Steven Crane Compiled Section Handouts. Human Behavioral Biology 2012

Background from section

My sections are aimed at those who already know the basic background like the basics of natural selection, how neurons work, central dogma, etc. I was a HumBio major.

These filled-in section handouts will be posted after section. NOT a comprehensive handout of testable material, but it covers what I think are the most challenging/interesting/ important topics. Sometimes we'll delve into readings if there's time, but not always. Be sure to do those on your own because there will be a proportion of the test that you won't be able to answer unless you've done your readings.

Contents

Introduction and Evolution/Sociobiology

Things that you really need to know (at the end of every extended notes):

-Basic tenets of Darwinian evolution
-The three building blocks of sociobiology
-Understanding kin selection on a mathematical level, to a certain extent.
-The application of game theory to reciprocal altruism.
-The problem of how reciprocal altruism starts.
-How to explain a number of realms of behavior with sociobiological principles.
-An array of critiques of the field.
Our overall goal is to understand how a sociobiologist would make sense of animal behavior.

Pros and cons of categorical thinking

1. 
   Helps you remember and recognize an example of a group.
   
2. 
   You tend to see members of a group as more similar than they actually are and members of different groups as more different than they actually are (color perception example).
   
3. 
   Myopic focus on individual categories (buckets) by leading thinkers of the past has led to disastrous outcomes
   

Evolution (change over time) caused by a number of things. We focus on the big one: natural selection. Requires what three conditions?

1. 
   Heritability (DNA)
   
2.