ETHOLOGICAL APPROACHES Miller   Ethology is focus on behavior in ecological niche Tinbergen: 4 causes -immediate (proximal cause) -ontogenetic (change over time) -functional (immediate consequence of behavior) -phylogenetic (behavioral evolution, survival function) Ethologists’ focus on last two, along with observation of species in habitat, influenced developmental psychology

Specific developmental areas studied:  Basic principles: -Species-specific innate behavior promotes reproductive success or survival -Learning potentials/constraints depend on species -Experiential effects depend on timing (critical/sensitive periods)   Specific developmental areas studied: -Attachment, bonding. -Peer relations--dominance hierarchies -Problem solving in natural context

Lickliter & Honeycutt   Reject genetic determinism of evolutionary psychology -Developmental system is self-organizing -No need for a genetic “master plan” Phenotypic variation is product of complex sequence of interactions among genes, cells, & environments in course of development  -Evolutionary psychologists talk of interactions, but these are “weak” interactions; that is, genes predispose/constrain behavioral possibilities activated by differing environments. -Modularity theory represents this view

“Phylogeny fallacy” -Genetic program evolved in “environment of evolutionary adaptedness” (huntering-gathering). -Phylogeny is a distal cause of ontogeny separate from current proximal causes   “Developmental processes are fundamental to both individual development & to evolutionary changes” (p. 829). -Can’t separate genetic, environmental transmission or distal, proximal causes.   -Example: Non-genetic intergenerational transmission of masculine characteristics in female rats related to in-utero testosterone levels

Phenotypic variation is created by individual ontogeny, not natural selection of random genetic mutations. -New phenotype may result from lasting change in individual-environment interaction. -Example: Change in food source from soft to hard leads to inter- generationally consistent hardening of rodent jaw bones. This precedes any genetic selection process (change in gene frequency). -Effects of modified early experience can also be transmitted inter-generationally. Example: Bodyweight, fearfulness differences between groups of rats occur as a function of whether or not their mothers or grandmothers were handled as infants. Phenotypic outcomes of individual ontogeny may eventually be selected as adaptive in the environmental context -resulting in change in gene frequency in the population, as less adaptive phenotypes are filtered out of the gene pool.

New biological fields, eco-devo & evo-devo, integrate developmental, evolutionary, ecological, genetic studies to explain how developmental mechanisms guide and constrain evolution.   Evolutionary psychology should be re-directed toward understanding the complex of factors (internal and external) that elicit, maintain and/or eliminate similarities or differences in behavioral characteristics across generations. Need to eliminate false dichotomies of phylogeny vs. ontogeny, nature vs. nurture.