Evolutionary perspectives on human behavior are almost as old as the science of psychology itself. Evolutionary perspectives on sport and competition oxford. 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. This statement seems simple and uncontroversial enough. Interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology dario maestripieri institute for mind and biology, university of chicago. Today, a new brand of functionalism has emerged, one that draws its inspiration from massive developments in. Pdf evolutionary perspectives on social development. Evolutionary theory in personality and social psychology evolutionary psychology issn 14747049 volume 51. Evolutionary perspectives on social psychology virgil zeiglerhill. The four major theoretical perspectives of social psychology are sociocultural, evolutionary, social learning, and social cognitive. Evolutionary theories of speciestypical adaptations, such as kinselection theory and the theory of reciprocal altruism, also provide powerful tools. Evolutionary psychology is a revolutionary new science, a true synthesis of modern principles of psychology and evolutionary biology.
Aristotle believed that humans were naturally sociable, a necessity which allows us to live together an individual centered approach, whilst plato felt that the state controlled the individual and encouraged social responsibility through social context a sociocentered approach. In doing so, we draw parallels between an applied evolutionary psychology and recent developments in darwinian medicine, which similarly. Evolutionary psychologists have synthesized these theories with principles of modern psychology to create unique theories such as social contract theory cosmides. These approaches to social psychology are sometimes called perspectives. Evolutionary social psychology maner 2012 major reference. Evolutionary social psychology is emphatically focused on thepower of the situation. This stimulating volume assembles leading scholars to address issues in childrens cognitive, academic, and social development through the lens of evolutionary psychology. This volume in the springer series in evolutionary psychology presents a state of the art view of the topic of sexuality and sexual behavior drawing on theoretical constructs and research of noted individuals in the field. Pdf evolutionary perspectives of prosocial behavior lane. Evolutionary social psychology neuberg major reference. Social psychology typically explains human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations. This new edition includes more material on the social and reproductive behaviour of nonhuman primates, morality, cognition, development and culture as well as new photos, illustrations, text boxes and. Wilson took human sociobiology to provide us with an account of human nature 1978. Social psychologists, be forced to adopt a social cognitive perspective.
Functionalists such as james, dewey, and angell, however, lacked explicit evolutionary theories and methodologies to inspire generative research programs, and their movement dissipated. Biologicalethological perspectives of play and development. A few common perspectives in social psychology are social cognition, sociocultural, evolutionary, and social learning. Careful ethical standards now regulate research, and greater pluralism and multicultural perspectives have emerged. Evolutionary theorys increasing role in personality and social. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms. Evolutionary social psychology is emphatically focused on the power of the situation. Human behavior is studied, assessed, and analyzed through different views and perspectives including the evolutionary point of view among many others like the cognitive, behavioral, and crosscultural perspectives. Pdf evolutionary perspectives on social identity researchgate. Debates and controversies in the field highlight the potential value of this understanding, from basic early learning skills through emerging social relationships in adolescence, with implications for academic outcomes. Prejudice has been a topic of perennial interest in social psychology. We highlight how evolutionary approaches have promoted our understanding of human sports and competition.
Social psychology reached maturity in both theory and method during the 1980s and 1990s. For wilson human nature is the collection of universal human behavioral. Perspectives on motivation perspectives to explain motivation include the following. History of social psychology history of social psychology. Recent inquiries informed by evolutionary perspectives have advanced understanding of intergroup prejudice in important ways. Thus the term social learning itself implies nothing about underlying mechanisms, which remain to be identified. Unlike many psychological approaches, an evolutionary perspective connects humans to the rest of the biological world. Evolutionary models of social anxiety from the perspective of the two biobehavioral systems. Diverging from standard social psychological approaches, evolutionary perspectives have converged on the view that intergroup prejudice i.
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological structure from a modern evolutionary perspective. After all, social cognition is a product of biological structures brain and body, and nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of. The interpretation of empirical data within these two perspectives is reflected across the. Evolutionary perspective on social anxiety sciencedirect. As noted above section 1, evolutionary psychology owes a theoretical debt to human sociobiology. Psychological perspectives introduction to psychology. Pdf evolutionary perspectives of prosocial behavior. We outline the promise of this endeavor, and some of the challenges it faces. Evolutionary psychology stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Evolutionary developmental psychology has explored the ways in which critical ontogentic events, such as father absence versus father presence, influence the subsequent development of sexual strategies. It considers genetics, ethology, anthropology, biology and other aspects of science as well. Smith, evolutionary foundations and functions of play. Oct 10, 2019 social psychologists look at these sorts of questions, but like many other fields within psychology, they often utilize different perspectives when looking at questions about social behavior.
To begin with, we describe the relationship between sports competitions and testosterone levels and elucidate how winning and losing leads to. Evolutionary perspective refers to a part of psychology that stemmed out from evolutionary tendencies. For example, when looking at a problem like aggression, one research might take an evolutionary perspective and look at how biology and genetic. To use an evolutionary perspective is to consider all behaviors such as fears, prejudices, relationships, etc. Evolutionary perspectives on social psychology download. Kraut and itamar rosenn, comment on relationships and the social brain. Evolutionary perspectives on social psychology virgil. Explore the major perspectives in social psychology. This volume can be used as a primary text in graduate courses and as a supplementary text in various upperlevel undergraduate courses.
Social psychologists, therefore, examine the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, as well as the conditions under which certain behaviors, actions, and feelings occur. However, many authors have differentiated several christine a. Evolutionary perspectives on human behavior are many and varied. This chapter examines the theoretical and empirical research into evolutionary aspects of four complex issues of human behaviour in sports. Social psychologists look at these sorts of questions, but like many other fields within psychology, they often utilize different perspectives when looking at questions about social behavior. Human behavior is studied, assessed, and analyzed through different views and perspectives including the evolutionary point of view among many others like the cognitive, behavioral, and crosscultural. Finally, we reconsider the utility that an evo lutionary perspective offers to scientific inquiry into social behavior. Gaskins, an integrative perspective on play and development. Evolutionary psychology is well suited to providing an account of human nature.
Evolutionary perspectives of prosocial behavior it has often been assumed that animals were in the first place rendered social, and that they feel as a consequence uncomfortable when separated from each other, and comfortable whilst together. Evolutionary social psychology is also an interactionist perspective. The combination of these forms resulted in the creation of the evolutionary perspective in the 19 th century. How can evolutionary psychology successfully explain. Pdf evolutionary psychology download full pdf book. Evolutionary social psychology university of iowa psychology. We have argued that the evolutionary perspective to social psychology is not untestable, not reductionist, not a theory about rigid genetic determinism, not a justification for the status quo, and not incompatible with sociocultural or cognitive analyses. Pdf social psychology holds a central place in human evolution. This perspective is explored in the larger context of social psychology, which is. A central claim of evolutionary psychology is that the brain and therefore the mind evolved to solve problems encountered by our huntergatherer ancestors during the upper pleistocene period over 10,000 years ago. Since the publication of the awardwinning first edition of evolutionary psychology, there has been an explosion of research within the field.
Caldwell andrew whiten evolutionary perspectives on imitation. Instinct theory drivereduction theory arousal theory hierarchy of motives cognitive based theory. Buss 2 university of michigan the principles of evolutionary psychology and the traditional assumptions of social psychology are highly compatible. Social psychologists are interested in the ways that other people affect thought, emotion, and behavior. Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social psychology remain an important counterpart to psychological research in this area. Following a brief overview of traditional research designs, this module introduces how complex experimental designs, field experiments, naturalistic observation, experience sampling techniques, survey research, subtle and. Evolutionary perspective definition psychology glossary. Evolutionary social psychology has produced a wealth of discoveries, ranging from adaptations for altruism to the dark sides of social conflict. Interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology dario maestripieri institute for mind and biology, university of chicago, chicago, il 60637. Evolutionary psychologists have synthesized these theories with principles of modern psychology to create unique theories such as.
Download pdf evolutionary psychology book full free. Comprehensive and multidisciplinary, this book seeks to provide a broad. Craig roberts, school of natural sciences, university of stirling, stirling fk9 4la, uk. Several evolutionary models emphasized the role of the social rank system in social anxiety. Evolutionary perspectives on social psychology springerlink. We then examine several aspects of social development from an evolution. This perspective takes the stance that behaviors came into existence as a result of adaptations to living conditions. 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. Evolutionary perspectives on sport and competition. Integrating psychological and evolutionary perspectives, british journal of psychology, 103, 2, 169173, 2011. Pdf evolutionary psychology download full pdf book download. While the evolutionary approach favors behavior mediated through evolved dispositions, the social structural approach is guided by cultural exchange and gender role expectations. Both disciplines trace observed behavioral variability to situational variability. Ohman 1986 postulated that the evolutionary origin of social fears lies in a dominancesubmissiveness system.
Evolutionary psychology available for download and read online in other formats. Evolutionary theorys increasing role in personality and. As humans are a tribal species, an important insight is that humans may possess psychological mechanisms specialized for intergroup conflict, including tendencies to draw coalitionbased ingroup. Pdf a complete understanding of the psychology of social identity requires not only descriptions of how social identification processes work.
Social psychologists investigate human behavior, of course, but their primary concern is human behavior in a social context. Evolutionary perspectives on human sexual psychology and. Evolutionary social psychology 105 common descent or common ecological demands, some are uniquely designed to solve particular problems encountered by a given species e. Evolutionary perspectives on child development and. Mcandrew 1 department of psychology, knox college, galesburg, illinois abstract social psychological theories tend to be primarily concerned with the immediate causes of altruism, whereas evolutionary explanations focus more on the. The evolutionary perspective is based on the foundations of cognitive psychology as well as evolutionary biology.
To explore these concepts requires special research methods. Pdf evolutionary perspectives on social psychology. Evolutionary psychologists study what people look for in a partner, and how these preferences may have been shaped by evolutionary pressures. Abstract an evolutionary perspective provides a powerful overarching. The sociocultural perspective is vastly based off the work of lev vygotsky. Jan 25, 2014 evolutionary perspective refers to a part of psychology that stemmed out from evolutionary tendencies. Modem evolutionary theorists assume that many features related to. Original article evolutionary psychology in the modern world. There are 5 core concerns, or major themes, within social psychology. Modem evolutionary theorists assume that many features related to human cognition. Evolutionary perspectives on social psychology has much to offer students and faculty in both fields as well as evolutionary scientists outside of psychology. Multilevelselection and costlysignaling theories francis t.