The evolution of human behavior has affected diseases and medical conditions or morbidities such as psychiatric and psychological conditions. Some of these conditions have become acceptable as consequences of not only genetics but effects from the environment such as climate, culture, nutrition, healthcare, etc. Herein lies the discussion of nature versus nurture. A major component in human evolution is the social environment and our ability to adjust or modify it to suit our needs. This ability to make changes allows for the potential mismatch between evolved phenotypes and the current surroundings that we exist and live within, possibly leading to psychological disorders (Gluckman et al., 2016).
Subjection to unfortunate and early social environments such as childhood neglect or abuse, has been linked to increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) responses to stress where there is a greater risk of suffering from depression later in life, especially if exposed to other stressful occasions. Increased vulnerability to environmental stressors can be seen as an evolved trait, where stressful environments guide development toward outcomes that are adaptive to stressful conditions as mechanisms affecting physiological functions (Gluckman et al., 2016).
Higher risk-taking or immature behavior is thought to be connected to the lack of prefrontal cortex development, which has been known to affect judgment, planning, impulse control, and decision-making portions of the human brain. Usually, this part of the brain and consequential mental development is not fully mature until about 25 years of age. There is evidence of young males experiencing puberty at an earlier age, where they are biologically mature while simultaneously being psychologically immature (Gluckman et al., 2016). I think that this might be leading to them being much more prone to having suicidal tendencies than those experiencing puberty later. This example appears to demonstrate how a mismatch can affect other adolescent issues such as risky behaviors, drug use and abuse, rebelling, and depression at an early age (Gluckman et al., 2016).
Evolution and Medicine: A Holistic Approach
Evolutionary principles can be applied to medical practice and public health. By exploring an evolutionary perspective, the focus can be steered towards clinical medicine and public health. Evolutionary explanations can encourage differing perspectives of basic, clinical, and public health analysis. Evolutionary interpretations seem to seek the “why” a clinical problem has come about rather than the mechanistic approach of “how” some ailments surface.
Medical conditions might be better understood when a more encompassing or holistic approach looks at a patient’s social background including personal, family, and medical history, a patient’s lineage, human biological and cultural evolution, as well as the broader biological evolution. Examples in this chapter relayed how multiple components are responsible for influencing the risk of acquiring disease and illness. Influenza is often seen as a respiratory viral infection with various levels of severity. Influenza has a relationship with animals where there is a rapid evolution of viruses while we try to maintain effective vaccines. The genomic sequence and evolution of the influenza virus is constantly being evaluated in order to develop vaccines and/or other prophylactic public health strategies. These measures tap into evolutionary principles. Evolutionary science is the main uniting principle within all biology (Gluckman et al., 2016)
Evolutionary Psychology and Consumer Behavior
Author Gad Saad writes about how Darwinian concepts of evolution affect us as consumers in his article of “Applying Evolutionary Psychology in Understanding the Darwinian Roots of Consumption Phenomena”. Humans as a species as well as consumers, embrace various behaviors that are linked to many key Darwinian modules of evolution such as variation, selection, and adaptation. These concepts are found to be consistently reoccurring within expressions of popular culture such as in music, television, and movies. Some of our consumption rituals have roots in our Darwinian heritage, but where consumers are not necessarily consciously aware of the resulting cause or etiology of their behaviors. Most people do not think about our biological heritage when we our buying goods or services (Saad. 2006).
Many of Saad’s examples were relative to reproductive fitness and how specific aspects of selection such as hair color, eye color and height could affect courtship rituals such as dating and gift-giving. Other factors brought up were how females might be more concerned with their physical appearance and pursuing products or services (cosmetics and cosmetic surgery) that would hopefully attract males with more resources that would help perpetuate the success of future offspring. Males were thought to pursue products that allude to their material resources by displaying expensive vehicles (Saad, 2006). I find it interesting how some of these aspects might be viewed today as stereotyping or sexist, however, have some relevance in actual science and research.
Jealousy Through an Evolutionary Lens
“Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolution, Physiology, and Psychology” an article written by Buss, Larsen, Westen, and Semmelroth, 1992 reports on a hypothesis where situations that initiate emotions of jealousy, may physiologically and psychologically be different for men and women. This issue might have evolved over time due to the different adaptive problems humans experience during mating rituals. Three studies were conducted with participants being undergraduate students, presumably from the University of Michigan and being mostly equally divided between male and female. The study asked questions of what would be more distressing regarding both sexual and emotional infidelity. The results of the studies support that jealousy was activated when questions of this context were discussed with the participants while being connected to a polygraph to monitor skin response, heart rate, and signal strength. The studies would find that these two types of infidelity would have differing results between men and women. Men were more distressed than women while thinking that their partner was having a sexual relationship with another partner, than if the relationship was emotional. Women appeared to be more disturbed by the emotional infidelity of their partner being committed or emotionally attached to a different partner (Buss et al., 1992).
Evolutionary psychological concepts that may be relative to this issue of jealousy and infidelity, are that female commitment jealousy and male sexual jealousy will be greater in cultures where males invest heavily in the upbringing of their children. Also male sexual jealousy will decline as the age of the male’s partner increases due to the female reproductive fitness also declining (Buss et al., 1992). I think that these studies can be seen as limited or somewhat biased in that the participants were of a single age group (college age) and culture (American Midwest). Other age groups or persons from other parts of the country or the world might yield different results.
Art and Evolutionary Psychology
There is an increased curiosity in evolutionary psychology and how it affects our inherited nature within contemporary life, or so Richard Hickman’s 2016 “Reflections on Art Making and Evolutionary Psychology” states. This leads to the question of if all human beings possess an innate capacity and desire for making and appreciating art? Does denial of this capacity lead one to an unrealized and unhealthy life? He goes onto remember that as a young art teacher, a colleague commented that “you can’t teach art; you’re either born with it or not.” Maybe having the ability to know, see or make art is highly subjective on defining what art actually is to one person and not to another. Does art reflect skill, expression, and organization or other universal signatures, for everyone defining what their version of art entails?
Hickman goes on to submit the concept of humans in years past, having to rely on their knowledge of plants and their relative health to ensure survival, in essence, a form of art in detecting fresh-looking plants over diseased or spoiled fruits and vegetables perhaps. He goes on to state individuals are not born as an artist or with specific art-related talents but rather that we are born with a potential for a sense of creativity to adapt our environment and accessories to our needs and desires (Hickman, 2016).
Conclusion
From an evolutionary perspective, I think that many artistic developments have come about due to evolutionary adaptation relative to our preferences and dislikes of foods, music, cinema, and other entertainment or traditions. As I have studied anatomy and physiology, I have come to understand that most functions and responses of the human body, basically come down to chemistry. As I have just seen the tip of the iceberg with this course’s topics, I think that almost everything in our bodies, our behaviors, and beliefs, all within our environment and the universe as a whole, comes down to evolution. I have been exposed to how evolution has affected many human health issues such as pregnancy, nutrition, disease, and heredity. I have also become more aware of how the behaviors of humans as well as other species are affected by evolution principles. Also, evolutionary environmental changes in climate, weather, and other geographical issues have come to play a part in how other interconnected components are all affected. In sum, evolutionary psychology offers a compelling framework for understanding human behavior, from health and disease to consumer choices and social dynamics. The studies and theories discussed in this essay demonstrate how evolutionary principles continue to shape modern life, influencing everything from public health strategies to interpersonal relationships. By exploring human behavior through an evolutionary lens, we gain a deeper appreciation for how our biology, culture, and environment are interconnected. As our understanding of evolutionary science continues to evolve, so too will our insights into the human condition.
References
Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolution, Physiology, and Psychology. Psychological Science, 3(4), 251–255. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40062797
Gluckman, Peter; Beedle, Alan; Buklijas, Tatjana; Low, Felicia; Hanson, Mark. (2016) Principles of Evolutionary Medicine (p. 261-284). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Gluckman, Peter; Beedle, Alan; Buklijas, Tatjana; Low, Felicia; Hanson, Mark. (2016) Principles of Evolutionary Medicine (pp. 324-325). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Richard Hickman. (2016). Reflections on Art Making and Evolutionary Psychology. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 50(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.5406/jaesteduc.50.3.0001 Saad, G. (2006). Applying Evolutionary Psychology in Understanding the Darwinian Roots of Consumption Phenomena. Managerial and Decision Economics, 27(2/3), 189–201. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25151431
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