Evolutionary/Intentionality theory

Examples of Evolutionary/Intentionality theory in the following topics:

• The Neolithic Revolution

  • There are several competing (but not mutually exclusive) theories about the factors that drove populations to take up agriculture.
  • The Oasis Theory, originally proposed by Raphael Pumpelly in 1908, and popularized by V.
  • However, this theory has little support amongst archaeologists today because subsequent climate data suggests that the region was getting wetter rather than drier.
  • The Demographic theories proposed by Carl Sauer and adapted by Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery posit that an increasingly sedentary population outgrew the resources in the local environment and required more food than could be gathered.
  • The Evolutionary/Intentionality theory, developed by David Rindos and others, views agriculture as an evolutionary adaptation of plants and humans.

• Evolutionary Psychology

  • Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective.
  • Evolutionary psychology stems from Charles Darwin's theories of evolution, adaptation, and natural selection.
  • Evolutionary biology emerged as an academic discipline in the 1930s and 1940s, along with the study of animal behavior (ethology), both of which heavily influence the development of evolutionary psychology.
  • Consistent with the theory of natural selection, evolutionary psychology sees organisms as often in conflict with others of their species, including mates and relatives.
  • Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection has been highly influential in the field of evolutionary psychology.

• Evolutionary Theory of Motivation

  • According to evolutionary psychology, individuals are motivated to engage in behaviors that maximize their genetic fitness.
  • The basic idea of evolutionary psychology is that genetic mutations are capable of altering an organism's behavioral traits as well as its physical traits.
  • According to evolutionary theory, those who are the most fit are the most likely to survive, and eventually the population evolves in such a way that their traits manifest themselves across the population.
  • Optimization theory is related to evolutionary theory, and is concerned with assessing the success of a behavior.
  • Evolutionary psychology suggests that individuals are motivated to engage in behaviors that maximize their genetic fitness.

• Culture and Biology

  • As a theory of the world, it was essentially a racist concept that persists in certain forms up to this day.
  • Lombroso coined the term atavism to suggest that some individuals were throwbacks to a more bestial point in evolutionary history.
  • However, unlike biological evolution, culture can be intentionally taught and thus spread from one group of people to another.

• Spencer and Social Darwinism

  • This evolutionary process could be found at work, Spencer believed, throughout the cosmos.
  • However, writing after important developments in the field of biology, Spencer rejected the ideological assumptions of Comte's three-stage model and attempted to reformulate the theory of social progress in terms of evolutionary biology.
  • As he elaborated the theory, he proposed two types of society: militant and industrial.
  • Spencer's evolutionary ideas were based more directly on the evolutionary theory of Lamarck, who posited that organs are developed or diminished by use or disuse and that the resulting changes may be transmitted to future generations.
  • This is why Spencer's theories are often called "social Darwinism."

• The Nature and Meaning of Dreams

  • Freud's theory described dreams as having both latent and manifest content.
  • Dreams are thought to provide an evolutionary advantage because of their capacity to repeatedly simulate potential threatening events.
  • This theory explains why dreams are usually forgotten immediately afterwards.
  • One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the activation-synthesis theory, which states that dreams don't actually mean anything.
  • However, given the vast documentation of the realistic aspects of human dreaming, as well as indirect experimental evidence that other mammals such as cats also dream, evolutionary psychologists have theorized that dreaming does indeed serve a purpose.

• Sociobiology

  • Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is very closely allied to the fields of Darwinian anthropology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology.
  • They contend that in order to fully understand behavior, it must be analyzed in terms of evolutionary considerations.
  • Natural selection is fundamental to evolutionary theory.
  • Following this evolutionary logic, sociobiologists are interested in how behavior can be explained as a result of selective pressures in the history of a species.

• Conflict Theory

  • A prominent sociological theory that is often contrasted with structural-functionalism is conflict theory.
  • Conflict theory was developed in part to illustrate the limitations of structural-functionalism.
  • Change is often abrupt and revolutionary rather than evolutionary.
  • This is particularly true of structural-functionalism and social-conflict theories.
  • Structural-functionalism focuses on equilibrium and solidarity; conflict-theory focuses on change and conflict.

• What is Evolution?

  • Evolution, the unifying theory of biology, describes a mechanism for the change and diversification of species over time.
  • The theory of evolution is the unifying theory of biology, meaning it is the framework within which biologists ask questions about the living world.
  • This theory contrasted with the predominant view of the time: that the geology of the planet is a consequence of catastrophic events that occurred during a relatively brief past.
  • In the early nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a book that detailed a different mechanism for evolutionary change.
  • While this mechanism for evolutionary change was discredited, Lamarck's ideas were an important influence on the concept of evolution.

• What is Multiple Intelligences Theory?

  • Originally, the theory accounted for seven separate intelligences.
  • Gardner's theory challenges traditional, narrower views of intelligence.
  • Originally, the theory accounted for seven separate intelligences.
  • Listed below are key points of Gardner's theory:
  • The focus of this part of the chapter will be on lesson design using the theory of Multiple Intelligences, and providing various resources that educator's may use to implement the theory into their classroom activities.