Supernormal Stimuli How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2010-02-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 0393077330

Get Book

Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

A Harvard psychologist explains how our once-helpful instincts get hijacked in our garish modern world. Our instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection— evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons—that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2010-01-26
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780393068481

Get Book

Supernormal Stimuli by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

Our instincts--for food, sex, or territorial protection-- evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today's world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons--that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term "supernormal stimuli" to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today's most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2007-06-17
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9780393066678

Get Book

Waistland: A (R)evolutionary View of Our Weight and Fitness Crisis by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett tackles the obesity and fitness crisis from an evolutionary standpoint. In the modern jungle of burgers, couches, and remote controls, obesity is an enormous and growing epidemic. Weight-loss books and diet gurus urge us to "listen to our bodies," but our instincts are designed for the African savannah, not food courts. The sugary and fatty foods that we, as hunter-gatherers, are programmed to forage used to be hard to come by. Now they're as close as the vending machine down the hall. Radical changes are necessary and, fortunately, are biologically easier than small or gradual changes in diet. Barrett tells us how to reprogram our bodies, break food addictions, and ignore our attraction to "supernormal stimuli"—artificial creations that appeal to our instincts more than the natural objects they mimic. Barrett delves into scientific research—from animal ethology to evolution—to show the disastrous direction in which our instincts have led us, and how, using our intellect, we can get back on course.

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : Crown
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
ISBN : PSU:000045708046

Get Book

The Committee of Sleep by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

Drawing on examples of artists, scientists, writers, and others who have used dreams to solve problems, the author of The Pregnant Man explains how dreams can foster creativity, enhance inspiration, and resolve problems.

Author : Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford,Todd K. Shackelford
Publisher : Springer
Page : 418 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-07-08
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781493903146

Get Book

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Sexual Psychology and Behavior by Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford,Todd K. Shackelford Pdf

This volume in the Springer Series in Evolutionary Psychology presents a state of the art view of the topic of sexuality and sexual behavior drawing on theoretical constructs and research of noted individuals in the field. Comprehensive and multi-disciplinary, this book seeks to provide a broad overview without sacrificing the complexity of a multi-faceted approach. The book is framed by introductory and closing sections that provide a context for the range of ideas contained within. Ample space is provided in designated sections that focus on key areas of sexuality from both male and female perspectives and that include information from primate studies. This volume can serve as a graduate text in sexual behavior in evolutionary terms and as a guide for further research.

Author : Lance Workman,Will Reader,Jerome H. Barkow
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 604 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2020-01-31
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 1316642828

Get Book

The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior by Lance Workman,Will Reader,Jerome H. Barkow Pdf

The transformative wave of Darwinian insight continues to expand throughout the human sciences. While still centered on evolution-focused fields such as evolutionary psychology, ethology, and human behavioral ecology, this insight has also influenced cognitive science, neuroscience, feminist discourse, sociocultural anthropology, media studies, and clinical psychology. This handbook's goal is to amplify the wave by bringing together world-leading experts to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of evolution-oriented and influenced fields. While evolutionary psychology remains at the core of the collection, it also covers the history, current standing, debates, and future directions of the panoply of fields entering the Darwinian fold. As such, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior is a valuable reference not just for evolutionary psychologists but also for scholars and students from many fields who wish to see how the evolutionary perspective is relevant to their own work.

Author : Maciej Paszynski,Dieter Kranzlmüller,Valeria V. Krzhizhanovskaya,Jack J. Dongarra,Peter M. A. Sloot
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 609 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2021-06-11
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783030779641

Get Book

Computational Science – ICCS 2021 by Maciej Paszynski,Dieter Kranzlmüller,Valeria V. Krzhizhanovskaya,Jack J. Dongarra,Peter M. A. Sloot Pdf

The six-volume set LNCS 12742, 12743, 12744, 12745, 12746, and 12747 constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS 2021, held in Krakow, Poland, in June 2021.* The total of 260 full papers and 57 short papers presented in this book set were carefully reviewed and selected from 635 submissions. 48 full and 14 short papers were accepted to the main track from 156 submissions; 212 full and 43 short papers were accepted to the workshops/ thematic tracks from 479 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections named: Part I: ICCS Main Track Part II: Advances in High-Performance Computational Earth Sciences: Applications and Frameworks; Applications of Computational Methods in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing for Advanced Simulations; Biomedical and Bioinformatics Challenges for Computer Science Part III: Classifier Learning from Difficult Data; Computational Analysis of Complex Social Systems; Computational Collective Intelligence; Computational Health Part IV: Computational Methods for Emerging Problems in (dis-)Information Analysis; Computational Methods in Smart Agriculture; Computational Optimization, Modelling and Simulation; Computational Science in IoT and Smart Systems Part V: Computer Graphics, Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence; Data-Driven Computational Sciences; Machine Learning and Data Assimilation for Dynamical Systems; MeshFree Methods and Radial Basis Functions in Computational Sciences; Multiscale Modelling and Simulation Part VI: Quantum Computing Workshop; Simulations of Flow and Transport: Modeling, Algorithms and Computation; Smart Systems: Bringing Together Computer Vision, Sensor Networks and Machine Learning; Software Engineering for Computational Science; Solving Problems with Uncertainty; Teaching Computational Science; Uncertainty Quantification for Computational Models *The conference was held virtually. Chapter “Effective Solution of Ill-posed Inverse Problems with Stabilized Forward Solver” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Author : Yogi Hale Hendlin,Jonathan Hope
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2021-05-19
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9783030671150

Get Book

Food and Medicine by Yogi Hale Hendlin,Jonathan Hope Pdf

This edited volume provides a biosemiotic analysis of the ecological relationship between food and medicine. Drawing on the origins of semiotics in medicine, this collection proposes innovative ways of considering aliments and treatments. Considering the ever-evolving character of our understanding of meaning-making in biology, and considering the keen popular interest in issues relating to food and medicines - fueled by an increasing body of interdisciplinary knowledge - the contributions here provide diverse insights and arguments into the larger ecology of organisms’ engagement with and transformation through taking in matter. Bodies interpret molecules, enzymes, and alkaloids they intentionally and unintentionally come in contact with according to their pre-existing receptors. But their receptors are also changed by the experience. Once the body has identified a particular substance, it responds by initiating semiotic sequences and negotiations that fulfill vital functions for the organism at macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. Human abilities to distill and extract the living world into highly refined foods and medicines, however, have created substances far more potent than their counterparts in our historical evolution. Many of these substances also lack certain accompanying proteins, enzymes, and alkaloids that otherwise aid digestion or protect against side-effects in active extracted chemicals. Human biology has yet to catch up with human inventions such as supernormal foods and medicines that may flood receptors, overwhelming the body’s normal satiation mechanisms. This volume discusses how biosemioticians can come to terms with these networks of meaning, providing a valuable and provocative compendium for semioticians, medical researchers and practitioners, sociologists, cultural theorists, bioethicists and scholars investigating the interdisciplinary questions stemming from food and medicine.

Author : Charles Crawford,Dennis L. Krebs
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 664 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2013-03-07
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781134788699

Get Book

Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology by Charles Crawford,Dennis L. Krebs Pdf

Evolutionary psychology is concerned with the adaptive problems early humans faced in ancestral human environments, the nature of psychological mechanisms natural selection shaped to deal with those ancient problems, and the ability of the resulting evolved psychological mechanisms to deal with the problems people face in the modern world. Evolutionary psychology is currently advancing our understanding of altruism, moral behavior, family violence, sexual aggression, warfare, aesthetics, the nature of language, and gender differences in mate choice and perception. It is helping us understand the relationship between cognitive science, developmental psychology, behavior genetics, personality, and social psychology. Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology provides an up-to-date review of the ideas, issues, and applications of contemporary evolutionary psychology. It is suitable for senior undergraduates, first-year graduate students, or professionals who wish to become conversant with the major issues currently shaping the emergence of this dynamic new field. It will be interesting to psychologists, cognitive scientists, and anyone using new developments in the theory of evolution to gain new insights into human behavior.

Author : Kostas N. Fountoulakis,Ioannis Nimatoudis
Publisher : Springer
Page : 458 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2019-07-26
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9783030183233

Get Book

Psychobiology of Behaviour by Kostas N. Fountoulakis,Ioannis Nimatoudis Pdf

The book provides a comprehensive reference on the neurobiological understanding of behaviour, how behaviour is regulated by the brain, and how such behaviours in turn influence the brain. The work offers an introduction to neural systems and genetics/epigenetics, followed by detailed study of a wide range of behaviours – temperament and personality, instincts and drives, memory and cognitive function, sex and sexual differentiation, ethology and evolutionary biology, aging, drug abuse and other problematic behaviors, psychophysiology and ultimately the links to biological psychiatry and psychopharmacology. Research findings on the neural basis of social behaviour are integrated across different levels of analysis, from molecular neurobiology and neural systems/behavioural neuroscience to fMRI imaging data on human social behaviour. The content covers research on both normal and abnormal behaviours, as well as developmental aspects. The target audience includes psychiatrists, neurologists, nurses, psychologists and all researchers and advanced students in behavioural, social and developmental neuroscience, as well as clinical neuroscientists.

Author : Stephen M. Colarelli,Richard D. Arvey
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2015-01-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780226127156

Get Book

The Biological Foundations of Organizational Behavior by Stephen M. Colarelli,Richard D. Arvey Pdf

When biological theories were used to understand behavior in the early 20th century, they were often poorly understood. Ideas about race, ethnicity, and IQ, and notions of social Darwinism, were based on a misunderstanding and an incomplete understanding of genetics and Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Now, however, a biological understanding of social behavior is an integral part of modern science, and increasingly used in the study of behavior in organizations. Yet, compared with other explanatory paradigms in organizational behavior, biological and evolutionary approaches are still relatively rare. The Biological Foundations of Organizational Behavior provides accessible insights for scholars and practitioners in management and organizational behavior into what biology can offer their fields. Chapters contain enough background to orient readers who may have little knowledge of biology, and provide substantive contributions to advancing understanding of specific areas of biology and human behavior in organizations. They also show how the addition of biological theory and research to organizational-behavior scholarship will increase its explanatory and predictive power and contribute to its scientific foundations.

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2001-10-30
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0674006909

Get Book

Trauma and Dreams by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss

Author : Deirdre Barrett
Publisher : Greenwood
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2012-06-12
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780313386640

Get Book

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams by Deirdre Barrett Pdf

"This reference covers all of the major topics concerning dreaming and sleep, based on the latest empirical evidence from sleep research as well as drawn from a broad range of disciplinary contexts, including history, and anthropology"--Provided by publisher.

Author : Alfonsina Scarinzi
Publisher : Springer
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2014-11-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789401793797

Get Book

Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy by Alfonsina Scarinzi Pdf

The project of naturalizing human consciousness/experience has made great technical strides (e.g., in mapping areas of brain activity), but has been hampered in many cases by its uncritical reliance on a dualistic “Cartesian” paradigm (though as some of the authors in the collection point out, assumptions drawn from Plato and from Kant also play a role). The present volume proposes a version of naturalism in aesthetics drawn from American pragmatism (above all from Dewey, but also from James and Peirce)—one primed from the start to see human beings not only as embodied, but as inseparable from the environment they interact with—and provides a forum for authors from diverse disciplines to address specific scientific and philosophical issues within the anti-dualistic framework considering aesthetic experience as a process of embodied meaning-making. Cross-disciplinary contributions come from leading researchers including Mark Johnson, Jim Garrison, Daniel D. Hutto, John T. Haworth, Luca F. Ticini, Beatriz Calvo-Merino. The volume covers pragmatist aesthetics, neuroaesthetics, enactive cognitive science, literary studies, psychology of aesthetics, art and design, sociology.

Author : Atomic Overmind Pres,Jason Soles,Nicole Vega
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2011-09-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0981679285

Get Book

Unhallowed Metropolis Revised by Atomic Overmind Pres,Jason Soles,Nicole Vega Pdf