Chapter 1. Evolutionary Psychology

Short Description

Evolutionary psychology relies on principles from evolutionary biology to understand the roots of behavior. It is through this theoretical lens that evolutionary psychologists study how cognition has evolved over time.

Long Description

Evolutionary psychology relies on principles from evolutionary biology to understand the roots of behavior. It is through this theoretical lens that evolutionary psychologists study how cognition has evolved over time. Evolutionary psychologists believe that the process of natural selection, as identified by the famous naturalist Charles Darwin, provides humans with psychological adaptations in the same way that other organisms adapt anatomically.

The narrator explains that homologous and analogous characteristics are reliable indicators of common ancestry among species and, therefore, are important tools for evolutionary psychologists. In this video, wing structure in birds and insects is presented as an example of analogous characteristics. Both species have adapted wings to fly (and therefore to survive), although they do not share common ancestry.

So, if evolution is about survival, then what can be said about altruism? Kin selection theory and reciprocity theory contend that altruistic acts contribute to survival by preserving the gene pool.

Critics of evolutionary psychology argue that the model is incomplete in terms of explaining where all behavior comes from. As Cervone puts it, "evolutionary psychology often explains why in a particular situation a particular behavior occurs because that pays off evolutionarily. However, much of psychology involves other questions that just aren't touched by the evolutionary psychologist.

Questions