Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. 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. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system, is common in evolutionary biology. Some evolutionary psychologists apply the same thinking to psychology, arguing that the modularity of mind is similar to that of the body and with different modular adaptations serving different functions. Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.[1]Evolutionary psychology is not simply a subdiscipline of psychology but its evolutionary theory can provide a foundational, metatheoretical framework that integrates the entire field of psychology in the same way evolutionary biology has for biology.[2][3][4]Evolutionary psychologists hold that behaviors or traits that occur universally in all cultures are good candidates for evolutionary adaptations[5] including the abilities to infer others' emotions, discern kin from non-kin, identify and prefer healthier mates, and cooperate with others. They report successful tests of theoretical predictions related to such topics as infanticide, intelligence, marriage patterns, promiscuity, perception of beauty, bride price, and parental investment.[6]The theories and findings of evolutionary psychology have applications in many fields, including economics, environment, health, law, management, psychiatry, politics, and literature.[7][8]Criticism of evolutionary psychology involves questions of testability, cognitive and evolutionary assumptions (such as modular functioning of 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.[9][10]

Evolutionary Psychology期刊中文简介

进化心理学是社会科学和自然科学中从现代进化的角度审视心理结构的理论方法。它试图确定哪些人类心理特征是进化适应的结果，即人类进化过程中自然选择或性选择的功能产物。在进化生物学中，有关心脏、肺和免疫系统等生理机制的适应性思维是常见的。一些进化心理学家把同样的想法应用到心理学上，他们认为大脑的模块性与身体的模块性相似，并且具有不同的模块适应性，服务于不同的功能。进化心理学家认为，人类的许多行为都是心理适应的结果，而心理适应是为了解决人类祖先环境中反复出现的问题而进化出来的进化心理学不仅仅是心理学的一门分支学科，它的进化理论可以提供一个基础的元理论框架，以进化生物学对生物学的方式整合整个心理学领域进化心理学家认为，在所有文化中普遍存在的行为或特征都是进化适应能力的良好候选者，包括推断他人情绪的能力、区分亲属与非亲属的能力、识别和选择更健康伴侣的能力，以及与他人合作的能力。他们报告说，有关杀婴、智力、婚姻模式、滥交、对美的看法、彩礼和父母投资等话题的理论预测都得到了成功的测试进化心理学的理论和发现在许多领域有应用，包括经济学、环境、健康、法律、管理、精神病学、政治学和文学进化心理学的批评包括可测试性问题、认知和进化假设(如大脑的模块功能、祖先环境的巨大不确定性)、非遗传和非适应性解释的重要性，以及由于研究结果的解释而引起的政治和伦理问题