Logical reasoning and domain specificity springerlink. The reemergence of an evolutionary perspective on the human mind over the last decade has resulted in the production of a range of different theories about musics evolutionary origins. Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or mental modules which have distinct, established, and evolutionarily developed functions. Evolutionary psychology is one of many biologically informed approaches to the study of human behavior. The biological domain of psychology covers fields like neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, sensation, and consciousness. Darwin was well aware that behaviors should be adaptive and wrote books titled, the descent of man 1871 and the expression of the emotions in man and animals 1872, to explore this field. The new science of evolutionary psychology by robert wright, the b. Evolutionary psychology is an approach that views human nature as the product of a universal set of evolved psychological adaptations to recurring problems in the ancestral environment. It contains no domainspecific knowledge, so it cannot support. Based on observations of other species in their natural environments, the evolutionary psychology of human mating tends to lean toward the idea that females are more selective in their partners than males. Domain specificity and intuitive ontology the handbook. Second, we advocate combining psychological, neuroscience, and genetic research across cognitive domains to address the domain specificity of such constraints.
Neglecting neurobiology in defining the mind brad m. By virtue of the way in which modularity was initially defined by fodor 1983, there is a strong link between modularity and domain specificity. However, different definitions of module have been proposed by different authors. Pdf on jul 20, 1994, l cosmides and others published origins in domain. Evolutionary psychology primer by leda cosmides and john tooby. Peters saint marys university abstract evolutionary psychology defines the human mind as comprising innate and domainspecific informationprocessing mechanisms that were designed to solve specific evolutionary problems of our pleistocene past. Some psychologists argue that the specificity of face perception is an illusion and that human beings simply become expert recognizers of faces by using unspecialized visual capacities. In recent years, researchers in anthropology, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience have examined whether. We argue that the key tenets of the established ep paradigm require modification in the light of recent findings from a number of disciplines, including human genetics, evolutionary biology, cognitive. Evolutionary psychology wikipedia evolutionary psychology.
It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection in human evolution. Score a books total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for. Personality psychology 68 biological domain flashcards. Affective influences on social cognition and behavior. From here on, evolutionary psychology refers to a specific research. Evolutionary psychology assumes that an evolved psychological mechanism and its.
Evolutionary psychology of emotions4 the idea is that if the psychological reward mechanism is constrained to emphasize rewards in the present moment, the simplest counter to a. As memory scientists, we should attend both to the functions of memory as well as to the processes that permit optimal performance. An afterword by richard dawkins provides some final thoughts from the renowned writer and exponent of evolutionary theory. The handbook of evolutionary psychology, 2 volume set, 2nd. Contrast to domain general accounts of learning and human behaviormost unique human adaptations and characteristics cant be explained by domain general accounts e. Some mechanisms, termed domainspecific, deal with recurrent adaptive. Kanwisher draws on imaging, neuropsychological, eventrelated potential erp, and behavioral studies, and concludes that the current evidence favors the existence of a domainspecific system.
Evolutionary psychology provides a metatheory for psychological science that unites these fields, and justifies why the seemingly disparate branches of psychology truly belong within the covers of introductory psychology books and within the same departments of psychology. Evolutionary psychology provides a metatheory for psychological science that unites these fields, and justifies why the seemingly disparate branches of psychology truly belong within the covers of introductory psychology books and within the same departments of. Evidence for the domain specificity hypothesis substantial behavioral studies have shown differences in the ways faces and nonface objects are processed, suggesting that special mechanisms are involved in processing faces duchaine and nakayama, 2006. The functional domain specificity of selfesteem and the. Discover the best evolutionary psychology in best sellers.
The proposed domainspecificity of many of these devices separates evolutionary psychology from those approaches to psychology that assume the mind is composed of a small number of domain general, contentindependent, general purpose mechanisms the standard social science model. Evolutionary psychology is the second wave of the cognitive revolu tion. Is general intelligence compatible with evolutionary. Life history theory and evolutionary psychology hillard s. The contested nature of evolutionary psychology lies not in our status as evolved. An evolutionary approach to behaviour involves an analysis of particular recurrent problems faced by the members of a given species and a search across species for correlations between common behaviours and common environmental conditions. The evolutionary psychology of emotions and behavior martie g. Adaptations are domainspecific, numerous, and functionalevolutionary psychology proceeds through both deductive research approach and inductive research approachevolutionary psychology can be applied to all three levels of personality analysishuman nature, sex differences, individual differences. Advances in the evolutionary synthesis of intelligent agents. Pdf an evolutionary hypothesis for obsessive compulsive.
Evolutionary psychologists study what people look for in a partner, and how these preferences may have been shaped by evolutionary pressures. Buss earned his phd in psychology at university of california, berkeley in 1981. Domain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science especially modern cognitive development that argues that many aspects of cognition are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices. Buller dedicates several chapters of his book on evolutionary psychology to an examination of. What are the best books about evolutionary psychology. Adaptations are designed by evolutionary process to solve specialized adaptive problemsdomainspecific mechanisms for eating, finding cooperative partners, etc. Groundbreaking developments, findings, and perspectives in evolutionary psychology. Where evolutionary psychology meets cognitive neuroscience. Buss is the author of a number of publications and books in the field of evolutionary psychology. The charge is that evolutionary psychology is committed to, or at least willfully embraces, a genetic determinism according to which our behavior is determined by our genetic makeup, which, since it is a human universal, cannot be influenced by means of social learning, education, and so forth, dorothy nelkin 2000, 27, for instance, claims. Evolutionary psychology involves threekey premisesdomain specificit, numerousness, and functionality. Evolutionary psychology is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and immune systems, cognition has functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore has evolved by natural. Evolutionary psychology ep views the human mind as organized into many modules, each underpinned by psychological adaptations designed to solve problems faced by our pleistocene ancestors. Mukesh patel, vasant honavar, karthik balakrishnan.
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in the social and natural sciences that. Evolutionary psychology, meet developmental neurobiology. Testing the domainspecificity hypothesis through wason selection task fabrizio ferrara fabrizio. Examining the strengths and weaknesses of applying. For example, world war ii with quotes will give more precise results than world war ii without quotes. We are, as the title of one of clarks books suggests, natural born cyborgs clark, 2003. Evolutionary psychology often does not sufficiently document the innate constr aint and domain specificity required for strong adaptationist argument. Currently available evidence suggests that the innate constraints in music are not specific to that domain, making it unclear which domain s provided the relevant selection pressures. It is in the field of abnormal psychology where several theorists have proposed a link between a domainspecific, precautionary psychology and obsessive compulsive disorder and other ritualized. Evolutionary psychology stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
The evolutionary psychology of emotions and behavior. Psychological mechanisms, domain specificity, and domain generality evolutionary psychology assumes that an evolved psychological mechanism and its corresponding neural substrates is an informationprocessing module that was selected during a species evolutionary history because it reliably produced behavior that solved a. Origins of domain specificity the evolution of functional organization. Adaptations are presumed to be domainspecifi in the sense that they are designed by the evolutionary process to solve a particular adaptive problem. Some mechanisms, termed domainspecific, deal with recurrent adaptive problems over the course of human evolutionary history.
The handbook of evolutionary psychology is the seminal work in this vibrant, quicklydeveloping new discipline. The handbook of evolutionary psychology is the fields leading resource, providing comprehensive coverage of the latest findings and theoretical developments. Find the top 100 most popular items in amazon books best sellers. Evolutionary social psychology is also an interactionist perspective, in recognizing that thoughts, feelings, and behavior emerge as an interactive function of variables inside the person e. Evolutionary psychology brings to bear on the phenomena of psychology one of the greatest scientific theories of all time. Books about evolutionary psychology written for a general audience. First, we advocate combining computational, develop. Because of the custom of cousin marriage in morocco, a multivariate model that included cosocialization data was developed for the purpose of testing the westermarck hypothesis of inbreeding avoidance.
Aug 12, 2014 far from offering an alternative to, or an improvement on, the current perspective, we argue that evolutionary psychology is a mainstream computational theory, and that its arguments for domain specificity often rest on shaky premises. Evolutionary psychology, and specifically, the evolutionary psychology of humans, has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades. Evolutionary psychology specifies the domain as the problems of survival and. It is thus not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or testtaking. In this thorough revision and expansion, luminaries in the field provide an indepth exploration of the foundations of evolutionary psychology and explain the new empirical discoveries and theoretical developments that continue at a.
In race in the making, hirschfeld argues that knowledge of race is not derived from observations of physical difference, nor does it develop in the same way as knowledge of other social categories. Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and. Now in its second edition, this twovolume set features expanded discussion on culture, neuroscience, and human development, with a broader scope that. The contested nature of evolutionary psychology lies not in our status as. Evolutionary psychology internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Modern evolutionary theorists, following on findings from cognitive science, presume that the human brain does not operate as one large central processing unit but instead solves different adaptive problems using relatively independent functional modules e. He argues that the domain specificity and encapsulation of a. The handbook of evolutionary psychology ebook, pdf portofrei. The social exchange theory of reasoning, which is championed by leda cosmides and john tooby, falls under the general rubric evolutionary psychology and asserts that human reasoning is governed by contentdependent, domainspecific, evolutionarilyderived algorithms. We develop these criteria within the domain of music. Patterns of mate preference in morocco are investigated in order to test whether they support hypotheses advanced by david buss and other evolutionary psychologists. Adaptations are designed by evolutionary process to solve specialized adaptive problems domain specific mechanisms for eating, finding cooperative partners, etc.
Conceptual foundations of evolutionary psychology john tooby and leda cosmides. Phrase searching you can use double quotes to search for a series of words in a particular order. According to the santa barbara school of evolutionary psychology ep, human minds are organized into a large number of evolved psychological mechanismspsychological adaptations designed to solve recurrent problems faced by our huntergatherer ancestors. Premises of evolutionary psychology personality psychology. Evolutionary psychology and carl jungs theory of the collective unconscious sally walters this article discusses how current theory about the evolution of univexsal psychological adaptations was anticipated in jungs conception of. First, we advocate combining computational, developmental, crosscultural, and neuroscience research to address the ways in which a domain is innately constrained. Wildcard searching if you want to search for multiple variations of a word, you can substitute a special symbol called a wildcard for one or more letters. Evolutionary psychology oftendoes not sufficeinyl tdocumen tthe innaet conrastni atnd domani specificity required for strong adaptationist argument. Psychological mechanisms, domain specificity, and domain generality. Testing the domain specificity hypothesis through wason selection task fabrizio ferrara fabrizio. Mapping the mind introduces a general audience to a domainspecificity perspective, by compiling a collection of. Evolutionary psychology, and specifically, the evolutionary psychology of humans, has enjoyed a. The evolution of functional organization leda cosmides and john tooby by establishing that domainspecific machinery is necessary to explain human cognitive performance, psychologists who advocate modular or domainspecific approaches have found themselves in an unanticipated situation.
Some theorists assert that contemporary knowledge of human evolution is too limited to give an evolutionary account of. Instead, his central claim is that racial thinking is the product of a specialpurpose cognitive competence for understanding and representing human kinds. According to fodor, the author of modularity of mind, a system can be considered modular if its functions are. Evolutionary psychology and the brain sciencedirect. Contrast to domaingeneral accounts of learning and human behaviormost unique human adaptations and characteristics cant be explained by domaingeneral accounts e.
The handbook of evolutionary psychology wiley online books. Oct 01, 2009 one is the concept of functional modularity or domain specificity. These circuits organize the way we interpret our experiences, inject certain recurrent concepts and motivations into our mental life, and provide. Evidence for the domain specificity hypothesis psychology essay. The position is a close relative of modularity of mind, but is considered more general in that it does not necessarily entail all the assumptions of fodorian.
The evolutionary psychology of mate selection in morocco. Thirty years later, william james tried to do just that in his seminal book, principles of. The evolution of functional organization leda cosmides and john tooby by establishing that domain specific machinery is necessary to explain human cognitive performance, psychologists who advocate modular or domain specific approaches have found themselves in an unanticipated situation. Kanwisher draws on imaging, neuropsychological, eventrelated potential erp, and behavioral studies, and concludes that the current evidence favors the existence of a domain specific system. Buss is a professor of psychology at the university of texas at austin, known for his evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection. Domain specificity and intuitive ontology pascal boyer and h. The handbook of evolutionary psychology ebook, pdf. Testing the domainspecificity hypothesis through wason selection task conference paper pdf available september 2015 with 365 reads how we measure. Memory allows us to think back about past episodes, such as witnessing a crime, but also to mentally plan prospective contingencies that can aid us in our future plans, such as avoiding the location where the crime took place. Designed to set the standard for handbooks in the field, the handbook of evolutionary psychology is an indispensable reference tool for every evolutionary psychologist and student.
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