Question

Question 1

What might a proponent of evolutionary medicine hypothesize about psychological disorders, such as anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)?

OCD likely results from an evolutionary mismatch between psychological traits that were adaptive in hunter gatherer society but cause stress in modern society

OCD likely results from a maladaptive psychological trait that would have led to an early death in hunter gatherer society

OCD is likely to be an adaptive trait in both hunter gatherer society and in modern times

Question 2

What kind of trait is natural selection most likely to favor?

Traits that increase fitness (number of offspring)

Traits that lengthen the lifespan

Traits that increase quality of life

Traits that increase health

Question 3

Why does water grass appear more similar to rice than it does to barnyard grass?

It has been inadvertently selected by weeding to be indistinguishable from rice

Its closest relative is rice, so it shares many phenotypic traits and therefore appears similar to it

All of these

Farmers have been selecting it for domestication in an environment similar to that of rice

Question 4

What plant trait does Dr. Denison believe could increase drought tolerance and yields in crop plants in the face of climate change?

Producing plants that shut their stomata in the afternoon

Producing plants that are stronger competitors for the water in the soil

Producing plants that shut their stomata in the morning

Producing plants with a rubisco enzyme that is more selective in binding to CO2 and better at rejecting O2

Question 5

Why does Stearns say that it is important that people vary greatly in their ability to metabolize drugs?

medicines that are effective for some people are not effective for others

because he believes that only medicines that will be effective for all people should be tested

synthetic medicines are not effective for most people

some people will not become addicted to illegal drugs no matter what their level of exposure

Answer 1

1. OCD is likely to be an adaptive trait in both hunter gatherer society and in modern times

Raldh. T. Abed in his artcle describes that as Darwinian thory was explained including psychobiological systems, this disorder is an adaptation as natural selection .

2. Traits that increase fitness (number of offspring)

Natural selection chooses the species able to fit and survive with the environment. Thus there will be reproduction.

3. It has been inadvertently selected by weeding to be indistinguishable from rice

It has only morphophysiological similarity with the rice.

4. Producing plants that shut their stomata in the afternoon

R Ford Denison explains in "Past evolutionary tradeoffs represent opportunities for crop genetic improvement and increased human lifespan" that A perennial plant like alfalfa may benefit from using solar tracking to shade its neighbors, even if it, thereby, reduces its own photosynthesis slightly by also shading its own lower leaves

5. medicines that are effective for some people are not effective for others

The reduced homeostatic ability affects different regulatory systems. There will be increased interindividual variability occurring as people get older. Several pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes occur with various metabolism and excretion; and pharmacodynamics (the effect of a drug on its target site).