PSC 405X - Evolution of Cooperation and Conflict

(3 units) CO12

Explores the millennia-long evolution of human cooperation, including why we cooperate, how conflicts arise, are avoided, and resolved.

Maximum units a student may earn: 3

Prerequisite(s): PSC 231.

Grading Basis: Graded
Units of Lecture: 3
Offered: Every Fall - Even Years

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. describe the evolution of cooperation in human society.
2. distinguish between biological and social bases of cooperation.
3. contrast ethical and biological bases for cooperation and conflict.
4. analyze the circumstances in which either cooperation or conflict emerge.
5. explain social, political, and ethical structures that encourage cooperation and minimize cooperation.
6. compare and contrast the how social and political institutions succeed in promoting cooperation and reducing conflict.
7. synthesize a multidisciplinarily diverse corpus of scholarly research on the evolution of cooperation.
8. apply theories of cooperation and conflict to a novel research design based on a behavioral experiment.
9. understand the inherent tension between individual and group-based interests, and the inherent challenge for prosocial behaviors to evolve by natural selection.
10. use theories of cooperation and empirical evidence to illuminate the roles cultural patterns, norms, and other social institutions play in supporting cooperation within and between communities.
11. assess their own ethical values in the context of social cooperation.
12. identify and analyze ethical frameworks as solutions to specific challenges emerging from the conflict of individual and group interests.

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