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Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, [1] is the belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether in embryonic development or in learning. [2]
The social insects provide good examples of organisms with what appear to be kin selected traits. The workers of some species are sterile, a trait that would not occur if individual selection was the only process at work. The relatedness coefficient r is abnormally high between the worker sisters in a colony of Hymenoptera due to haplodiploidy.
The idea of biology-based personality research is relatively new, but growing in interest and number of publications. [7] In August 2004, there was a conference specifically on the topic, called The Biological Basis of Personality and Individual Differences. [8]
For example, cooking led to a reduction of size of the human gut, since less digestion is needed for cooked food. Language led to a change in the human larynx and an increase in brain size. Projectile weapons led to changes in human hands and shoulders, such that humans are much better at throwing objects than the closest human relative, the ...
For example, philosopher Daniel Dennett has proposed that humans are genetically predisposed to have a theory of mind because there has been evolutionary selection for the human ability to adopt the intentional stance. The intentional stance is a useful behavioral strategy by which humans assume that others have minds like their own. This ...
Organisms have evolved a great variety of life histories, from Pacific salmon, which produce thousands of eggs at one time and then die, to human beings, who produce a few offspring over the course of decades. The theory depends on principles of evolutionary biology and ecology and is widely used in other areas of science.
A mathematical example of "survival of the fittest" is given by Haldane in his paper "The Cost of Natural Selection". [62] Haldane called this process "substitution" or more commonly in biology, this is called "fixation". This is correctly described by the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.
For example, the study of personality in chimpanzees by King and Figueredo in 1997 [31] was one of the first studies to apply the five-factor model in animal personality. It demonstrated the existence of personality traits in animals and provided a foundation for similar assessment strategies in future studies of personality in animals. [ 8 ]