There exists an ongoing debate about whether a distinction between proximate and ultimate causes should be drawn, and if so, how. Cost and benefit analyses can be studied with the help of. Ultimate or evolutionary causes concern mismatch between adaptation and current environment, suboptimal design, and design compromises. The underlying ideas inherent in the proximateultimate distinction are not new. Tinbergens four questions provide a comprehensive, logical approach to studying behavior that is particularly useful for indepth analysis. For example, if a zebra is drinking at a water hole, and all of a sudden it hears another zebra nearby make an alarm call, it may stop drinking immediately and start running away instead. We can read ultimate causes as evolutionary processes, among which mayr regards natural selection as the most important. Proximate and evolutionary studies of anxiety, stress and. In essence, the proximateultimate distinction is that between the causes of behavior that occur within an animals lifetime and those that precede its life, i. Nesse university of michigan, room 5057 isr, 426 thompson st. This book is an excellent introduction to the field of evolutionary medicine and the usefulness of asking both ultimate and proximate questions about human health.
Behavioral biology is the study of the biological and evolutionary bases for such changes. Pdf evolutionary theory and the ultimateproximate distinction in. In particular, proximate phenomena have been used to explain questions of ultimate causation. As a result, ultimate explanations have enormous practical potential. Proximate causes include hereditary, developmental, structural, cognitive, psychological, and. Here we discuss its role in arguments about the relevance of developmental to evolutionary biology. The distinction between proximate and ultimate causation in biology. Evolutionary theory and the ultimateproximate distinction in the human behavioral.
Proximate and ultimate causes of behavior 2nd lecture why do extant whitecrowned sparrows have a nervous system that enables them to develop a song that is distinct from that of any other extant sparrow species. Psy practice quiz 5a and graded quiz 4 flashcards quizlet. Darwins theory of evolution allows us to draw a distinction between ultimate causesthe evolutionary pressures that led to the. There are 2 general types of hypotheses that one could. Proximate causes consist of how questions, which help to study the immediate causes of animal behavior. Within evolutionary biology a distinction is frequently made between proximate and ultimate causes.
We talked about the blind spot in the retina, for example. Chapter 2 proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. Behavioral biology proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. The difference between proximate and ultimate explanations of. Anatomically, the axons of retinal photoreceptors come together in one area of the retina to form the optic disc which passes through the globe to form the optic nerve. One goal of behavioral biology is to the innate behaviors, which have a strong genetic component and are largely independent of environmental influences, from the learned behaviors, which result from environmental conditioning. We show that two recent critiques of the proximateultimate distinction fail to explain why developmental processes in particular should be of interest to evolutionary biologists. An ultimate explanation based on sexual selection states that females who display preferences have more vigorous or more attractive male offspring proximate causation explains biological function in terms of. Proximate and ultimate dichotomy evolutionmedicine. They were less likely to get eaten by birds and could then reproduce and pass their wing colors on. Proximate versus ultimate causation arises in animals from its ultimate cause that is, the evolutionary history and. Animal behavior has been studied for decades, by biologists in the science of ethology, by psychologists in the science of comparative. In this article, we 1 evaluate the hypothesis that partner rape functions to dominate and control women, arguing that, as an ultimate explanation, this hypothesis is not compatible with modern evolutionary theory, 2 distinguish between proximate and ultimate explanations, 3. Mayrs proximateultimate distinction has received renewed interest in recent years.
Ultimate causation explains traits in terms of evolutionary forces acting on them example. Seghers, e proximate and ultimate factors in evolutionary thinking on art human ethology bulletin proc. According to evolutionary psychology, which of the following is the best statement regarding the influence of genes and environment on human behavior. Accor ding to mayr, proximate causes gover n the responses of the individual and his organs to immediate factors of the environment while ultimate causes are responsible for the evolution of the particular dna. Adam smith 17231790 on ultimate and proximate causes in. For decades, several types of scientists have studied animal behavior. We therefore discuss possible underlying reasons for the confusions that. Ethology is an extension of genetics, evolution, anatomy. Evolutionary theory and the ultimateproximate distinction in the. Proximate and evolutionary studies of anxiety, stress and depression. Animal behavior has been studied for decades, by biologists in the science of ethology, by psychologists in the science of comparative psychology, and by scientists of many disciplines in the study of neurobiology. Behavior is the change in activity of an organism in response to a stimulus. Even an evolutionary biologist like the late stephen jay gould was prone to this slippage between proximate and ultimate explanations, and then to rejecting an ultimate explanation because of.
You cant really understand anything important about evolutionary psychology, and thus you cant really understand much of anything important about family and civilization, unless you understand this basic distinction. There are ultimate and proximate explanations for behaviours. The idea that behaviors evolved as a result of the pressures of natural selection is not new. The proximateultimate distinction and evolutionary developmental biology. Uncovering mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation to infectious disease. Current scholars typically separate these into proximate and ultimate causes. Causes of psychopathology oxford clinical psychology. Lets take two examples where proximate and ultimate. Start studying evolutionary theory, and proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. In nonpolluted forests, moths with light wings were more likely to survive. Evolutionary theory and the ultimateproximate distinction. Ultimate cause philosophy and behaviour britannica. Once the major findings of behavioral ecology have been examined, the book turns its attention to the.
Once the major findings of behavioral ecology have been examined, the book turns its attention to the proximate mechanisms underlying animal behavior. Ernst mayr first cr eated the distinction between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior. Here, too, the emphasis remains on the evolutionary puzzles provided by particular developmental and neurophysiological mechanisms. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Proximate causes comprise genetic factors, epigenetic modulation, childhood trauma and other life events, and senescence. But there is no comparable reverse relationship functional causes are of no relevance to evolutionary causes. The first two, ethology and comparative psychology, are the most consequential for the study of behavioral biology. Proximate cause is the direct or apparently obvious cause of an event. Ultimate causation explains traits in terms of evolutionary forces acting on them. A proximate cause is an event which is closest to, or immediately responsible for causing, some. Proximate cause is the immediate trigger for a behavior. This confused use of concepts applies to many of these hidden motives.
Vessey, bowling green state university, bowling green, oh, usa. This post is part of a series on the history of social sciences. The proximateultimate distinction, then, is claimed to give rise to an explanatory asymmetry. A discussion of proximate and ultimate causation in rela. Evolutionary researchers discriminate between causes that occur during the lifespan proximate causes, such as learning, cuteness, and hormones and evolutionary causes ultimate causes, such. Evolutionary debunking arguments and the proximate. Wikipedia notes that in biology, ultimate causation deals with evolutionary forces that affect traits, and proximate causation deals with biological. The painfully misunderstood distinction between ultimate and proximate explanations questionnaires measure conscious needs, not ultimate evolutionary causes. Comparative psychology is an extension of work done in human and behavioral psychology. For instance, a violent outburst may have a proximate cause of being insulted, but the remote cause may be hidden anger from a similar event early in the respondents life.
This has occurred in the literature on the evolution of cooperation, in the cultural evolutionary literature, and in discussions of epigenetics. Yet, proximate and ultimate causes deal with questions of how and why and both have applications in other fields. The proximateultimate distinction and evolutionary. Steve stewartwilliams is a fantastic book about the evolution of human psychology and. A crucial task of evolutionary psychology 101 is to learn the difference between proximate and ultimate causation.
In polluted forests, moths with dark wings blended in better. Yet core concepts like selfdeception or selfishness are not defined in the book. One apparently plausible interpretation of this dichotomy is that proximate causes concern processes occurring during the life of an organism while ultimate causes refer to those processes particularly natural selection that shaped its genome. Ultimate causes belong to its evolutionary history. A complete biological explanation that incorporates both proximate and evolutionary explanations will be of great value to better define the border between normal and pathological, to help to explain why pathological anxiety and depression are so common, and to provide a muchneeded basis for sensible decisions about when different. Proximate versus ultimate causation arises in animals from its ultimate cause that is, the evolutionary history and functional utility of the behaviour. Understanding both the proximate and ultimate causes helps us to understand why traits change over time. Here is one from a textbook on evolution and psychology nettle, 2009c. The painfully misunderstood distinction between ultimate. Proximate causes include hereditary, developmental, structural, cognitive, psychological, and physiological aspects of behaviour. Proximate and ultimate explanations are required for a. In mayrs work, the distinction between proximate and ultimate causes is connected to a number of more controversial theses, such as the separation of evolutionary and developmental biology.
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