Transcript Evolutionary Psychology and Emotion

Evolutionary Psychology and
Emotion
Tanisha Tatum
Kali Thomas
Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYyEtZe
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Evolution of the Brain
• The brain has evolved domain-specific
programs to solve adaptive problems
– Ex. Facial recognition and heart rate regulation
• These programs may help each other
– Ex. Increased auditory acuity and alertness can
help when there is a predator present
• BUT they can hinder each other as well
– Ex. If you fall asleep when a predator is near, you
could DIE
So…What did the brain do?
• The brain evolved superordinate programs to
manage the other programs
• They evolved specific instructions for how
your physiology, feelings, and behavior should
interact in specific situations
• These superordinate programs are EMOTIONS
How did emotions evolve?
• Emotions evolved in situations with the
following conditions and only these conditions
1. They recurred ancestrally
2. They could not be negotiated successfully
without a superordinate program
3. They had a reliable repeated structure
4. They had consistent recognizable cues
5. An error would have caused great harm to the
individual’s fitness.
Example
• The situation of having a mate and having that mate have
sex with someone else.
• This situation occurred often over time and constitutes
infidelity.
• Evolutionary Problem: threatens the mate’s chance for
reproductive success/ sperm competition.
• Cues: observing a sexual act, flirtation and then even
associated elements, once you suspect your mate is
cheating you think you may have been lied too, that your
mate may have had sex with someone else, etc..
• The emotion that evolved from this: Sexual Jealousy
• Sexual Jealousy- prepares you for things such as violence,
sperm competition, withdrawal of investment, murdering
the rival emerges
Characterizing Emotion
• To characterize an emotion adaptation:
1. An evolutionarily recurrent situation or condition.
Examples: depleted nutritional state, competing for
maternal attention, being chased by a predator,
experiencing death etc…
2. The adaptive problem: what is the best course of action
when others take the products of your labor without your
consent? Basically asks, what the problem is and what the
best course of action is.
3. Cues that signal the presence of a situation: for example,
low blood sugar signals a depleted nutritional state, seeing
your mate having sex with another signal sexual infidelity
Communication and Emotions
• Many emotions produce characteristic displays
that broadcast to others the emotional state of
the individual.
• Many emotional expressions appear to be
designed to be informative and these have been
so reliably informative that humans also evolved
automated interpreters of facial displays of
emotions that decode these public displays into
knowledge of others mental states.
• SO WE KNOW HOW TO INTERPRET EACH OTHER’S
MENTAL STATE!
What is the point of expressions?
1. Provides observers with information about the state of that individual’s
mental programs and physiology
2. Identify the evolutionarily recurrent situation being faced
• Some emotions are signaled w/expressions and some or not, WHY?
– There was a net benefit or cost to having others know that mental
state, so they averaged out.
– For the situations that occurred often, it was beneficial to know one’s
face. Example: fear was probably beneficial to signal because it
signaled the presence of danger, danger that might effect one’s kin or
friends.
– When selection is neutral, signs of an emotion should only be a
byproducts of whatever is necessary to run the emotion.
– When selection disfavors others knowing how we feel, selection
should suppress & obscure external cures identifying internal states.
– SELECTION PRESSURES RESULTED IN: some emotions would be
automatically broadcast, other’s would not evolve a signal and others
would evolve circuits that regulate whether or not you want to show
emotions, such as with language.
Quiz Time!
1.
All adaptive programs work together efficiently without any executive
organization. T/F?
2. Emotions function as a solution designed to take advantage of a recurrent
situation or triggering condition. T/F?
3. Why are facial expressions important?
a) They help to attract a mate.
b) They help organize our adaptive programs.
c)
They provide people with information about our physiology and the current
situation.
4. According to this article, why do some emotions lack facial expressions and
other's don't?
a) Only important emotions have expressions
b) Varied selection pressures in the ancestral situations
c)
Neither, all emotions have expression
1. F
2.T
3. c
4. b
References
• Comides, L., & Tooby, J. Evolutionary
psychology and the emotions. In M. Lewis, &
J.M.Haviland-Jones (Ed.), Handbook of
Emotions (pp. 91-114). New York: Guilford.