Chapter 1 SOP3004 Exam 1 Study Guide Be humble We probably have an innate desire to understand the world However we are also prone to errors emotion driven distortions misunderstandings etc Two chief sources of derailed critical thinking 1 Somehow going beyond misunderstanding the data facts 2 Emotional biases We don t want to confess our ignorance People often go beyond the facts that they know We should learn to say I don t know I will have to look it up and think about it Moralistic Fallacy The argument that because something would be terrible if it were true then it must not be true nature behavior o It would be awful therefore it can t be This fallacy is common in the study of human Naturalistic Fallacy The argument that because something exists it is good Confirmation Bias The tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses o This often works in concert with the passions It is particularly pernicious and often difficult to detect Types of Questions Statements o Existential Philosophical What is the meaning of life o Aesthetic o Moral o Scientific What is better a burrito or a taco salad Should I steal bread to feed my family Are diamonds harder than quartz Science is objective it deals with the observable the measurable the quantifiable and possibly falsifiable The quantifiable When you operationalize something you turn it into a measurable item you state how you will measure it Social Psychology uses the scientific method to study social behavior emotion cognition o Two popular methods Experimental and Correlational Experiments require 3 things 1 Randomization pick our populations randomly so our groups are roughly equal on preexisting traits 2 Manipulation Independent Variable and Dependent Variable Independent Variable the variable we manipulate a b Dependent Variable the outcome or the variable we measure i Example We set up an experiment to test whether drinking coffee causes happiness Two groups One drinks coffee one drinks stuff that tastes like coffee no caffeine The IV is the beverage coffee versus other drink The DV is happiness remember we would operationalize this 3 Control We have a comparison group a treatment group Experiments are excellent for addressing causality Often we cannot conduct an experiment moral reasons etc so we are often compelled to conduct correlational research o We call our variables Predictor and Outcome Ex Does poverty lead to lower intelligence We can t randomize rich poor conditions because it would be unethical So we have to examine existing humans in poor and rich families and test their IQs Wealth Lack of wealth would be our Predictor IQ would be our Outcome variable remember we still operationalize BUT we cannot assert causality Maybe low IQ causes poverty Chapter 2 Natural Selection Humans are biological creatures primates that evolved just like any other orgaqnism Charles Darwin was the 1st to propose a mechanism of evolution that worked Natural Selection o He was NOT the first to propose the theory of evolution The basic axioms of natural selection 1 Organisms vary 2 Organisms replicate 3 Organisms compete for limited resources Some survive and reproduce better than others differential reproduction No natural selection unless traits are passed from parent organisms to offspring o Darwin did not know about genetics so he did not know the mechanism of Inheritance Genes Gregor Mendel first discovered the laws of genetics Know that 1 Traits do not blend except under unusual circumstances 2 Traits are passed on independently of each other Traits that you develop during your life do not pass to offspring Genes are helical structures on chromosomes DNA Each person has 23 pairs of chromosomes 22 autosomes and 1 allosome Chromosomes sometimes swap genes cross over and are then passed from parent to offspring o Each offspring gets a novel combination of parents genes Genes do not code directly for traits they code for proteins o Central dogma of biology One gene one protein Most traits are influenced by many genes and are called Polygenetic The most important insight it is about genes not about organisms The Selfish Gene Kin Selection Hamilton s Rule Richard Dawkins argued that we should make a distinction between vehicles and replicators o Organisms are vehicles genes are replicators The gene is inevitably selfish If a behavior allows it to propagate better than other genes it will proliferate o Even if it causes suffering to the organisms The selfish gene is just a metaphor selfish genes do not always give rise to selfish creatures so this isn t a statement about human behavior Natural Selection is the nonrandom alteration of the genetic pool This leads to adaptations to traits the function to allow an organism to survive and reproduce Kin Selection an organism is likely to share alleles by common descent with its relatives Because evolution is about the genes not the organism behaving altruistically to an organism that shares alleles by common descent can increase an organisms Inclusive Fitness Inclusive Fitness the fitness of an organism as measured in terms of the survival and reproduction of its kin each relative valued according to the probability of shared genetic information If rB C then an organism should help another organism o r genetic relatedness the probability of sharing the same allele at a randomly selected loci o B benefit to the helped organism o C cost to the helping organism Coefficient of relatedness o Identical Twins 100 o Siblings 50 o Parent Offspring 50 o Grandparent Grandchild 25 o 1St Cousins 15 o 3rd Cousins 78 Haldane s quip I would lay down my life for 2 brothers or 8 cousins o Using Hamilton s rule rB C Let us call dying living 1 fitness unit o Brother 0 5 relatedness 5 x 2 1 and the cost 1 o Cousin 0 125 relatedness 0 125 x 8 1 and the cost is 1 o This would be an equal trade There has been 5 cases of Red Squirrel adoption where a female squirrel raises another squirrel s offspring o In all cases of adoption the adopted squirrel was a close kin of the adopter r 125 or o Adopting a squirrel costs the female because it lowers the survival rate of her litter greater percentage o However it is beneficial because it increases the likelihood that the adopted squirrel will survive o The researchers found that r B was greater than C in all cases of adoption Further in several cases of the non adoption they found that r B was likely lower than C Chapter 3 Ultimate and Proximate
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