Читать книгу The Handy Psychology Answer Book - Lisa J. Cohen - Страница 196

The ultimate level of causation refers to the behavior’s evolutionary significance; how the behavior enhances reproductive fitness. The proximate cause refers to the immediate cause of a behavior, whether that be hormonal, neurological, cognitive, interpersonal, or cultural. For example, the proximate cause of humans eating more cookies, cake, and ice cream is that people enjoy the taste; cookies, candy, and ice cream taste good. The ultimate cause involves the high caloric content of both sweet and high fat foods, which promotes physical survival in resource-scarce environments. Such environments were typical until only just recently.

How is Darwinian evolution relevant to psychology?

Darwinian evolution is the central explanatory framework for all of biology. All of biological science is understood within the context of evolution. Likewise, human beings are biological animals and our behavior is inextricably tied to our biology. Thus, a clear understanding of evolutionary principles is critical to the understanding of human psychology.

However, distinguishing between proximate and ultimate causes in human beings is extremely difficult, far more difficult than it is in simple animals, like insects, whose behavior is much more closely tied to their genetics. This is because one of the most important evolutionary strategies of human beings involves our remarkably developed intelligence. No other animal on earth can learn information of such complexity and modify its behavior in such diverse ways. Therefore, due to our remarkable behavioral flexibility, it is very difficult to distinguish what behavior is learned and what is genetically based.