Fundamentally, how does natural selection work?

What will be an ideal response?


A good answer will include the following key points:
• In a given species living in a particular environment, some individuals with a genetically influenced trait tend to be more successful than others in finding food, surviving the elements, and fending off enemies—and are therefore better at staying alive long enough to produce offspring.
• As a result, their genes will become more and more common in the population, having been "selected" by reproductive success.
• Over many generations, these genes may even spread throughout the species.
• In contrast, those individuals whose traits are not as adaptive in the struggle for survival will not be as "reproductively fit": They will be more likely to die before reproducing, and their genes—and the traits influenced by those genes—will therefore become less and less common, and may possibly even disappear.

Psychology

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The most dramatic gains in height and weight occur:

a. during prenatal development. b. during the first year of life. c. It depends upon whether the child was born prematurely. d. It depends upon postnatal nutrition levels.

Psychology

The belief that natural selection has shaped mating strategies to benefit the survival of offspring is consistent with a(n) _____ theory of gender role development

a) evolutionary b) sociocultural c) biological d) learning

Psychology

Which of the following is an advantage of the scientific approach over other ways of knowing about the world?

A. eliminating the need for evidence before drawing scientific conclusions B. rejecting the idea that numerous cognitive and motivational biases affect our perceptions C. ruling out intuition, anecdote, and authority as sources of ideas about behavior D. providing an objective set of rules for gathering, evaluating, and reporting information

Psychology

The vestibular bulbs and Bartholin's glands are

A) muscular rings. B) corpora cavernosa. C) active during sexual arousal. D) essential for vaginal lubrication.

Psychology