role were determined by our genes and therefore could not be changed. But an increasing amount of evidence has proved these theorists wrong, and our development as an individual is learnt through the environment we live in. One developmental stage of an individual that psychologists have the nature-nurture debate about is the intelligence stage. The nature side of that intelligence is present at birth and we already have a set amount of intelligence.
Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer Leda Cosmides & John Tooby Introduction The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it. In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Whereas other theorists have argued that is is the way we are brought up and influenced by our surroundings that makes an individual the way they are. Nature means the genetic and biological influences that affect our growth and development. The nature side of the debate believes that it is inherited factors which have more impact on your life and development. For example, the colour or type of your hair, your eye colour, the pigmentation of your skin, and also genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis are all the result of the genes we inherit. These biological factors are said to determine an individual’s development and characteristics .
Behaving Brain 1. Explain the major concepts of evolutionary theory, such as natural selection and variation. Charles Darwin created the theory of evolution and helped us to understand the roots of behavior and mental process. Natural selection states: variations increasing that odds of reproducing and surviving are most likely to be passed on to future generations, this has shaped our traits and behavior tendencies. Nature has selected advantageous variations from the mutations and new gene combo's produced at each human understanding.
Instead, there are several popular models competing for dominance, and the supporters of each model are having trouble understanding each other. ("Evolutionary Psychology ", 2009). Psychology is a discipline that asks and answers the fundamental question, why do we behave the way we do and think the way we think? The best way to characterize the different approaches that are taken to answer the question of psychology is to identify them as major perspectives. The major perspectives represent fundamental assumptions that underlie the research questions and methods that are used in order to answer the questions of psychology.
Phobias can be brought on by many stimuli (dentists, heights, flying) and when a phobia is come into contact with, it often induces some sort of anxiety response. Biologists believe that our phobias exist because of evolutionary development to avoid danger in order to aid survive and increase our chances of reproduction. Many evolutionists believe that some phobias are ‘inherently prepared’, our phobias relate to our ancestors and that through evolution, the people with this phobia
From this outline psychology could clearly be defined as a science as it involves gaining a deeper understanding of humans within the world. However, there are many factors which need to be taken into account in order to claim psychology as science. Thus, this essay will look at and apply the main attributes that characterise a science to psychology, discussing the arguments for and against psychology being a science in relation to scientific methods and research biases. The scientific method involves experimentation exploring observations for cause and effect relationships. The design of which is so one variable is manipulating another variable primarily by gathering quantitative research.
Introduction State what you are doing in the essay This response will attempt to uncover the assumptions and interrelationships of the evolutionary explanation for emotion, in particular, disgust. Define evolution Evolution is the changing in the inherited traits of a species over time. Describe the theory of evolution Evolutionary psychology is at the biological level of analysis and aims to explain all behaviour by evolutionary means. Charles Darwin – the father of evolutionary psychology – proposed the theory of evolution. He suggested those who adapt best to environmental challenges will have a greater chance of survival, reproduction, and passing on genes.
Heredity and Hormones Influence on Human Behavior Debates on nature versus nurture are more likely to determine that genetics are the cause for human behavior. More and more researchers pay attention on genes and behavior, therefore, their tendency to follow a line of investigation on the influence of heredity on human behavior increases the belief that genetics is a major issue which influences physical behaviors. However, the only fact of connection between genetics and behavior seems to be too simple to describe the complex process of human behavior. The factor of hormones’ influence on behavior is also identified which debates the reality of it being controlled exclusively by genetics. The endocrine system is very active and is connected to most of the other main systems of the body.