post 2 - all good things in all good times

The idea of evolutionary motivation is very interesting, specifically the domino metaphor and the rectangle metaphor.  To view human behavior and traits as a sequence of falling dominoes that represent evolutionary and personal history is a great explanation of how previous cultures are affecting present and future cultures..  I am a full believer in evolution and adaptation, although I do not believe we evolved from apes or monkeys.  I believe that behaviors adapt and evolve to fit societal norms, and to say that those traits known as human nature are passed on through hereditary makes complete sense to me.  “The behavioral expression of human nature tends to be innate - that is, it is influenced little by experience” (Deckers 51).  In the rectangle metaphor, heredity and environment represent width and length of a rectangle.  When one side grows, the other shrinks, so when environment has more of an affect heredity has less and vice versa.  To me, this is a perfect model for the nature vs nurture argument because both factors contribute to behavior, but they have varying degrees of affects.

Another interesting section of chapter 3 is Brown’s list of universal motives.  To observe every culture at the core and draw conclusions that link each culture is remarkable.  The fact that Brown was able to find motives and incentives that are found in every culture is proof of evolutionary history/motivation, and the specific way that each culture deals with their universals is proof of personal history/motivation.

Finally, the last intriguing section of chapter 3 is sexual selection and mate value.  I believe these are done in the unconscious state of mind which causes us to express ourselves daily.  I believe mate value has the biggest impact on human beings because it affects the way we dress, talk, style our hair, and everything else that we do.  Our first thought might not be, “will this shirt improve my mate value?” but we do consider all of our actions and the impact they might have.  In the animal world, mate value and sexual selection are dependent on each other and animals have unique ways of proving their mate value worth.  Also, I found it interesting that sexual selection is described as the male trying to be attractive and the female picks and chooses between her options.  In the human world, this is not exactly true because I feel as if both males and females are trying equally as hard to impress each other.  But, when reproduction is the main factor of sexual selection, the battle is definitely between the males trying to impress a female and the most attractive is the victor.