Note: Evolutionary Psychology has reached the point in public interest and awareness where it is accumulating considerable fringe literature. These works are akin to the books you see in New Age bookstores with 'alternative' perspectives on health, cosmology, etc. Sometimes there are large discrepancies with what is portrayed in these works and the consensus of the scientific literatures in these areas. It is important to verify the credentials of the work and its author(s). Has the book been reviewed favorably in a reputable scientific journal, especially by an active researcher in the field? Do the authors have any similar works published in peer-reviewed scientific journals? What are their academic affiliations and degrees? Also, remember that just because I have a PhD in Psychology does not make me an expert in Microbiology, Quantum Physics, Slavic Literature, etc., and vice versa.
If you would like to cite this document in your manuscript, please use the following information modified to the style of your field:
Kruger, D.J. (2002). What is Evolutionary Psychology? Ann Arbor, MI: Altralogical Press. Available On-line: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kruger
An evolutionary approach to psychology focuses on proximate mediation; those affects, cognitions and behaviors which helped to solve some adaptive problem in the ancestral environment. This approach is quite useful in organizing information about a wide variety of structurally distal phenomena. There is no grand unifying theory of social psychology, it is currently composed of many specialized areas of research. Framing knowledge about human cognitions and behaviors in terms of their adaptive functions would lend coherence and commonality to the massive amounts of data already collected. Evolutionary psychology is concerned with the conditions that existed in ancestral environments, the proximate mechanisms that evolved to deal with conditions in this environment, and the function of these evolved mechanisms in our current environment.
In brief, evolution is understood as a change in genetic allele frequencies over time. Populations of living organisms have the potential to increase geometrically in size, although they remain relatively stable over time. The limitations on population size derive from the limitations on resources available, producing competition for these resources. There is variation in the characteristics of individuals within a species, and some of this variation has a genetic component. Some of this variation affects the survival and reproduction of individuals. Those characteristics with an inherent genetic component that enhance an individual's ability to survive and reproduce will be represented in increasing proportions with each generation, and may eventually spread though the population.
Selection refers to the process of change in gene frequencies over time due to differential survival and reproduction. Gene frequencies can also be changed through: genetic drift, a statistical bottleneck creating haphazard changes; genetic flow, the immigration and emigration of genes due to movements of individuals or gametes; and mutation, a change in genetic material often caused by errors in transcription and translation of genetic information.
Mutation is critically important as the source of variation that selection works with, although it is a random, undirected process. While mutation may occur in any of the dividing cells of the body, only mutations occurring in the germ cells are passed on to offspring. Recent evidence from genetic studies has indicated that most new alleles derive from mutations in sperm cells (Dickman, 1997). Since sperm producing cells divide much more often than egg cells, errors are more likely to occur in the male germ cells.
Of course, genes do not directly code for behaviors. Rather, "genes code for enzymes which, under the influence of the environment, lay down tracks of the brains and neurohormonal systems of individuals, thus affecting people's minds and the choices they make about behavioral alternatives" (DeKay & Buss, 1992, p. 185). A gene for something merely indicates a tendency to do or be something. The context of a person's social and physical environment is important in guiding if and how genetically based predispositions will be expressed as behaviors.