Evolutionary psychology
From EvoWiki
| See Evolutionary psychology in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. |
Evolutionary psychology is a rapidly emerging approach to psychology guided by the principles of modern evolutionary biology.
It is not a research method or style of therapy, but an intellectual perspective from which to approach all of psychology. Essentially, under this view, the mind is an integrated collection of adaptive mechanisms, like the organs of the body.
These mechanisms, the different mental faculties that are species-typical in humans, are presumed to be the result of evolution by means of natural selection, especially during the formative years of our species.
Psychology, then, according to this view, is the study of a diverse collection of interacting neurological programs, each of them built to solve problems faced by our ancestors.
Many traditional views of human nature would have us, and especially our minds, above the normal order of nature, or the instinct-based behaviour we see in other animals. It is partly because of these traditions, that this biological approach to psychology is the subject of such controversy.
See also
- Psychopathology
- Does evolution conflict with religion and morality?
- Evolution is the foundation of an immoral worldview
- Evolution doesn't explain human intelligence
- Evolutionary Psychology Books
- List of anti-evolutionary psychology arguments
- Online peer-reviewed journal articles
Links and References
- Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer
- The Evolutionary Psychology FAQ
- The Rise of Evolutionary Psychology
- The Evolutionary Psychology Category in the Open Directory Project
- Evolutionary psychology at the Psychology Wiki
This page is a stub. You can help EvoWiki by expanding it into a full article. See this page for some ideas for how the page could look.
