"Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective."
This subfield considers the evolutionary basis of perseverance and its influence on human behavior.
Evolutionary theory: Understanding the core principles of natural selection, adaptation, and genetic inheritance that underpin evolutionary psychology.
Gene-culture coevolution: The interplay between genetic and cultural evolution in shaping human behavior and cognition.
Human universals: The shared features of human cognition and behavior that are believed to have evolved through natural selection over the course of human history.
Sexual selection: The role of mate choice and competition in shaping human reproductive strategies and behavior.
Parental investment: The concept that the amount of time, energy, and resources invested in offspring varies according to sex and ecological conditions.
Evolution of morality: The hypothesis that moral principles and judgment have evolved as adaptations to ensure successful cooperation and social interaction.
Evolution of aggression: The hypothesis that aggression is a strategy that has evolved to help individuals in competition for resources, mates, and social status.
Evolution of mate choice: The hypothesis that mating preferences have evolved as adaptations that signal genetic quality, fertility, and willingness to invest in offspring.
Human mating strategies: The different patterns of mate selection and courtship behavior observed in different cultures and ecological contexts.
Evolution and mental health: The impact of evolutionary pressures on the development and treatment of mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and addiction.
Evolution and education: The implications of evolutionary psychology for teaching and learning, including the role of motivation, personality, and learning style in educational success.
Evolution of language: The hypothesis that language has evolved as an adaptation for social communication and cooperation.
Evolution of intelligence: The hypothesis that human intelligence has evolved as an adaptation for solving complex problems and adapting to changing environments.
Evolution and culture: The impact of evolutionary psychology on the study of culture, including the role of cultural evolution in shaping human behavior and cognition.
Evolution and ethics: The implications of evolutionary psychology for moral philosophy, including the role of evolution in determining moral judgments and principles.
Sexual Selection Theory: This theory explains how certain traits develop as a result of the process of sexual selection, where individuals with certain desirable traits are chosen for mating which eventually leads to the inheritance of those traits by offspring.
Parental Investment Theory: This theory suggests that the amount of parental investment in offspring varies between species and the amount of investment has implications for the development of certain traits.
Life History Theory: This theory explains how an organism's life history strategy is determined by a combination of environmental pressures and genetic factors, leading to varying reproductive and evolutionary outcomes.
Kin Selection Theory: This theory explains how certain traits emerge as a result of the need to ensure the survival of related genetic relatives as well as one's own.
Group Selection Theory: This theory suggests that certain traits that are beneficial for the survival of the group as a whole eventually proliferate, even if they are not beneficial for individual survival.
Dual Inheritance Theory: This theory explores how human cultural evolution has influenced our biological evolution and how cultural elements can be passed down across generations, leading to the development of certain traits and predispositions.
"It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolved to solve."
"Psychological traits and mechanisms are either functional products of natural and sexual selection or non-adaptive by-products of other adaptive traits."
"Evolutionary psychologists apply the same thinking in psychology, arguing that just as the heart evolved to pump blood, and the liver evolved to detoxify poisons, there is modularity of mind in that different psychological mechanisms evolved to solve different adaptive problems."
"Much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments."
"Behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations."
"Abilities to infer others' emotions, discern kin from non-kin, identify and prefer healthier mates, and cooperate with others."
"Economics, environment, health, law, management, psychiatry, politics, and literature."
"Questions of testability, cognitive and evolutionary assumptions, importance of non-genetic and non-adaptive explanations, as well as political and ethical issues due to interpretations of research results."
"Evolutionary psychologists frequently engage with and respond to such criticisms."
"Evolutionary theory can provide a foundational, metatheoretical framework that integrates the entire field of psychology in the same way evolutionary biology has for biology."
"There is modularity of mind in that different psychological mechanisms evolved to solve different adaptive problems."
"Findings have been made regarding human social behavior related to infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price, and parental investment."
"Economics, environment, health, law, management, psychiatry, politics, and literature."
"Psychological traits and mechanisms are either functional products of natural and sexual selection or non-adaptive by-products of other adaptive traits."
"Evolutionary psychology examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective."
"Psychological traits and mechanisms are either functional products of natural and sexual selection or non-adaptive by-products of other adaptive traits."
"Abilities to infer others' emotions, discern kin from non-kin, identify and prefer healthier mates, and cooperate with others."
"Economics, environment, health, law, management, psychiatry, politics, and literature."
"Questions of testability, cognitive and evolutionary assumptions, importance of non-genetic and non-adaptive explanations, as well as political and ethical issues due to interpretations of research results."