When and how did memes actually originate? Did someone hear a particularly influential phrase, and decide to add it as a caption to a suitable picture? Did that first meme explode on Facebook, causing others to create their own?
In addition, certain memes seem to recirculate over the course of each year. For example, it seems like the same "Final Exams" memes appear everytime finals begin, such as the meme that states, "May the odds be ever in your favor". Will these continue circulating when such events come around yearly? Do memes ever lose their touch?
If mental disorders have evolutionary roots as a defense or side effect, why do we view them with a stigma? Why do we not talk about mental disorders the same way we talk about other illnesses and diseases? How do we think people in the EAA viewed mental disorders?
Are memes as we think of them (pictures with phrases on Facebook) popular because we all know the cultural significance of memes (as defined in the article)? Is there any chance they have become so popular because we know they are what makes us stand apart as humans?
Anxiety is thought to be a defense mechanism that protects us from harm by shifting our attention to a particular cue which may or may not lead to the manifestation of a harmful stimulus/event. Unfortunately, our minds are still set to alert us to potential dangers present during the EEA, and not so much dangers present in our current environment. This is why snake phobias are so prevalent in society today, however not many people have phobias for cars or guns, both of which cause many more deaths than snakes do. My question is: Given enough time, would evolution eventually introduce human beings to phobias for inanimate objects such as guns or cars?
Some people who experience depression cause harm to themselves (i.e., cutting). I understand the idea that depression is a way to rear one off the wrong path, but how does causing harm to oneself benefit in terms of fitness?
If depression is so common nowadays due to the drift between EEA and contemporary life, is there a chance that as humans we will start to revert to EEA life in the future to alleviate depression?
Why are sociopaths predominantly males?
What is the evolutionary reasoning behind dysfunctions, such as autism and Down's syndrome, where people suffer from social impairments if EEA life was so dependent on it for both males and females?
I think maybe we should have a short conversation about how these image macros have taken on the name "meme" and the significance of it, but I also think everyone should really try and separate the two concepts (internet memes vs ideas, behaviors, etc that spread from person to person) in their head. The image macros (or even other internet phenomena we consider memes) don't really have as much to do with the article unless we want to look at them as a super specific (and extremely recent) manifestation of this concept.
I wonder how accurate a representation of "culture" memes provide. Is imitation really enough to perpetuate all these social constructs or are there more mechanisms at work?
Can we take some of the proposed evolutionary explanations for the mental illnesses discussed in the reading and apply them to ones that weren't discussed? OCD, ADHD, eating disorders, etc.
What other aspects of our environment are so different from the EEA that might be causing these? The article discussed war, human caused disaster, media, schooling, and strangers, but I'm sure we could identify all sorts of other things that are different and how they might provide an explanation for things like OCD or ADHD.
I'm not convinced that behavioral disorders, such as depression, are actually psychological defenses. This article states that we may experience depression in order to protect us from making futile efforts at completing a hopeless task. Randy Nesse described depression as "nature's way of telling us that we are barking up the wrong tree." I don't understand why we would need to feel sad and worthless in order to prevent ourselves from making a greater effort at a futile task. Also, does feeling depressed about something necessarily mean we will entirely avoid it? I don't think so. I don't think that feeling depressed protects us from exerting futile effort. I think depression is more likely a natural response to an upsetting event that we have to overcome before we can make a decision about how to deal with that upsetting event.
The abnormal article mentioned the possible benefits of all the disorders except for autism. Why is autism so prevalent if it has no possible benefit? Is there a chance it has a secondary benefit like schizophrenia, where having the gene could confer a benefit so long as the disorder doesn't manifest? What would this potential benefit be?
If memes are used to propagate our genes, how does this explain universally understood memes given that our world has become globally connected within a short period of time (compared to the evolution of humankind)? The article about memes talks about meme transformation in the example of "-gate". I understand that it slowly becomes passed down through generations-but, at the same time, the number of people who understand that meme decreases as the generation gap increases. How does this prove meme transformation?
I think I get where they are coming from regarding depression as a way to make you not put effort into something. One aspect of depression is feeling no hope for the future, that things will stay bad. However, depression does not seem to me to be as context-specific as they're making it out to be, as it seems like it permeates people's consciousness and influences countless aspects of their lives. To me it does not seem very adaptive, distinguishing it from the negative emotions brought on by strategic interference, which are extremely context-specific.
I think the idea of memes is a little bit arbitrary. The article states that memes are just ideas or pieces of information, which is a very broad categorization, so of course that makes for an argument that memes have effected human evolution. It seems a little strange to me to say that the reason the human brain evolved to be larger than any of our primate counterparts is because of memes without giving memes a better definition. Is there a better definition we can give to memes? And is there any distinction between a meme with an evolutionary benefit and one that is just something imitated by people?
The article on memes reminded me of a phenomina called Multiple Discovery, which refers to the frequency at which new ideas are discovered by multiple people nearly simutaniously. This phenomina lends credibility to the idea that there is a common knowledge within societies, one that we are often not even aware of. I think that many of the ideas we believe we have come up with ourselves, are actually learned from our society.
I think that the idea that depression and sociopathy are adaptations is very convincing. Are these pathologies still adaptive in modern life?
How are repressed memories and PTSD related? Is it common that those who suffer from PTSD repress memories of trauma/sexual abuse and exhibit signs of denial? Repressing memories seems to be a coping mechanism, but ultimately I think it's more detrimental than beneficial to the individual.
If depression actually has an adaptive basis like the reading suggests, why do people still try so hard to get it treated? And I don't think the part where the reading explains suicide is very convincing either because people probably don't think about how ending their lives would benefit their families and relatives.
The article about abnormal psychology mentions various theories regarding suicide, mostly centered around promoting inclusive fitness. Could suicide, however, be a means of selection to prevent further passing down of genes that have malfunctioned and caused a mechanism (like mild mood swings) that was originally evolutionarily beneficial to go wrong?
