Evolutionary Psychology
A Clinical Introduction
Erschienen am 31. Mai 2013
318 Seiten
978-0-7456-6562-7 (ISBN)
Beschreibung
According to evolutionary biologists, we are the minders of ourgenes. But, as Christopher Badcock points out in this book, it isonly recently that evolutionists have realized that minders needminds, and that evolution needs psychology to fill the yawning gapbetween genes and behaviour.
Evolutionary Psychology assumes no prior knowledge of thesubject, and concentrates on the fundamental issues raised by theapplication of modern Darwinism to psychology. Basic concepts ofevolution are explained carefully, so that the reader has a soundgrasp of them before their often controversial application topsychology is discussed. The approach is a critical one, and theauthor does not hide the many difficulties that evolutionarypsychology raises. Examples include the strange neglect of Darwin'sown writings on psychology, and the fact that no existing theoryhas succeeded in explaining why the human brain evolved in thefirst place.
The book is the first to give a non-technical account ofremarkable new findings about the roles that conflicting genes playin building different parts of the brain. It is also the first toconsider the consequences of this for controversies like those overnature/nurture, IQ, brain lateralization and consciousness.
Evolutionary Psychology is based on many yearsexperience of teaching evolution and psychology to social sciencestudents, and is intended for all who wish to get to grips with thebasic issues of one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areasof modern science.
Evolutionary Psychology assumes no prior knowledge of thesubject, and concentrates on the fundamental issues raised by theapplication of modern Darwinism to psychology. Basic concepts ofevolution are explained carefully, so that the reader has a soundgrasp of them before their often controversial application topsychology is discussed. The approach is a critical one, and theauthor does not hide the many difficulties that evolutionarypsychology raises. Examples include the strange neglect of Darwin'sown writings on psychology, and the fact that no existing theoryhas succeeded in explaining why the human brain evolved in thefirst place.
The book is the first to give a non-technical account ofremarkable new findings about the roles that conflicting genes playin building different parts of the brain. It is also the first toconsider the consequences of this for controversies like those overnature/nurture, IQ, brain lateralization and consciousness.
Evolutionary Psychology is based on many yearsexperience of teaching evolution and psychology to social sciencestudents, and is intended for all who wish to get to grips with thebasic issues of one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areasof modern science.
Weitere Details
Weitere Ausgaben
Person
Christopher Badcock is Reader in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Inhalt
TABLE OF CONTENTS, Preface, Acknowledgements, Chapter 1 SELECTIONAND ADAPTATION The concept of evolution, Natural selection,Survival of the fittest, Three assumptions about adaptations, TheEEA, The argument from design, Design flaws in evolution, The Swissarmy knife model of the mind, The triune brain, The costs andbenefits of human brain evolution, The evolutionary psychology ofevolutionary psychology. Chapter 2 GENETICS AND EPIGENETICS:Inheritance and acquired characteristics, Blending inheritance andmutation, Mendel, the discovery of DNA, The genetic code,Development and preformation, Epigenesis, The role of the singleGene, Genetic and environmental determinism, The problem withprogramming behaviour, Epigenetic agents, Chapter 3 THE EVOLUTION& PSYCHOLOGY OF CO-OPERATION: Super-organisms and groupselection, Individualism in groups, The problem of altruism,Hamilton's inequality, Kin altruism, Inclusive fitness, Prisoner'sdilemma, Iterated prisoner's dilemma, Familiarity and reputation,The evolved psychology of reciprocity, Cognitive adaptations forsocial exchange. Chapter 4 MIND, EMOTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS:Anti-mentalism, Autism and theory of mind, Darwin's threeprinciples of the expression of the emotions, Evolutionarypsychology and The Expression of the Emotions, The pleasureprinciple, Freud and Darwin, Triver's evolutionary psychodynamicsof consciousness, Divided consciousness, Mental topography &brain lateralization, Chapter 5 SEX, MATING AND PARENTALINVESTMENT: Sex and parental investment, Variance of reproductivesuccess, Mating systems, Divorce and remarriage, Human sexualadaptations, Mating preferences, Sex, scent and the selfish gene,Sex ratios, Sex discrimination, abortion and infanticide in humans.Chapter 6 GROWTH, DEVELOPMEMT AND CONFLICT: Parent-offspringconflict, Genomic imprinting, Conflict in pregnancy, Imprintedgenes and brain development, Postnatal depression, Weaningconflicts, Psychological conflict between parent and child, Geneticconflict and Freudian psychodynamics, The evolution of ambivalence.Chapter 7 NATURE, NURTURE, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: Evolutionarypsychology and the SSSM, Memes, Conditioning, The nurtureassumption, Language, Turner's syndrome, The nature of nurture.Glossary of technical terms, References, Index
