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Evolutionary Psychology
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Evolutionary Psychology
• The goal of research in evolutionary psychology
is to discover and understand the design of the
human mind.
• Evolutionary psychology is an approach to
psychology, in which knowledge and principles
from evolutionary biology are put to use in
research on the structure of the human mind.
• It is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning,
or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about
psychology that can be applied to any topic
within it.
Evolutionary Psychology
• In this view, the mind is a set of informationprocessing machines that were designed by
natural selection to solve adaptive problems
faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. This
way of thinking about the brain, mind, and
behavior is changing how scientists approach
old topics, and opening up new ones.
Evolutionary Psychology
• Psychology is that branch of biology that
studies (1) brains, (2) how brains process
information, and (3) how the brain's
information-processing programs generate
behavior.
• Psychology is a branch of biology, inferential
tools developed in biology -- its theories,
principles, and observations -- can be used to
understand psychology.
Evolutionary Psychology
• There are five basic principles -- all drawn
from biology -- that EPs apply in their
attempts to understand the design of the
human mind.
• The Five Principles can be applied to any
topic in psychology. They organize
observations in a way that allows one to see
connections between areas as seemingly
diverse as vision, reasoning, and sexuality.
Write a short thoughtful response to this
question.
Do you think we are more violent in
today’s society than our ancestors?
Why?
Steven Arthur Pinker
• (born September 18, 1954) is a
Canadian-American experimental
psychologist, cognitive scientist,
linguist and author of popular science.
He is a Harvard College Professor and
Johnstone Family Professor in the
Department of Psychology at Harvard
University and is known for his wideranging advocacy of evolutionary
psychology.
• Link to Video
Write a short thoughtful response to the below
question.
Pinker gives four reasons for why violence
has declined. After watching the video,
explain why you think violence has
declined?