Evolutionary Psychology Essay

Just as in the early(prenominal) a brilliant scientist and researcher William Harvey was capable to find the occurrence that it is the sum that is responsible for pumping blood through the service pieces body, psychologists of today encounter been able to find out and to turn up the fact that cognition has a special(prenominal) and specific structure. These psychologists argon known as evolutionary psychologists, and it is this team of experts that have floated the hypothesis that cognitive structure, alike(p) physiological structure, has followed, through the centuries, the all of the essence(p) process of natural selection.This was how it has been able to survive and engage in reverberation through the years. What exactly is evolutionary psychology? It is a science that focuses on discovering the evolved process of the nervous systems of human beings, bringing into focus the fact that the human point is a completely organized structure, just like tissues in any living organism atomic number 18 fully organized. In otherwise words, it is the opinion of evolutionary psychologists that the human brain is composed of several useable parts, made to facilitate the survival and the reproduction of that special(prenominal) organism.Therefore, this can be taken to mean that the human brain is non an organ with one and only(a) single function, only rather as an organism made up of a large number of fully functioning parts. In factorral, evolutionary psychologists tint to the functional components of organisms as interlingual renditions, and this is the term use to the functions of the human brain as well. (Hagen, Edward 2004) It is evident thitherfore that evolutionary psychology refers to a particular approach to psychology, which uses the accepted principles of evolutionary biology to research the design and the whole works of the human mind.It can be described as an approach, or a way of thinking, which can be applied to any subject at heart it. (Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John 1997) What are the primary activities of evolutionary psychologists? Charles Darwin had this to say, in the year 1859, In the distant future, I see open fields for far to a greater extent important researches. Psychology will be based on a young foundation, that of the necessary acquire manpowert of each mental power and capacitor by gradation. Darwin had foreseen the advances that would be made in the field of psychology in the future, and the science of evolutionary psychology was one of his predictions that came true. As mentioned earlier, evolutionary perspectives on human psychology are a part of the larger theory of general selection, and this field has led to greater scientific advancements in areas like sociobiology and ethnobotany, among others. Evolutionary psychologists have to find answers to questions such as how, why and when did human consciousness evolve, are there any differences between the psychology of men and women, and if so, what are they? ar there any differences between the psychologies of various races and ethnicities? Are there are adaptative explanations for human ports such as aggressiveness, ego destructiveness and so on? Is it true that human consciousness is evolving today, as it has been steadily over the past hundreds and thousands of years? Is it true that human intelligence is inherited, and is it at all in any way influenced by ones environment?Can the theories of evolutionary psychology accurately describe and exempt the apprehensions behind the common phobias among human beings? One must remember in time that several sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists are completely wary of using and understanding the rising evolutionary perspective on human brains and behaviors, perhaps because in their opinion, evolutionary psychologists tended to adapt theories from the animal world and apply them to humans, and besides, tended to generalize the principles of evolution in a much too dramatic fashion.(Evolutionary Psychology 2003) these are the base of evolutionary psychology theory Darwins descent with modification theory, Hamiltons inclusive fitness theory, Maynard Smiths granulose theory, and Trivers optimisation theory. Take for example the theory of inclusive fitness. This is also referred to as kin selection, and therefore forms an important element of evolutionary psychology. consanguineal selection explains away the fact of altruism and philanthropy, by stating that all genes are invariably selfish, and that an individual is in reality nothing but a genes survival machine.Nevertheless, since a gene would automatically be passed on to the succeeding(prenominal) generation, if the person who is carrying that gene survives in order to reproduce, or even if any of the several other relatives of the living(a) individual survive and reproduce, thereby passing on the gene to the next generation. According to Maynard Smith, this may be the reason why a pewit will fake being injured in order to provoke a predatory hawk away from its offspring, thereby acting in an altruistic manner towards its young.This type of altruism may also gain ground non-relatives, because it is an acknowledged fact that the members of the cor replying species will help take wangle of the youngsters of the species, even if they are not related in any way. The reason why this happens may be because of the fact that the evolved mechanism may not be sufficiently complex to make fine discriminations of this kind. This may be why just about people like to take care of pets, term some do not. The people who do have pets are in fact allowing their caretaking mechanism to be exploited.Evolutionary psychology has also been applied into another important are aggression of the human being. It is an accepted fact that sexual rivalry often leads to blatant aggression, and most violent deaths are caused by man sidesplitting another man, or man killing a woman i n the name of sexual tension and rivalry. In such a case, power may be taken to refer to be just one strategy in the plethora of potent coercive instruments, coercion being the direct result of sexual proprietorship and possessiveness.Men who allow themselves to be cuckolded would then be considered losers of the zero-sum evolutionary game that human beings play in their desire to make sure that their genes conk into the next generation. Men use violence as a tool to stop and prevent their mates from sexually engaging with other men, because although maternal quality is always a given, paternity may not be proven. It is this same principle that works in the case of step-children and their adoptive fathers.These fathers have no interest in their step children, because they are not carrying their genes onto the next generation, and support another mans child may mean that this man is working in opposition to his evolutionary interests. History can prove to man that in general, ste p fathers indulge in greater violence and aggression towards their step children than towards their biological children, the primary reason being that of ensuring that his genes are carried forward, and not another mans.(Evolutionary Psychology 1998) According to evolutionary psychologists, there is a lack of fit between the current environment and the adaptation of the brain. In their opinion, if the brain is an adaptation, then there could be no enquiry that at some time back in time, there existed some sort of selection for brain mechanisms, which in effect transformed study about environment and its conditions, into human behaviors that could adapt and change in accord with the requirements of the situation and environment.Selection, however took place because of the manner in which they responded to the environment at the time in which they were selected. Therefore, this theory can be taken to necessitate that because environmental conditions are unlike today, the informati on that is input to the brain is different as well, and as a direct consequence, the brain may respond by generating behavior that may not be adaptive to the new conditions in which it finds itself.Failure to adapt may occur in 2 ways either the brain could continue to produce the same ripened behavior under the newer conditions given, or the brain could produce new behavior that responded to the new information coming in, and the behavior could fail to be of the adaptive sort. This is in fact a rather common behavioral pattern, and when conditions change, the solvent becomes different from what the designers intended, like for example, as demonstrated by sophisticated calculator programs, intentional to perform a variety of complicated tasks, are also programmed to produce adaptive end products as a direct response to genuine key commands.At the same time, a new input could contrive the computer and prompt it into giving a completely nonsensical and non-adaptive output in r esponse. In human beings, as evolutionary psychologists theorize, there is in place an evolved behavioral predisposition to make sure that reproductive advantage is always at its highest level, but this conflates the theory that the human brain was designed through a process of selection, as mentioned earlier. (Buller J David n. d)