Evolutionary Concepts Important to Psychiatry

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McGuire ◽  
Alfonso Troisi
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Ultimate Causation ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Evolutionary Concepts

This chapter explores evolutionary concepts important to psychiatry. It discusses concepts including natural selection, adaptation, function, ultimate causation, individual fitness, self-interest, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and traits and trait variation.

What the human annals tell us

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen J. Broude
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Cultural Data

Evidence reveals numerous cross-cultural universals regarding human mental processes and behavior. Similarly, cross-cultural data are consistent with predictions from theories of kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and sexual selection inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Thus, the “annals of human behaviour” do provide “example[s] fitting the sociobiological bill,” (Lifelines, p. 202) thereby, supporting sociobiological accounts of human behavior.

SHOULD INDIVIDUAL FITNESS INCREASE WITH HETEROZYGOSITY?

Genetics ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-209
Author(s):  
Michael Turelli ◽  
Lev R Ginzburg
Keyword(s):  
Linkage Disequilibrium ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Correlated Traits ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Stable Product ◽  
Theoretical Results ◽  
Average Fitness

ABSTRACT Natural selection influences not only gamete frequencies in populations but also the multilocus fitness structures associated with segregating gametes. In particular, only certain patterns of multilocus fitnesses are consistent with the maintenance of stable multilocus polymorphisms. This paper offers support for the proposition that, at stable, viability-maintained, multilocus polymorphisms, the fitness of a genotype tends to increase with the number of heterozygous loci it contains. Average fitness always increases with heterozygosity at stable product equilibria (i.e., those without linkage disequilibrium) maintained by either additive or multiplicative fitness schemes. Simulations suggest that it "generally" increases for arbitrary fitness schemes. The empirical literature correlating allozyme heterozygosity with fitness-correlated traits is discussed in the light of these and other theoretical results.

Units and levels of selection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Levels Of Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Individual Organism ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Hierarchical Levels ◽  
The Individual

In a standard Darwinian explanation, natural selection takes place at the level of the individual organism, i.e. some organisms enjoy a survival or reproduction advantage over others, which results in evolutionary change. In principle however, natural selection could operate at other hierarchical levels too, above and below that of the organism, for example the level of genes, cells, groups, colonies or even whole species. This possibility gives rise to the ‘levels of selection’ question in evolutionary biology. Group and colony-level selection have been proposed, originally by Darwin, as a means by which altruism can evolve. (In biology, ‘altruism’ refers to behaviour which entails a fitness cost to the individual so behaving, but benefits others.) Though this idea is still alive today, many theorists regard kin selection as a superior explanation for the existence of altruism. Kin selection arises from the fact that relatives share genes, so if an organism behaves altruistically towards its relatives, there is a greater than random chance that the beneficiary of the altruistic action will itself be an altruist. Kin selection is closely bound up with the ‘gene’s eye view’ of evolution, which holds that genes, not organisms, are the true beneficiaries of the evolutionary process. The gene’s eye approach to evolution, though heuristically valuable, does not in itself resolve the levels of selection question, because selection processes that occur at many hierarchical levels can all be seen from a gene’s eye viewpoint. In recent years, the levels of selection discussion has been re-invigorated, and subtly transformed, by the important new work on the ‘major evolutionary transitions’. These transitions occur when a number of free-living biological units, originally capable of surviving and reproducing alone, become integrated into a larger whole, giving rise to a new biological unit at a higher level of organization. Evolutionary transitions are intimately bound up with the levels of selection issue, because during a transition the potential exists for selection to operate simultaneously at two different hierarchical levels.

Tolerated reciprocity, reciprocal scrounging, and unrelated kin: Making sense of multiple models

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 572-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gurven
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Multiple Models ◽  
Costly Signaling ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Rigorous Testing

Four models commonly employed in sharing analyses (reciprocal altruism [RA], tolerated scrounging [TS], costly signaling [CS], and kin selection [KS]) have common features which render rigorous testing of unique predictions difficult. Relaxed versions of these models are discussed in an attempt to understand how the underlying principles of delayed returns, avoiding costs, building reputation, and aiding biological kin interact in systems of sharing. Special attention is given to the interpretation of contingency measures that critically define some form of reciprocal altruism.

scholarly journals Strong Reciprocity and the Comparative Method

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Strong Reciprocity ◽  
Important Phenomenon

AbstractErnst Fehr and his collaborators have argued that traditional explanations of human cooperation cannot account for strong reciprocity. They provide substantial empirical evidence that strong reciprocity is an important phenomenon that cannot be explained by the traditional models of kin selection or reciprocal altruism. In this note, however, I argue that it will be difficult to test specific adaptive explanations of strong reciprocity because it is apparently unique to humans. Consequently, it is difficult to employ the comparative method, which is one of biology’s best tools for testing adaptationist claims.

Darwin's ““Imaginary Illustrations””: Creatively Teaching Evolutionary Concepts & the Nature of Science

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan C. Love
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
Evolutionary Concepts

An overlooked feature of Darwin's work is his use of ““imaginary illustrations”” to show that natural selection is competent to produce adaptive, evolutionary change. When set in the context of Darwin's methodology, these thought experiments provide a novel way to teach natural selection and the nature of science.

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