Friday, March 09, 2007
Evolutionar psychology
Evolutionary psychology, David Buss, jealousy, fear and other emotions
Right now I am reading an article about David Buss and his books and opinions on jealousy, and about his views on evolutionary psychology, (J Is for Jealousy). One thing shocks me severely; not only David Buss but many other scientists on this field take the phrase evolved emotion too easy in their mouth. It is really too easy to use this word.
If e.g. jealousy is evolved emotion, then I miss the statement from which it has evolved. Jealousy is, of course, evolved emotion, but somebody should say from which it has evolved, and because if somebody says it has evolved then he must also say from what, until we come to the origin of all emotions, or at least to the mechanism that might be responsible for creating new emotions.
I believe that jealousy has evolved from the emotion of fear of loss, this in turn is a branch of emotion of fear, and emotion of fear evolved based on several features, one is the size, second is the speed and third is the mechanism of trying to survive, including constant comparing of coded signals by each organism. Let’s explain this a bit more in detail.
Every organism compares all the signals perceived, and it does that constantly, even we do it and very often we even do not realize that we are doing it. It is a system of guarding, system of protection. One such emotion is emotion of fear. The very first emotion of fear may have evolved when organism started to compare factors size and speed of an object that was approaching the organism. If the size was bigger than the size of organism itself, and the speed of approaching was higher than the speed that the organism was able to develop, then this organism started to feel fear, because all the organism live in predator governed environment. Eat or you will be eaten. If some organism notices another organism approaching and compares its size with its own size, and the result is that the other organism is bigger, then this result triggers two actions, one an attempt to flee and the other comparing the speed of approaching of the bigger organism. If even the speed is higher than the smaller organism can develop – the organism knows how fast it can move and compares its maximal speed with the speed of the other organism – then the organism knows that “there is no way out” and it will be eaten. This kind of feeling is the emotion of fear.
It is not absolutely necessary that the approaching object is another organism, it might be a rolling stone, falling tree, big wave of water, it might also be perceived radiation of light, pressure etc.
There are many different emotions of fear, I believe that the emotion of fear based upon comparing size and speed was the first one. Other type of emotion of fear is caused by sensory deprivation. A typical case is e.g. walking through a dark place or tunnel with no light. If we do not perceive enough sensory input our nervous system reacts by fear as it cannot provide for safety. Later on when organisms lived some time in groups, also social fears have developed. But all of these types of fear can be tracked down to the basic fear, and it is the fear of not surviving, the fear of the end of the existence of organism, whatever the way of not-surviving may occur: being eaten up by a predator or killed by a falling rock.
Actually, I believe it is possible to follow the beginnings of fear even further back in time and evolution. Light might be one of the causes for fear. Some chemical when given energy in the form of light do react and some do not, the difference may have evolved into “fear” of “not-surviving” or “not-further-developing”. Of course it did not have to be only light but any phenomenon of physics or chemistry during the whole time of evolution.
Right now I am reading an article about David Buss and his books and opinions on jealousy, and about his views on evolutionary psychology, (J Is for Jealousy). One thing shocks me severely; not only David Buss but many other scientists on this field take the phrase evolved emotion too easy in their mouth. It is really too easy to use this word.
If e.g. jealousy is evolved emotion, then I miss the statement from which it has evolved. Jealousy is, of course, evolved emotion, but somebody should say from which it has evolved, and because if somebody says it has evolved then he must also say from what, until we come to the origin of all emotions, or at least to the mechanism that might be responsible for creating new emotions.
I believe that jealousy has evolved from the emotion of fear of loss, this in turn is a branch of emotion of fear, and emotion of fear evolved based on several features, one is the size, second is the speed and third is the mechanism of trying to survive, including constant comparing of coded signals by each organism. Let’s explain this a bit more in detail.
Every organism compares all the signals perceived, and it does that constantly, even we do it and very often we even do not realize that we are doing it. It is a system of guarding, system of protection. One such emotion is emotion of fear. The very first emotion of fear may have evolved when organism started to compare factors size and speed of an object that was approaching the organism. If the size was bigger than the size of organism itself, and the speed of approaching was higher than the speed that the organism was able to develop, then this organism started to feel fear, because all the organism live in predator governed environment. Eat or you will be eaten. If some organism notices another organism approaching and compares its size with its own size, and the result is that the other organism is bigger, then this result triggers two actions, one an attempt to flee and the other comparing the speed of approaching of the bigger organism. If even the speed is higher than the smaller organism can develop – the organism knows how fast it can move and compares its maximal speed with the speed of the other organism – then the organism knows that “there is no way out” and it will be eaten. This kind of feeling is the emotion of fear.
It is not absolutely necessary that the approaching object is another organism, it might be a rolling stone, falling tree, big wave of water, it might also be perceived radiation of light, pressure etc.
There are many different emotions of fear, I believe that the emotion of fear based upon comparing size and speed was the first one. Other type of emotion of fear is caused by sensory deprivation. A typical case is e.g. walking through a dark place or tunnel with no light. If we do not perceive enough sensory input our nervous system reacts by fear as it cannot provide for safety. Later on when organisms lived some time in groups, also social fears have developed. But all of these types of fear can be tracked down to the basic fear, and it is the fear of not surviving, the fear of the end of the existence of organism, whatever the way of not-surviving may occur: being eaten up by a predator or killed by a falling rock.
Actually, I believe it is possible to follow the beginnings of fear even further back in time and evolution. Light might be one of the causes for fear. Some chemical when given energy in the form of light do react and some do not, the difference may have evolved into “fear” of “not-surviving” or “not-further-developing”. Of course it did not have to be only light but any phenomenon of physics or chemistry during the whole time of evolution.
# posted by Dalibor @ 2:24 AM 
