Evolutionary Psychology: Alternative Approaches

✍ Scribed by Steven J. Scher, Frederick Rauscher (auth.), Steven J. Scher, Frederick Rauscher (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 276
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Evolutionary psychology has been dominated by one particular method for studying the mind and behavior. This is the first book to both question that monopoly and suggest a broad range of particular alternatives. Psychologists, philosophers, biologists, anthropologists, and others offer different methods for combining psychology and evolution. They recommend specific changes to evolutionary psychology using a wide variety of theoretical assumptions. In addition, some essays analyze the underpinnings of the dominant method, relate it to the context of evolutionary and psychological theory and to general philosophy of science, and discuss how to test approaches to evolutionary psychology. The aim of this collection is not to reject evolutionary psychology but to open up new vistas which students and researchers can use to ensure that evolutionary psychology continues to thrive.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XVIII
Nature Read in Truth or Flaw....Pages 1-29
The Evaluation of Competing Approaches within Human Evolutionary Psychology....Pages 31-54
Evolution, Morality and Human Potential....Pages 55-70
Repeated Assembly....Pages 71-89
Human Triangles....Pages 91-110
The Optimal Number of Fathers....Pages 111-133
Dancing in the Dark....Pages 135-160
Adaptationism and Psychological Explanation....Pages 161-184
Toward a Developmental Evolutionary Psychology....Pages 185-210
Modules, Brain Parts, and Evolutionary Psychology....Pages 211-227
Evolutionary Psychology and the Information-Processing Model of Cognition....Pages 229-241
Evolutionary Psychology and Artificial Life....Pages 243-265

✦ Subjects

Cross Cultural Psychology; Anthropology