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Topics in Evolutionary Psychology. Why do humans tend to pair off monogamously?Why do babies tend to develop stranger anxiety at about the same age (8-13 mo.)?Why are people more likely to develop a phobia of spiders than of guns?. Evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behav
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1. Evolutionary Psychology The study of evolutionary explanations for shared human behaviors.
2. Topics in Evolutionary Psychology Why do humans tend to pair off monogamously?
Why do babies tend to develop stranger anxiety at about the same age (8-13 mo.)?
Why are people more likely to develop a phobia of spiders than of guns?
3. Evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behaviors. What is natural selection?
(1) Genetic differences between individuals in a species causes (2) some organisms to be better suited to their environment. (3)These organisms are more likely to survive and pass on their genes so (4)these traits become more common in successive generations.
4. Why does stranger anxiety appear between 8-13 mo? Genetic mutations create variation in when stranger anxiety appears:
0 months
3 months
6 months
9 months
1 year
2 years
3 years
Never
(For simplicity, assume stranger anxiety persists for 6-8 months from onset.)
5. Why does stranger anxiety appear between 8-13 mo? In what way are the infants that develop stranger anxiety at 9-12 months better suited to their environment?
0-6 months what is the danger in getting stranger anxiety too early?
2 years-never what is the danger in getting stranger anxiety too late?
6. Your turn: Develop an evolutionary hypothesis for the following common human behavior:
Children protest going to bed.
7. Evolutionary Psych Data