Evolutionary Psychology (Psych 459) Study Guide/Questions Exam 1 Spring 2012
Evolutionary Psychology (Psych 459) Study Guide/Questions – Exam 1 Spring 2012
revised version (4-24)
The exam will have questions on each of the 9 papers we’ve read so far. The format for these questions will be similar to Exam 1 from Winter 2010 that is posted on the website. The exam will also have some questions from the text (chapter 1-7 only) and/or the lectures; the concept list below will help prepare for these questions.
Important Concepts or Problems:
Design criteria (as used by evol. psychologists) / EEA (as used by evol. psychologists)Naturalistic fallacy / Competitive altruism
Facultative trait / Fluctuating asymmetry
Hamilton’s Rule / Concealed ovulation
Reciprocal altruism (Reciprocity) / Parental investment
Prisoner’s Dilemma / Parent-offspring conflict
EES / Handicap theory
Sexual selection / Social Brain hypothesis
Genomic imprinting / Genomic imprinting
Morning sickness, pre-eclampsia / Differential investment by offspring sex
Types of questions that might be on exam (and some of these, or parts of them, may be on the exam):
Can race be erased? paper Can you think of a how a small modification of the design of this experiment might lead to very different results?
Daly & Wilson – Child abuse paper (a) Infanticide in humans is most often committed by step-fathers (live-in boyfriends, etc.). Is this similar to infanticide as observed in some animal species (e.g., lions, langurs)? (b)Can you think of a purely developmental theory that might explain these findings?(c) How could you test this theory? In particular, can you think of predictions from this theory that would be different from those made by Daly & Wilson?
Hamilton vs. Kant paper (a)What do the authors find? (Summarize in one sentence.)(b)According to the authors, which one of these guys (Hamilton or Kant) has it right when it comes to how humans make moral decisions? (c)Can you find a weakness in their argument?
Mate choice (Buss) paper Given the well-known changes in the distribution of wealth in the U.S. in recent times, what would David Buss predict about our mating system if polygyny were legal?
Eating restriction paper Why do the authors think their hypothesis is better than the reproductive suppression hypothesis?
Stieglitz et al – Tsimane wife-abuse paper What do the authors tell us about the nature and extent of the wife abuse in theTsimane? Why does it occur do they think?