Evolutionary psychology attempts to provide ultimate as well as proximate explanations of human behaviour. Proximate mechanisms are those that directly cause a particular behaviour (for instance we have sex because we enjoy it), whereas ultimate explanations are cast at the level of design by natural selection (we have sex because it leads to offspring). The concept of evolution is an old one. What was missing from these earlier accounts was a workable model of how change occurs. Darwin provided this mechanism with his theory of natural selection. Much of twentieth-century psychology has been influenced by the cultural relativist position and the biological bases of human behaviour have tended to be ignored or downplayed. The sociobiology movement attempted to formulate evolutionary explanations of human behaviour. Such attempts led to a great deal of scientific and political controversy that continues to this day.

A life history theory of development claims that, from an early age, children monitor their environment and make decisions about their future reproductive value. Based on their assessment of environmental conditions, they can choose to maximize current or future reproductive success. Attachment theory claims that early attachments can have a substantial effect on subsequent personality and behaviour. Central to this theory is that a child forms a ‘working model’ of the self and relationships that is used to guide subsequent behaviour. Secure working models generally lead to more satisfactory and stable relationships in later life than insecure ones. Ainsworth proposed that there are three attachment styles, secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-anxious/resistant. Evidence suggests individuals exhibiting insecure attachment styles generally suffer more relationship problems later in life. Unlike chimpanzees, which prefer to act alone unless it is impossible to do so (such as a hunt), children prefer to cooperate with others.

In prior chapters we discussed how Dennard’s scaling combined with Moore’s law has resulted in continuous increase in single-threaded performance, through innovations to exploit instruction-level parallelism (ILP). Designs such as out-of-order (OoO) execution and speculation have been used to exploit the scaling properties of transistors. Recently, Dennard’s voltage scaling has hit its limits, with the supply voltage reduction coming to a near halt. Thus, power density grows as more transistors are integrated into a unit area. In fact, Moore’s law scaling seem to keep its momentum, leading to billions of transistors being integrated into chips. Overall, it is fair to say that the density of transistors has been scaling faster than power density. Recognizing this concern, the chip industry has shifted (at least partially) emphasis toward multi- and even many-core chip multiprocessors (CMPs). While scaling frequency has a cubic relationship to power consumption, scaling the cores has a linear relationship to the power. Graphics processing units (GPUs) have emerged as a promising many-core architectures for power-efficient throughput computing. With thousands of simple in-order cores that can run thousands of threads in parallel, GPUs derive several tera-flops of peak performance, primarily through thread-level parallelism (TLP).

In the previous chapter, students learned how to compare the means of two groups with the t-test and U test. In Chapter 9, students are taught how to statistically compare three or more groups/levels among one or two independent variables. Students are also coached through three different kinds of ANOVAs: between-subjects, within-subjects, and between-within methods. The assumptions for these ANOVAs are reviewed and step-by-step instructions are given in SPSS and R. Student researchers are also taught how to interpret the results for testing hypotheses that use an ANOVA.

This chapter traces the development of money, credit and banking systems in Europe, from their origins to their modern forms. It examines how the reintroduction of monetary systems following the collapse of the Roman Empire contributed to economic growth. The chapter also discusses the evolution of credit markets, the rise of banks and the development of paper money, with an emphasis on the role these institutions played in supporting economic development. It explores the relationship between financial innovation and economic crises, illustrating how the financial system has both facilitated growth and contributed to periods of instability. The chapter concludes by assessing the impact of financial systems on long-term economic development in Europe.

Using a linear regression to make predictions from a data set can be found everywhere. From Amazon.com suggesting books for customers to businesses predicting revenue from advertising, regression analyses can be found in everyday life. A researcher can use a multiple regression analysis for predicting cause-and-effect relationships between the dependent and independent variables in a study. Unlike an ANOVA, regressions allow for categorical and scalar independent variables to be included together within the analysis. In this chapter, student researchers are taught what a regression analysis is, what it can be used for, and how to perform a multiple linear regression using SPSS and R. Students are also taught how to interpret regression results for testing hypotheses.

After the student researcher has performed the necessary literature research, performed the experiment, and analyzed the data, it is time to put everything together and write the results and discussion / conclusion sections. The student researcher is guided through interpreting the results and relating the results back to the reviewed literature. Also, the student is coached through writing the study’s limitations and writing the study’s conclusions. Examples of limitations are given including consideration of sample types (e.g., convenience, purposeful) as well as confounding variables. Students are guided through the creation of a poster using a presentation application (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint) for an event like a poster session. Strategies for the poster’s structure along with transferring information from the research study paper to the poster are discussed. Additionally, students are taught how to create effective slides and provided guidance for presenting their work in the classroom or for a symposium.