Evolutionary Psychology

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Evolutionary Psychology

• Nichole Owen
• Evolution
• Spring 2004

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What is Evolutionary Psychology

• It is basically the combination of two sciences,
  which are evolutionary biology and cognitive
  psychology.
• It is a science that attempts to explain human
  actions through universal mechanisms, such as
  behavior.

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What is Evolutionary Psychology

• They also try to reconstruct the problems that
  our ancestors faced in their primitive
  environment and the problem solving techniques
  that they used to overcome these challenges.
• From these reconstructed problem-solving
  adaptations, the science then attempts to explain
  our common roots of ancestral behavior and
  identify connections to our present behavior.

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History

• Evolutionary psychology was built on the
  principles of Darwins theory of evolution
  (published in 1859).
• He suggested that evolution acted on patterns of
  behavior as well as the anatomy and physiology of
  a species.

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History

• Psychology in general is based on the Standard
  Social Science Model.
• States that human behavior is governed by reason,
  whereas non-human animal behavior is governed by
  instinct.
• According to this model, the human mind is blank
  at birth and is defined through experiences.

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History

• In 1975, E. O. Wilson argued that human social
  behavior could be explained in evolutionary
  terms.
• Evolutionary psychologist believe that behavior
  is influenced by inherited factors and that every
  human attempts to increase their inclusive
  fitness.

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Four basic principles to evolutionary psychology.

• 1. Human evolution occurred in a completely
  different environment then the one that we
  currently know.
• 2. The human brain contains neural circuits
  designed by natural selection to solve problems
  that our ancestors had to overcome in our
  evolutionary history.

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Four basic principles to evolutionary psychology.

• 3. Most of the information that is processed by
  the mind is done by the unconscious.
• 4. Different neural circuits are specialized for
  solving adaptive problems.

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Important topics in evolutionary psychology.

• Parental Investment
• Kin Recognition
• These are just a couple of examples of topics in
  evolutionary psychology.

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Parental Investment

• Babies represent one of the challenges that our
  human behavior has adapted to, which is because
  it takes a long amount of time until a child is
  capable of surviving on its own.

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Parental Investment

• The energy and resources that are placed into
  caring for a child is defined as the parental
  investment, which represents the cost for both
  parents.
• But once the child is capable of surviving on its
  own and reproducing then this is defined as the
  parents inclusive fitness.

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Kin Recognition

• Kin recognition is an important mechanism in
  sexual attraction and reproduction.
• Incest avoidance mechanisms to prevent damaging
  the genetic code and promoting out-breeding have
  been expressed in both genetically related and
  artificially constructed families.

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Strengths of the Human Species.

• 1. The use of mental models to discover and
  develop useful adaptations.
• Can use mental models to predict the
  effectiveness of the alterations to a given
  situation.
• Decreases the need for trail and error.
• This ability is the basis of our capacity to plan
  ahead, invent and adapt technology, establish
  long-term goals, and modify our external
  environment for our adaptive goals.

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Strength of the Human Species.

• 2. The development of language.
• -This enhances our ability for mental modeling.
• This allows for knowledge to accumulate through
  out the population.
• This in turn, allows for humans to model their
  environment more accurately, increase their
  interactions with their environment, and to
  predict the consequences of their actions over
  wider scales of space and time.

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Conclusion

• Evolutionary psychology is a combination of
  evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology.
• It was built on the principles of Darwins theory
  evolution.
• Some examples of the important topics in this
  field are parental investment and kin
  recognition.
• This field is still developing and contains many
  areas for research opportunities.

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References

• Cognitive Adaptations Some Conceptual Issues.
  http//W\Cognitive20
• Adaptions20Some20Conceptual20Issues.htm.
  Bellarmine Server. April 10, 2004. 19pp.
• Evolutionary Psychology.httpsalmon.psy.plym.ac.uk
  /year3/PSY339

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References

• EvolutionaryPsychology/EvolutionaryPsychology.
  Bellarmine Server. April 10, 2004. 29pp.
• Future of Human Evolution. http//www-personal.umi
  ch.edu/-kruger/ep12.html. Bellarmine Server.
  April 10, 2004. 2pp.
• Future Psychological Evolution.
  http//www4.tpg.com.au/users/jes999/evpsy.thm.
  Bellarmine Server. April 10, 2004. 15pp.

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References

• .
• Inclusive Fitness and Kin Selection.
  http//www-personal.umich.edu/-kruger/
• What is Evolutionary Psychology?
  http//www.evoyage.com/Whatis.html. Bellarmine
  Server. April 10, 2004. 9pp.