Evolutionary Psychology

A Critical Introduction

Christopher Badcock (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

320 Seiten

2000
Polity Press (Verlag)
978-0-7456-2206-4 (ISBN)

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An accessible introduction to the principle of Evolutionary Psychology While providing a sound introduction the author also challenges accepted theories and suggests new approaches to the field of Evolutionary Psychology Readable and approachable style, without jargon and excessive detail.

Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Introduction

According to evolutionary biologists, we are the minders of our genes. But, as Christopher Badcock points out in this book, it is only recently that evolutionists have realized that minders need minds, and that evolution needs psychology to fill the yawning gap between genes and behaviour.

Evolutionary Psychology assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, and concentrates on the fundamental issues raised by the application of modern Darwinism to psychology. Basic concepts of evolution are explained carefully, so that the reader has a sound grasp of them before their often controversial application to psychology is discussed. The approach is a critical one, and the author does not hide the many difficulties that evolutionary psychology raises. Examples include the strange neglect of Darwin's own writings on psychology, and the fact that no existing theory has succeeded in explaining why the human brain evolved in the first place.

The book is the first to give a non-technical account of remarkable new findings about the roles that conflicting genes play in building different parts of the brain. It is also the first to consider the consequences of this for controversies like those over nature/nurture, IQ, brain lateralization and consciousness.

Evolutionary Psychology is based on many years experience of teaching evolution and psychology to social science students, and is intended for all who wish to get to grips with the basic issues of one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas of modern science.

Christopher Badcock is Reader in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

List of Figures viii

List of Boxes ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xiv

1 Selection and Adaptation 1

The concept of evolution 1

Natural selection 3

Survival of the fittest 6

Three assumptions about adaptations 9

The EEA 11

Designer Darwinism 16

Design flaws in evolution 19

The Swiss army knife model of the mind 22

The triune brain 24

The benefits of human brain evolution 29

The costs of human brain evolution 33

The evolutionary psychology of evolutionary psychology 26

Suggestions for further reading 37

2 Genetics and Epigenetics 38

Inheritance of acquired characteristics 39

Blending inheritance and mutation 42

Mendel 45

The discovery of DNA 49

The genetic code 53

Development and preformation 55

Epigenesis 58

The role of the single gene 61

Genetic and environmental determinism 63

The problem with programming behaviour 65

Epigenetic agents 69

Suggestions for further reading 71

3 The Evolution and Psychology of Co-operation 72

Super-organisms and group selection 72

Individualism in groups 76

The problem of altruism 78

Hamilton's inequality 79

Kin altruism 85

Inclusive fitness 88

Prisoner's dilemma 88

Iterated prisoner's dilemma 92

Familiarity and reputation 98

The evolved psychology of reciprocity 102

Cognitive adaptations for social exchange 106

Suggestions for further reading 110

4 Mind, Emotion and Consciousness 111

Anti-mentalism 111

Autism and theory of mind 113

Darwin's three principles of the expression of the emotions 115

Evolutionary psychology and The Expression of the Emotions 123

The pleasure principle 125

Freud and Darwin 129

Trivers's evolutionary psychodynamics of consciousness 132

Divided consciousness 134

Mental topography and brain lateralization 144

Suggestions for further reading 148

5 Sex, Mating and Parental Investment 149

Sex and parental investment 149

Variance of reproductive success 152

Mating systems 155

Divorce and remarriage 158

Human sexual adaptations 160

Mating preferences 173

Sex, scent and the selfish gene 175

Sex ratios 178

Sex discrimination, abortion and infanticide in humans 182

Suggestions for further reading 188

6 Growth, Development and Conflict 189

Parent-offspring conflict 189

Genomic imprinting 192

Conflict in pregnancy 198

Imprinted genes and brain development 204

Postnatal depression 208 Weaning conflicts 212

Psychological conflict between parent and child 217

Genetic conflict and Freudian psychodynamics 220

The evolution of ambivalence 222

Suggestions for further reading 226

7 Nature, Nurture, Language and Culture 227

Evolutionary psychology and the SSSM 228

Memes 234

Conditioning 238

The nurture assumption 243

Language 244

Turner's syndrome 253

The nature of nurture 262

Suggestions for further reading 268

Glossary of Technical Terms 269

Notes 274

References 277

Index 296

Erscheint lt. Verlag	12.10.2000
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	490 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Entwicklungspsychologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
ISBN-10	0-7456-2206-2 / 0745622062
ISBN-13	978-0-7456-2206-4 / 9780745622064
Zustand	Neuware