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98-425: After establishing SSSM, Tooby and Cosmides make a case for replacing SSSM with the integrated model (IM), also known as the integrated causal model (ICM), which melds cultural and biological theories for the development of the mind. Supporters of SSSM include those who feel the term was conceived as a point of argument in support of ICM specifically and evolutionary psychology (EP) in general. There are criticisms that

196-455: A positive psychologist , explains that environment plays a key role in human behaviours such as forgiveness and revenge. This hypothesis theorizes that various social environments cause either forgiveness or revenge to prevail. McCollough relates his theory to game theory . In a tit-for-tat strategy, cooperation and retaliation are comparable to forgiveness and revenge. The choice between the two can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on what

294-526: A behavioural response. Some behaviours include maternal care, aggression, defense, and social hierarchy. These behaviours are influenced by sensory input — sight, sound, touch, and smell. Within the circuitry of the limbic system, there are various places where evolution could have taken place, or could take place in the future. For example, many rodents have receptors in the vomeronasal organ that respond explicitly to predator stimuli that specifically relate to that individual species of rodent. The reception of

392-426: A branch of biology . Anthropologist John Tooby and psychologist Leda Cosmides note: Evolutionary psychology is the long-forestalled scientific attempt to assemble out of the disjointed, fragmentary, and mutually contradictory human disciplines a single, logically integrated research framework for the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences – a framework that not only incorporates the evolutionary sciences on

490-460: A fear response is described as arising from a neurological computation that inputs the perceptional data, e.g. a visual image of a spider, and outputs the appropriate reaction, e.g. fear of possibly dangerous animals. Under this view, any domain-general learning is impossible because of the combinatorial explosion . Evolutionary Psychology specifies the domain as the problems of survival and reproduction. While philosophers have generally considered

588-983: A foundational, metatheoretical framework that integrates the entire field of psychology in the same way evolutionary biology has for biology. Evolutionary psychologists hold that behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations, including the abilities to infer others' emotions, discern kin from non-kin, identify and prefer healthier mates, and cooperate with others. Findings have been made regarding human social behaviour related to infanticide , intelligence , marriage patterns, promiscuity , perception of beauty , bride price , and parental investment . The theories and findings of evolutionary psychology have applications in many fields, including economics , environment, health, law, management, psychiatry , politics , and literature . Criticism of evolutionary psychology involves questions of testability , cognitive and evolutionary assumptions (such as modular functioning of

686-488: A full and equal basis, but that systematically works out all of the revisions in existing belief and research practice that such a synthesis requires. Just as human physiology and evolutionary physiology have worked to identify physical adaptations of the body that represent "human physiological nature," the purpose of evolutionary psychology is to identify evolved emotional and cognitive adaptations that represent "human psychological nature." According to Steven Pinker , it

784-474: A new and different environment can create a mismatch. Because humans are mostly adapted to Pleistocene environments, psychological mechanisms sometimes exhibit "mismatches" to the modern environment. One example is the fact that although about 10,000 people are killed with guns in the US annually, whereas spiders and snakes kill only a handful, people nonetheless learn to fear spiders and snakes about as easily as they do

882-657: A new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Two of his later books were devoted to the study of animal emotions and psychology; The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1871 and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872. Darwin's work inspired William James 's functionalist approach to psychology. Darwin's theories of evolution, adaptation, and natural selection have provided insight into why brains function

980-461: A northern climate to the equator will have darker skin. The mechanisms regulating their pigmentation do not change; rather the input to those mechanisms change, resulting in different outputs. One of the tasks of evolutionary psychology is to identify which psychological traits are likely to be adaptations, byproducts or random variation. George C. Williams suggested that an "adaptation is a special and onerous concept that should only be used where it

1078-471: A pointed gun, and more easily than an unpointed gun, rabbits or flowers. A potential explanation is that spiders and snakes were a threat to human ancestors throughout the Pleistocene, whereas guns (and rabbits and flowers) were not. There is thus a mismatch between humans' evolved fear-learning psychology and the modern environment. This mismatch also shows up in the phenomena of the supernormal stimulus ,

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1176-526: A predatory stimulus usually creates a response of defense or fear. Mating in rats follows a similar mechanism. The vomeronasal organ and the main olfactory epithelium, together called the olfactory system , detect pheromones from the opposite sex. These signals then travel to the medial amygdala, which disperses the signal to a variety of brain parts. The pathways involved with innate circuitry are extremely specialized and specific. Various organs and sensory receptors play parts in this complex process. Instinct

1274-553: A progressive model for the social sciences requires evolutionarily-informed models of nature-nurture interactionism, grounded in the computational theory of mind . Tooby and Cosmides refer to this new model as the integrated model (IM). Tooby and Cosmides provide several comparisons between the SSSM and the IM, including the following: Richardson (2007) argues that, as proponents of evolutionary psychology (EP), evolutionary psychologists developed

1372-465: A sensitive period for a bird in which it learns the identity of its mother. Konrad Lorenz famously had a goose imprint on his boots. Thereafter the goose would follow whoever wore the boots. This suggests that the identity of the goose's mother was learned, but the goose's behaviour towards what it perceived as its mother was instinctive. In a conference in 1960, chaired by Frank Beach , a pioneer in comparative psychology , and attended by luminaries in

1470-756: A significant difference between humans and other animals is that most animals cannot reason. He came to this conclusion after observing how insects and wild birds continued to repeat a certain behaviour in response to a novel situation. While these instinctive behaviours appeared complex, the insects and animals did not adjust their behaviour despite it not helping them in that novel situation. The following are some insect and animal behaviours that Fabre observed and labelled "instinctive", for they do not involve reasoning: Fabre believed instincts were "fixed patterns", meaning these linked sets of behaviours do not change in response to novel environmental situations. One specific example that helped him arrive at this conclusion

1568-455: A slightly different perspective by trying to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution . DIT is seen by some as a "middle-ground" between views that emphasize human universals versus those that emphasize cultural variation. The theories on which evolutionary psychology is based originated with Charles Darwin's work, including his speculations about

1666-451: A species and should solve important problems of survival and reproduction . Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand psychological mechanisms by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might have served over the course of evolutionary history. These might include abilities to infer others' emotions, discern kin from non-kin, identify and prefer healthier mates, cooperate with others and follow leaders. Consistent with

1764-441: A specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light or the spasmodic movement of the lower leg when the knee is tapped. The absence of volitional capacity must not be confused with an inability to modify fixed action patterns. For example, people may be able to modify a stimulated fixed action pattern by consciously recognizing the point of its activation and simply stop doing it, whereas animals without

1862-437: A stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which the response evolved. The term was coined by Niko Tinbergen to refer to non-human animal behavior, but psychologist Deirdre Barrett said that supernormal stimulation governs the behavior of humans as powerfully as that of other animals. She explained junk food as an exaggerated stimulus to cravings for salt, sugar, and fats, and she says that television

1960-548: A subfield of psychohistory collapsed under the weight of its presuppositions." She concludes that, as of 2014, the "'iron curtain' between historians and psychology...remains standing." Not all traits of organisms are evolutionary adaptations. As noted in the table below, traits may also be exaptations , byproducts of adaptations (sometimes called "spandrels"), or random variation between individuals. Psychological adaptations are hypothesized to be innate or relatively easy to learn and to manifest in cultures worldwide. For example,

2058-513: A sufficiently strong volitional capacity may not be able to disengage from their fixed action patterns, once activated. Instinctual behaviour in humans has been studied. Jean Henri Fabre (1823–1915) is said to be the first person to study small animals (other than birds) and insects, and he specifically specialized in the instincts of insects. Fabre considered an instinct to be a linked set of behaviours that an organism undergoes unconsciously in response to external conditions. Fabre concluded

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2156-417: A vast period of time to solve the recurrent information-processing problems faced by our ancestors. These problems involve food choices, social hierarchies, distributing resources to offspring, and selecting mates. Proponents suggest that it seeks to integrate psychology into the other natural sciences, rooting it in the organizing theory of biology ( evolutionary theory ), and thus understanding psychology as

2254-536: Is heuristic in that it may generate hypotheses that might not be developed from other theoretical approaches. One of the main goals of adaptationist research is to identify which organismic traits are likely to be adaptations, and which are byproducts or random variations. As noted earlier, adaptations are expected to show evidence of complexity, functionality, and species universality, while byproducts or random variation will not. In addition, adaptations are expected to be presented as proximate mechanisms that interact with

2352-424: Is "not a single theory but a large set of hypotheses" and a term that "has also come to refer to a particular way of applying evolutionary theory to the mind, with an emphasis on adaptation, gene-level selection, and modularity." Evolutionary psychology adopts an understanding of the mind that is based on the computational theory of mind . It describes mental processes as computational operations, so that, for example,

2450-504: Is a mismatch. His argument is that humans are not adapted to work in large, anonymous bureaucratic structures with formal hierarchies. The human mind still responds to personalized, charismatic leadership primarily in the context of informal, egalitarian settings. Hence the dissatisfaction and alienation that many employees experience. Salaries, bonuses and other privileges exploit instincts for relative status, which attract particularly males to senior executive positions. Evolutionary theory

2548-435: Is a reproductive benefit to offspring survival. If an offspring has attachment to a parent, it is more likely to stay nearby under parental protection. Attached offspring are also more likely to learn from a parental figure when interacting closely. (Reproductive benefits are a driving force behind natural selection .) Environment is an important factor in the evolution of innate behaviour. A hypothesis of Michael McCollough,

2646-426: Is an exaggeration of social cues of laughter, smiling faces and attention-grabbing action. Magazine centerfolds and double cheeseburgers pull instincts intended for an environment of evolutionary adaptedness where breast development was a sign of health, youth and fertility in a prospective mate, and fat was a rare and vital nutrient. The psychologist Mark van Vugt recently argued that modern organizational leadership

2744-529: Is called instinct is often imprecisely defined, and really amounts to strong "drives". For Maslow, an instinct is something which cannot be overridden, and therefore while the term may have applied to humans in the past, it no longer does. An interest in innate behaviours arose again in the 1950s with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen , who made the distinction between instinct and learned behaviours. Our modern understanding of instinctual behaviour in animals owes much to their work. For instance, there exists

2842-410: Is dependent on whether early childhood caregivers could be trusted to provide reliable assistance and attention. The adaptation for skin to tan is conditional to exposure to sunlight; this is an example of another facultative adaptation. When a psychological adaptation is facultative, evolutionary psychologists concern themselves with how developmental and environmental inputs influence the expression of

2940-508: Is disingenuous to down-play it. Evolutionary psychologists who use the term "Standard Social Science Model" and rhetorical equivalents such as "the neo-behaviourist tradition" ... and "the tabula rasa view" ... undermine their own much-vaunted rigor. Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to

3038-424: Is his study of various wasp species. All of the wasp species he studied performed a certain pattern of behaviour when catching their prey, which Fabre called a fixed pattern. Then Fabre intervened in the wasps' process of catching prey, and only one of the species adjusted their behaviour in response to this unfamiliar interception. Fabre explained this contradiction by arguing that any individuals which stray from

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3136-588: Is known for founding the first psychology laboratory, which occurred in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. He was able to draw conclusions about instinct from his careful observations of both animal and human behaviour. Wundt believed unconscious processes (which he called "instinctive movements") were the result of sensations and emotions, and these unconscious processes were building blocks towards consciousness . An example of what Wundt studied to arrive at his conclusions regarding unconscious processes includes

3234-422: Is more suitable for describing animal behaviour, while he recommended the word propensity for goal-directed combinations of the many innate human abilities, which are loosely and variably linked, in a way that shows strong plasticity . In the 1950s, the psychologist Abraham Maslow argued that humans no longer have instincts because we have the ability to override them in certain situations. He felt that what

3332-404: Is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning ), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. Sea turtles , newly hatched on a beach, will instinctively move toward the ocean. A marsupial climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behaviour, internal escape functions, and

3430-414: Is really necessary." As noted by Williams and others, adaptations can be identified by their improbable complexity, species universality, and adaptive functionality. A question that may be asked about an adaptation is whether it is generally obligate (relatively robust in the face of typical environmental variation) or facultative (sensitive to typical environmental variation). The sweet taste of sugar and

3528-405: Is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour , containing innate (inborn) elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a corresponding clearly defined stimulus. Any behaviour is instinctive if it

3626-582: The primitive reflexes , such as rooting and suckling, behaviours which are present in mammals . In rats, it has been observed that innate responses are related to specific chemicals, and these chemicals are detected by two organs located in the nose: the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and the main olfactory epithelium (MOE). Some instinctive behaviours depend on maturational processes to appear. For instance, we commonly refer to birds "learning" to fly. However, young birds have been experimentally reared in devices that prevent them from moving their wings until they reached

3724-459: The " standard social science model ," according to which the mind is a general-purpose cognition device shaped almost entirely by culture. Evolutionary psychology argues that to properly understand the functions of the brain, one must understand the properties of the environment in which the brain evolved. That environment is often referred to as the "environment of evolutionary adaptedness". The idea of an environment of evolutionary adaptedness

3822-462: The "instinct of curiosity" and its associated "emotion of wonder", though Spink's book does not mention this. M. S. Blumberg in 2017 examined the use of the word instinct, and found it varied significantly. Among possible examples of instinct-influenced behaviour in humans are the following. Examples of behaviours that do not require thought include many reflexes. The stimulus in a reflex may not require brain activity but instead may travel to

3920-509: The "why?" questions, while traditional psychology focuses on the "how?" questions. Evolutionary psychology is founded on several core premises. Evolutionary psychology has its historical roots in Charles Darwin 's theory of natural selection. In The Origin of Species , Darwin predicted that psychology would develop an evolutionary basis: In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on

4018-433: The 1920s as "completely untenable". In his argument, Sampson cites British education policies in the 20th century that were guided by social scientists and which were based on the belief that children had in-built talents and needs. Thus, he challenges Pinker's assertion that the view of the mind among all social scientists is a tabula rasa . Moreover, Sampson only conditionally agrees that the scientists Pinker associates with

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4116-500: The 1930s and 1940s. In the 1930s the study of animal behavior (ethology) emerged with the work of the Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch . W.D. Hamilton's (1964) papers on inclusive fitness and Robert Trivers 's (1972) theories on reciprocity and parental investment helped to establish evolutionary thinking in psychology and

4214-530: The 1990s made some explorations in historical events, but the response from historical experts was highly negative and there has been little effort to continue that line of research. Historian Lynn Hunt says that the historians complained that the researchers: have read the wrong studies, misinterpreted the results of experiments, or worse yet, turned to neuroscience looking for a universalizing, anti-representational and anti-intentional ontology to bolster their claims. Hunt states that "the few attempts to build up

4312-464: The SSSM as a rhetorical technique : "The basic move is evident in Cosmides and Tooby's most aggressive brief for evolutionary psychology. They want us to accept a dichotomy between what they call the "Standard Social Science Model" (SSSM) and the "Integrated Causal Model" (ICM) they favor ... it offers a false dichotomy between a manifestly untenable view and their own." Wallace (2010) has also suggested

4410-523: The SSSM to be a false dichotomy and claims that "scientists in the EP tradition wildly overstate the influence and longevity of what they call the Standard Social Science Model (essentially, behaviorism ) of human cognition". Geoffrey Sampson argues that the SSSM is based on a straw man . He views Pinker's claim that the SSSM has been the dominant theoretical paradigm in the social sciences since

4508-438: The SSSM, such as Skinner, Watson, and Mead, were influential, stating, "to identify them as responsible for the general tone of intellectual life for eighty years seems comical". Similarly, Neil Levy appears to concur with Sampson's straw man thesis regarding the conception of the SSSM, against which evolutionary psychologists direct much of their criticism. Levy writes: "No-one—not even Skinner and his followers—has ever believed in

4606-548: The ability of toddlers to learn a language with virtually no training is likely to be a psychological adaptation. On the other hand, ancestral humans did not read or write, thus today, learning to read and write requires extensive training, and presumably involves the repurposing of cognitive capacities that evolved in response to selection pressures unrelated to written language. However, variations in manifest behavior can result from universal mechanisms interacting with different local environments. For example, Caucasians who move from

4704-422: The adaptation. Evolutionary psychologists hold that behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations. Cultural universals include behaviors related to language, cognition, social roles, gender roles, and technology. Evolved psychological adaptations (such as the ability to learn a language) interact with cultural inputs to produce specific behaviors (e.g.,

4802-478: The adaptation. Humans, the genus Homo , appeared between 1.5 and 2.5 million years ago, a time that roughly coincides with the start of the Pleistocene 2.6 million years ago. Because the Pleistocene ended a mere 12,000 years ago, most human adaptations either newly evolved during the Pleistocene, or were maintained by stabilizing selection during the Pleistocene. Evolutionary psychology, therefore, proposes that

4900-428: The age at which their cohorts were flying. These birds flew immediately and normally when released, showing that their improvement resulted from neuromuscular maturation and not true learning. Imprinting provides one example of instinct. This complex response may involve visual, auditory, and olfactory cues in the environment surrounding an organism. In some cases, imprinting attaches an offspring to its parent, which

4998-412: The allegation of SSSM is based on a straw man or rhetorical technique . Steven Pinker names several prominent social scientists as proponents of the standard social science model, including John B. Watson , Margaret Mead , Franz Boas , B. F. Skinner , Richard Lewontin , John Money , and Stephen Jay Gould . The authors of The Adapted Mind have argued that the SSSM is now out of date and that

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5096-404: The ancestral problems they evolved to solve. In this framework, psychological traits and mechanisms are either functional products of natural and sexual selection or non-adaptive by-products of other adaptive traits. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart , lungs , and the liver , is common in evolutionary biology . Evolutionary psychologists apply

5194-475: The biological basis of all social behavior" and in 1978 as "the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization." Secondly, there was behavioral ecology which placed less emphasis on social behavior; it focused on the ecological and evolutionary basis of animal and human behavior. In the 1970s and 1980s university departments began to include the term evolutionary biology in their titles. The modern era of evolutionary psychology

5292-503: The blank slate of Pinker's title." Hilary Rose has criticized Tooby and Cosmides' arbitrary exclusion of economics and political science from their SSSM model, which Rose argues is "rather like excluding physiology and biochemistry from an account of the life sciences". She also states that Tooby and Cosmides have publicly indicted sociologists and anthropologists of inappropriate separatist behavior towards other academic disciplines while ignoring their newer efforts that demonstrate

5390-442: The brain, and large uncertainty about the ancestral environment), 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. Its central assumption is that the human brain is composed of a large number of specialized mechanisms that were shaped by natural selection over

5488-402: The building of nests . Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience; for example, a dog can improve its listening skills by practice. Instincts are inborn complex patterns of behaviour that exist in most members of the species, and should be distinguished from reflexes , which are simple responses of an organism to

5586-559: The characteristics of an evolved adaptation (complexity and universality). Margie Profet hypothesized that the function was to avoid the ingestion of toxins during early pregnancy that could damage fetus (but which are otherwise likely to be harmless to healthy non-pregnant women). Corresponding Neurological Modules. Evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuropsychology are mutually compatible – evolutionary psychology helps to identify psychological adaptations and their ultimate, evolutionary functions, while neuropsychology helps to identify

5684-493: The complete opposite. Rose notes how sociologists and anthropologists have many new developments that involve study of the natural sciences and technology. Furthermore, Rose suggests that Tooby and Cosmides' characterization of scientists like Gould, Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon Kamin as SSSM adherents is based on an inaccurate reading of works like The Mismeasure of Man and Not in Our Genes , two books that have explored

5782-456: The contending sides in the nature–nurture debate as applied to the analysis of behavior." F. B. Mandal proposed a set of criteria by which a behaviour might be considered instinctual: (a) be automatic, (b) be irresistible, (c) occur at some point in development, (d) be triggered by some event in the environment, (e) occur in every member of the species, (f) be unmodifiable, and (g) govern behaviour for which

5880-482: The course of human evolutionary history. Domain-general mechanisms, on the other hand, are proposed to deal with evolutionary novelty. Evolutionary psychology has roots in cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology but also draws on behavioral ecology , artificial intelligence , genetics , ethology , anthropology , archaeology , biology, ecopsycology and zoology . It is closely linked to sociobiology , but there are key differences between them including

5978-576: The development of an individual may alter life-history trajectories. Evolutionary psychologists use several strategies to develop and test hypotheses about whether a psychological trait is likely to be an evolved adaptation. Buss (2011) notes that these methods include: Cross-cultural Consistency. Characteristics that have been demonstrated to be cross-cultural human universals such as smiling, crying, facial expressions are presumed to be evolved psychological adaptations. Several evolutionary psychologists have collected massive datasets from cultures around

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6076-512: The development of culture, and culture, in turn, affecting human evolution on a genetic level, in a similar way to the Baldwin effect . Evolutionary psychology is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, and immune systems, cognition has a functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore has evolved by natural selection. Like other organs and tissues, this functional structure should be universally shared amongst

6174-404: The emphasis on domain-specific rather than domain-general mechanisms, the relevance of measures of current fitness , the importance of mismatch theory , and psychology rather than behavior. Nikolaas Tinbergen 's four categories of questions can help to clarify the distinctions between several different, but complementary, types of explanations. Evolutionary psychology focuses primarily on

6272-542: The environment in either a generally obligate or facultative fashion (see above). Evolutionary psychologists are also interested in identifying these proximate mechanisms (sometimes termed "mental mechanisms" or "psychological adaptations") and what type of information they take as input, how they process that information, and their outputs. Evolutionary developmental psychology , or "evo-devo," focuses on how adaptations may be activated at certain developmental times (e.g., losing baby teeth, adolescence, etc.) or how events during

6370-607: The environment in which an organism evolved, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Sexual selection provides organisms with adaptations related to mating. For male mammals , which have a relatively high maximal potential reproduction rate, sexual selection leads to adaptations that help them compete for females. For female mammals, with a relatively low maximal potential reproduction rate, sexual selection leads to choosiness, which helps females select higher quality mates. Charles Darwin described both natural selection and sexual selection, and he relied on group selection to explain

6468-530: The environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Unfortunately, the few surviving hunter-gatherer societies are different from each other, and they have been pushed out of the best land and into harsh environments, so it is not clear how closely they reflect ancestral culture. However, all around the world small-band hunter-gatherers offer a similar developmental system for the young ("hunter-gatherer childhood model," Konner, 2005; "evolved developmental niche" or "evolved nest;" Narvaez et al., 2013). The characteristics of

6566-443: The evolution of altruistic (self-sacrificing) behavior. But group selection was considered a weak explanation, because in any group the less altruistic individuals will be more likely to survive, and the group will become less self-sacrificing as a whole. In 1964, the evolutionary biologist William D. Hamilton proposed inclusive fitness theory, emphasizing a gene-centered view of evolution . Hamilton noted that genes can increase

6664-469: The evolutionary origins of social instincts in humans. Modern evolutionary psychology, however, is possible only because of advances in evolutionary theory in the 20th century. Evolutionary psychologists say that natural selection has provided humans with many psychological adaptations, in much the same way that it generated humans' anatomical and physiological adaptations. As with adaptations in general, psychological adaptations are said to be specialized for

6762-601: The evolved mechanism in depression. Clinical depression is maladaptive and should have evolutionary approaches so it can become adaptive. Over the centuries animals and humans have gone through hard times to stay alive, which made our fight or flight senses evolve tremendously. For instances, mammalians have separation anxiety from their guardians which causes distress and sends signals to their hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, and emotional/behavioral changes. Going through these types of circumstances helps mammals cope with separation anxiety. Proponents of evolutionary psychology in

6860-535: The existence of instincts is natural selection . More specifically, his research suggests natural selection causes small changes in the nervous system over time. These changes bring about hereditary drives in organisms, which are then responsible for any unconscious processes. Another thing to note is that Wundt used the terms unconscious processes , reflexive movements , and instinctive movements interchangeably, often grouping them together. Sigmund Freud considered that mental images of bodily needs, expressed in

6958-470: The facial expressions babies made in response to the sensations of sweet, sour, and bitter tastes. He concluded these facial expressions were the result of the babies trying to avoid unpleasant emotions because there was something unpleasant in their mouths, and that these instincts (which he uses interchangeably with reflexive movements) only became innate because past generations learned it and it benefited their survival. The process by which Wundt explained

7056-406: The field, the term instinct was restricted in its application. During the 1960s and 1970s, textbooks still contained some discussion of instincts in reference to human behaviour. By the year 2000, a survey of the 12 best selling textbooks in introductory psychology revealed only one reference to instincts, and that was in regard to Sigmund Freud 's referral to the " id " instincts. In this sense,

7154-414: The form of mental desires , are called instincts. In the early 20th century, there was recognized a "union of instinct and emotion". William McDougall held that many instincts have their respective associated specific emotions . As research became more rigorous and terms better defined, instinct as an explanation for human behaviour became less common. In 1932, McDougall argued that the word instinct

7252-748: The human mind to include broad faculties, such as reason and lust, evolutionary psychologists describe evolved psychological mechanisms as narrowly focused to deal with specific issues, such as catching cheaters or choosing mates. The discipline sees the human brain as having evolved specialized functions, called cognitive modules , or psychological adaptations which are shaped by natural selection. Examples include language-acquisition modules , incest-avoidance mechanisms , cheater-detection mechanisms , intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking mechanisms, agent-detection mechanisms, and others. Some mechanisms, termed domain-specific , deal with recurrent adaptive problems over

7350-448: The interplay between biology and the environment. Simon Hampton (2004) contends that evolutionary psychologists' account of the SSSM misses the debate on the existence of psychological instincts in the early part of the 20th century. He argues: psychological and behavioural thinkers have for long periods been immersed in the implications of Darwinism. It is plainly and factually incorrect for evolutionary psychology to deny this. And it

7448-625: The majority of human psychological mechanisms are adapted to reproductive problems frequently encountered in Pleistocene environments. In broad terms, these problems include those of growth, development, differentiation, maintenance, mating, parenting, and social relationships. The environment of evolutionary adaptedness is significantly different from modern society. The ancestors of modern humans lived in smaller groups, had more cohesive cultures, and had more stable and rich contexts for identity and meaning. Researchers look to existing hunter-gatherer societies for clues as to how hunter-gatherers lived in

7546-652: The niche are largely the same as for social mammals, who evolved over 30 million years ago: soothing perinatal experience, several years of on-request breastfeeding, nearly constant affection or physical proximity, responsiveness to need (mitigating offspring distress), self-directed play, and for humans, multiple responsive caregivers. Initial studies show the importance of these components in early life for positive child outcomes. Evolutionary psychologists sometimes look to chimpanzees, bonobos, and other great apes for insight into human ancestral behavior. Since an organism's adaptations were suited to its ancestral environment,

7644-427: The norms of their species are merely an exception, while also admitting that there could be some room for growth within a species' instincts. Fabre's belief that instincts are fixed opposes the theory of evolution. He rejected that one species could evolve into another, and also rejected that the consciousness humans possess could be achieved through the evolution of unconscious traits. Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)

7742-409: The organism needs no training (although the organism may profit from experience and to that degree the behaviour is modifiable). In Information Behavior: An Evolutionary Instinct (2010, pp. 35–42), Amanda Spink notes that "currently in the behavioral sciences instinct is generally understood as the innate part of behavior that emerges without any training or education in humans." She claims that

7840-695: The organism's close relatives so much that it more than compensates for the individual animal's sacrifice. Inclusive fitness theory resolved the issue of how altruism can evolve. Other theories also help explain the evolution of altruistic behavior, including evolutionary game theory , tit-for-tat reciprocity, and generalized reciprocity. These theories help to explain the development of altruistic behavior, and account for hostility toward cheaters (individuals that take advantage of others' altruism). Several mid-level evolutionary theories inform evolutionary psychology. The r/K selection theory proposes that some species prosper by having many offspring, while others follow

7938-465: The other social sciences. In 1975, Edward O. Wilson combined evolutionary theory with studies of animal and social behavior, building on the works of Lorenz and Tinbergen, in his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis . In the 1970s, two major branches developed from ethology. Firstly, the study of animal social behavior (including humans) generated sociobiology , defined by its pre-eminent proponent Edward O. Wilson in 1975 as "the systematic study of

8036-445: The pain of hitting one's knee against concrete are the result of fairly obligate psychological adaptations; typical environmental variability during development does not much affect their operation. By contrast, facultative adaptations are somewhat like "if-then" statements. For example, adult attachment style seems particularly sensitive to early childhood experiences. As adults, the propensity to develop close, trusting bonds with others

8134-471: The partner-organism chooses. Though this psychological example of game theory does not have such directly measurable results, it provides an interesting theory of unique thought. From a more biological standpoint, the brain's limbic system operates as the main control-area for response to certain stimuli, including a variety of instinctual behaviour. The limbic system processes external stimuli related to emotions, social activity, and motivation, which propagates

8232-823: The prevalence of traits over time. Such work has been informative in studying evolutionary psychopathology. Evolutionary psychologists also use various sources of data for testing, including experiments, archaeological records , data from hunter-gatherer societies, observational studies, neuroscience data, self-reports and surveys, public records , and human products. Recently, additional methods and tools have been introduced based on fictional scenarios, mathematical models, and multi-agent computer simulations . Foundational areas of research in evolutionary psychology can be divided into broad categories of adaptive problems that arise from evolutionary theory itself: survival, mating, parenting, family and kinship, interactions with non-kin, and cultural evolution. Instinct Instinct

8330-428: The primary streams of developmental , social and cognitive psychology. Establishing some measure of the relative influence of genetics and environment on behavior has been at the core of behavioral genetics and its variants, notably studies at the molecular level that examine the relationship between genes, neurotransmitters and behavior. Dual inheritance theory (DIT), developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has

8428-447: The proximate manifestations of these adaptations. Current Evolutionary Adaptiveness. In addition to evolutionary models that suggest evolution occurs across large spans of time, recent research has demonstrated that some evolutionary shifts can be fast and dramatic. Consequently, some evolutionary psychologists have focused on the impact of psychological traits in the current environment. Such research can be used to inform estimates of

8526-419: The replication of copies of themselves into the next generation by influencing the organism's social traits in such a way that (statistically) results in helping the survival and reproduction of other copies of the same genes (most simply, identical copies in the organism's close relatives). According to Hamilton's rule , self-sacrificing behaviors (and the genes influencing them) can evolve if they typically help

8624-557: The same thinking in psychology, arguing that just as the heart evolved to pump blood, the liver evolved to detoxify poisons, and the kidneys evolved to filter turbid fluids there is modularity of mind in that different psychological mechanisms evolved to solve different adaptive problems. These evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments. Some evolutionary psychologists argue that evolutionary theory can provide

8722-607: The specific language learned). Basic gender differences, such as greater eagerness for sex among men and greater coyness among women, are explained as sexually dimorphic psychological adaptations that reflect the different reproductive strategies of males and females. It has been found that both male and female personality traits differ on a large spectrum. Males had a higher rate of traits relating to dominance, tension, and directness. Females had higher rates organizational behavior and more emotional based characteristics. Evolutionary psychologists contrast their approach to what they term

8820-477: The spinal cord as a message that is then transmitted back through the body, tracing a path called the reflex arc . Reflexes are similar to fixed action patterns in that most reflexes meet the criteria of a fixed action pattern. However, a fixed action pattern can be processed in the brain as well; a male stickleback 's instinctive aggression towards anything red during his mating season is such an example. Examples of instinctive behaviours in humans include many of

8918-958: The strategy of having fewer offspring but investing much more in each one. Humans follow the second strategy. Parental investment theory explains how parents invest more or less in individual offspring based on how successful those offspring are likely to be, and thus how much they might improve the parents' inclusive fitness. According to the Trivers–Willard hypothesis , parents in good conditions tend to invest more in sons (who are best able to take advantage of good conditions), while parents in poor conditions tend to invest more in daughters (who are best able to have successful offspring even in poor conditions). According to life history theory , animals evolve life histories to match their environments, determining details such as age at first reproduction and number of offspring. Dual inheritance theory posits that genes and human culture have interacted, with genes affecting

9016-532: The term instinct appeared to have become outmoded for introductory textbooks on human psychology. The book Instinct: An Enduring Problem in Psychology (1961) selected a range of writings about the topic. In a classic paper published in 1972, the psychologist Richard Herrnstein wrote: "A comparison of McDougall's theory of instinct and Skinner's reinforcement theory —representing nature and nurture—shows remarkable, and largely unrecognized, similarities between

9114-863: The theory of natural selection, evolutionary psychology sees humans as often in conflict with others, including mates and relatives. For instance, a mother may wish to wean her offspring from breastfeeding earlier than does her infant, which frees up the mother to invest in additional offspring. Evolutionary psychology also recognizes the role of kin selection and reciprocity in evolving prosocial traits such as altruism. Like chimpanzees and bonobos , humans have subtle and flexible social instincts, allowing them to form extended families, lifelong friendships, and political alliances. In studies testing theoretical predictions, evolutionary psychologists have made modest findings on topics such as infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price and parental investment. Another example would be

9212-499: The viewpoint that information behaviour has an instinctive basis is grounded in the latest thinking on human behaviour. Furthermore, she notes that "behaviors such as cooperation, sexual behavior, child rearing and aesthetics are [also] seen as 'evolved psychological mechanisms' with an instinctive basis." Spink adds that Steven Pinker similarly asserts that language acquisition is instinctive in humans in his book The Language Instinct (1994). In 1908, William McDougall wrote about

9310-400: The way they do. The content of evolutionary psychology has derived from, on the one hand, the biological sciences (especially evolutionary theory as it relates to ancient human environments, the study of paleoanthropology and animal behavior) and, on the other, the human sciences, especially psychology. Evolutionary biology as an academic discipline emerged with the modern synthesis in

9408-563: The world to assess cross-cultural universality. Function to Form (or "problem to solution"). The fact that males, but not females, risk potential misidentification of genetic offspring (referred to as "paternity uncertainty") led evolutionary psychologists to hypothesize that, compared to females, male jealousy would be more focused on sexual, rather than emotional, infidelity. Form to Function (reverse-engineering – or "solution to problem"). Morning sickness , and associated aversions to certain types of food, during pregnancy seemed to have

9506-419: Was first explored as a part of attachment theory by John Bowlby . This is the environment to which a particular evolved mechanism is adapted. More specifically, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness is defined as the set of historically recurring selection pressures that formed a given adaptation, as well as those aspects of the environment that were necessary for the proper development and functioning of

9604-649: Was ushered in, in particular, by Donald Symons ' 1979 book The Evolution of Human Sexuality and Leda Cosmides and John Tooby 's 1992 book The Adapted Mind . David Buller observed that the term "evolutionary psychology" is sometimes seen as denoting research based on the specific methodological and theoretical commitments of certain researchers from the Santa Barbara school (University of California), thus some evolutionary psychologists prefer to term their work "human ecology", "human behavioural ecology" or "evolutionary anthropology" instead. From psychology there are

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