AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The correct answer is Evolution. Evolution in its contemporary meaning in biology typically refers to the changes in the proportions of biological types in a population over time. Evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies on the process of natural selection.

Detailed explanation-2: -Charles Darwin understood that evolution was a slow and gradual process. By gradual, Darwin did not mean “perfectly smooth, ” but rather, “stepwise, ” with a species evolving and accumulating small variations over long periods of time until a new species was born.

Detailed explanation-3: -Evolution is a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. The mechanisms of evolution include natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, mutation, migration and genetic drift.

Detailed explanation-4: -Evolution is a gradual and continuing process of change that occurs over a period of time, due to slight variations in genetic compositions as well as changes in environment, leading to formation of new species.

Detailed explanation-5: -Gradualism, from the Latin gradus ("step"), is a hypothesis, a theory or a tenet assuming that change comes about gradually or that variation is gradual in nature and happens over time as opposed to in large steps. Uniformitarianism, incrementalism, and reformism are similar concepts.