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. Proponents of EP
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 a branch of biology.
Anthropologist John Tooby and psychologist Leda Cosmides note:

"Evolutionary psychology is the long-forestalled scientic 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 sciencesa framework that not only
incorporates the evolutionary sciences on 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."[11]

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, EP 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, 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.

While philosophers have generally considered the human mind to include
broad faculties, such as reason and lust, evolutionary psychologists
describe evolved psychological mechanisms as narrowly focused to deal
with specic issues, such as catching cheaters or choosing mates. EP
views the human brain as comprising many functional mechanisms,
[citation needed] called psychological adaptations or evolved cognitive
mechanisms or cognitive modules, designed by the process of natural
selection. Examples include language-acquisition modules, incest-
avoidance mechanisms, cheater-detection mechanisms, intelligence and
sex-specic mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking
mechanisms, agent-detection mechanisms, and others. Some
mechanisms, termed domain-specic, deal with recurrent adaptive
problems over the course of human evolutionary history.[citation needed]
Domain-general mechanisms, on the other hand, are proposed to deal
with evolutionary novelty.[citation needed]

EP has roots in cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology but also
draws on behavioral ecology, articial intelligence, genetics, ethology,
anthropology, archaeology, biology, and zoology. EP is closely linked to
sociobiology,[3] but there are key di"erences between them including the
emphasis on domain-specic rather than domain-general mechanisms,
the relevance of measures of current tness, the importance of mismatch
theory, and psychology rather than behavior. Most of what is now labeled
as sociobiological research is now conned to the eld of behavioral
ecology.


Premises

Evolutionary psychology is founded on several core premises.

The brain is an information processing device, and it produces 1.
behavior in response to external and internal inputs.[4][14]
The brain's adaptive mechanisms were shaped by natural and sexual 2.
selection.[4][14]
Di"erent neural mechanisms are specialized for solving problems in 3.
humanity's evolutionary past.[4][14]
The brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms that were 4.
designed for solving problems that recurred over deep evolutionary
time,[14] giving modern humans stone-age minds.[4]
Most contents and processes of the brain are unconscious; and most 5.
mental problems that seem easy to solve are actually extremely di#cult
problems that are solved unconsciously by complicated neural
mechanisms.[4]
Human psychology consists of many specialized mechanisms, each 6.
sensitive to di"erent classes of information or inputs. These
mechanisms combine to produce manifest behavior.[14]



"Evolutionary Psychology." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 May
2014. Web. 20 May 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Evolutionary_psychology>.
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Evolutionary psychology is a relatively new scientic discipline that looks
at how human nature has evolved over time as a series of built up
psychological adaptations. Many evolutionary biologists and other
scientists are still reluctant to recognize evolutionary psychology as a
valid science.

Much like Charles Darwin's ideas about natural selection, evolutionary
psychology focuses on how favorable adaptations of human nature are
selected for over less favorable adaptations. In the scope of psychology,
these adaptations could be in the form of emotions or problem solving
skills.

Evolutionary psychology is related to both macroevolution in the sense
that it looks at how the human species, especially the brain, has changed
over time, and it is also rooted in the ideas attributed to microevolution.
These microevolutionary topics include changes at the gene level of DNA.

Attempting to link the discipline of psychology to the theory of evolution
via biological evolution is the aim of evolutionary psychology. In particular,
evolutionary psychologists study how the human brain has evolved. The
di"erent regions of the brain control di"erent parts of human nature and
the physiology of the body. Evolutionary psychologists believe that the
brain evolved in response to solving very specic problems.

The Six Core Principles of Evolutionary Psychology

The discipline of Evolutionary Psychology was founded on six core
principles that combine traditional understanding of psychology along
with evolutionary biology ideas of how the brain functions. These
principles are as follows
The human brain's purpose is to process information, and in doing so, 1.
it produces responses to both external and internal stimuli.
The human brain adapted and has undergone both natural and sexual 2.
selection.
The parts of the human brain are specialized to solve problems that 3.
occurred over evolutionary time.
Modern humans have brains that evolved after problems recurred time 4.
and time again over long periods of time.
Most of the human brain's functions are done unconsciously. Even 5.
problems that seem easy to solve take very intricate neural responses
at an unconscious level.
Many very specialized mechanisms make up the whole of human 6.
psychology. All of these mechanisms together create human nature.

Areas of Evolutionary Psychology Research

The theory of evolution lends itself to several areas where psychological
adaptations must occur in order for species to develop. The rst is basic
survival skills like consciousness, responding to stimuli, learning and
motivation. Emotions and personality also fall into this category, although
their evolution is much more complex than basic instinctual survival skills.
The use of language is also linked as a survival skill on the evolutionary
scale within psychology.

Another major area of evolutionary psychology research is the
propagation of the species, or mating. 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. Since males are instinctively wired
spread their seed to any available female, the male human brain has
evolved to be less selective than that of the female.

The last major area of evolutionary psychology research centers on
human interaction with other humans. This large research area includes
research into parenting, interactions within families and relations,
interactions with people that are not related and the combination of
similar ideas to establish a culture. Emotions and language greatly
inuence these interactions, as does geography. Interactions occur more
frequently between people living in the same area, which eventually leads
to the creation of a specic culture that evolves based on immigration and
emigration in the area.




Scoville, Heather. "Evolutionary Psychology." About.com Evolution. Web.
20 May 2014. <http://evolution.about.com/od/Evolution-Glossary/g/
Evolutionary-Psychology.htm>.
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Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach to psychology that
attempts to explain useful mental and psychological traitssuch as
memory, perception, or languageas adaptations, i.e., as the functional
products of natural selection.

The purpose of this approach is to bring the functional way of thinking
about biological mechanisms such as the immune system into the eld of
psychology, and to approach psychological mechanisms in a similar way.
In short, evolutionary psychology is focused on how evolution has shaped
the mind and behavior.

Though applicable to any organism with a nervous system, most research
in evolutionary psychology focuses on humans.

Evolutionary Psychology proposes that the human brain comprises many
functional mechanisms, called psychological adaptations or evolved
cognitive mechanisms designed by the process of natural selection.
Examples include language acquisition modules, incest avoidance
mechanisms, cheater detection mechanisms, intelligence and sex-
specic mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking
mechanisms, agent detection mechanisms, and so on.
Evolutionary psychology has roots in cognitive psychology and
evolutionary biology.

It also draws on behavioral ecology, articial intelligence, genetics,
ethology, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and zoology.
Evolutionary psychology is closely linked to sociobiology, but there are
key di"erences between them including the emphasis on domain-specic
rather than domain-general mechanisms, the relevance of measures of
current tness, the importance of mismatch theory, and psychology rather
than behaviour.

Many evolutionary psychologists, however, argue that the mind consists
of both domain-specic and domain-general mechanisms, especially
evolutionary developmental psychologists.

Most sociobiological research is now conducted in the eld of behavioral
ecology.



"Evolutionary Psychology." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily. Web. 20 May
2014. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/e/
evolutionary_psychology.htm>.