Assignment #6

In my research paper, I want to explore Evolutionary Psychology and everyday life, specifically the theme of Altruism and Cooperation being critical to our success as a society, and where the theory of Darwinism is so pervasive. In the book “Living with Our Genes “by Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland it is about the psychology of “emotional instinct and the genetic roots of personality.” Chapter one explains the “mental, emotional, social and physical character” of a person and the behavior of that person is taught and learned by the parent’s actions. Your behavior determines how you interact with others, the way you socialize, the rules you believe in, and the emotion you express. These traits determine the person you are in a community. Personality is the link to the selfish gene and it is why people are influenced to behave a certain way. Personality is what makes a society and certain habits impact human behavior.

 In “Living with Our Genes “by Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland explains that our inherent genes are based on the merger of two people, our parents and in some capacity, we have inherent traits from them that can impact our personalities. Nonetheless, people can also learn from anyone they surround themselves with and can learn social norms from the rules that are directed from the behavioral patterns that are influenced in groups and a culture.

The second research paper I examined, “In the Exaggerated moral claim of evolutionary psychologist” by Moses L. Pava, the article explains how people are built to think logically and use their intuition to make a decision to choose the best course of action. This ability to make such a choice is known to be a deliberate act, which allows a person to think carefully before making an irrational decision. Therefore, people have a natural instinct to look after themselves. In the article, it gives an example of a trolley and five men. “Assume you realized a lever that you can pull that would change the direction of the trolley to another track, where there is only one man working on the other track. What would you do?” Sadly, logically your actions would save the five men rather saving just one.