Thoughts of a Psychology Student

Discuss 2 or more evolutionary explanations of food preference (8+16marks) Psychologists have carried out much research into the origins of modern day food preferences. The evolutionary explanation of food preferences argues that our likes and dislikes for particular foods have their origins in the way we have evolved. In order to study this, we have to understand the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA). The EEA is the environment in which a species first evolved. For humans, it is thought to be in the African savannah 2 million years ago. Early diets would have consisted of foods high in fats and calories as they provided the most energy for humans to survive and find food for their next meal. Calories were not plentiful in the EEA and therefore were in high demand. This explains why even today, we have preference for fatty and calorific foods despite not needing the same amount of energy as we are no longer required to hunt for our food or burn as many calories. ...

It is known that teenagers’ body clocks are far from normal. Staying up till early morning is all too common for whatever reason, whether it’s because you are re-watching your favourite TV series again and can’t draw yourself away from the compelling storyline or whether, for some unknown reason, as soon as the clock hit 9pm, you developed the energy of several condensed suns. Inevitably this causes us to wake up well into the hours of early afternoon the next day, leaving little time for any productivity and ironically, no energy either. From what I can gather (through some regrettably brief and incomplete research), we need sleep because: during sleep, a growth hormone is released our body needs a chance to replace tissue and chemicals that are used up or destroyed during the day our brain needs a chance to “sort through” the information we have processed during the day So the firs two reasons are bodily reasons why sleep is so important. It seems to suggest that wit...