Evolutionary psychology Essays

Psychology is defined by Google as, “the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.” To me, psychology is not as simple as that. After my many readings and eye opening self-discussions, I have come to realize psychology is a lot like a tree. In its beginnings, it’s definition was short and sweet, but as it grew and people discovered more about the mind it began to branch out into many different sub-sciences. Giving psychology a definition

Evolutionary psychology is the research in the social and natural sciences that studies psychological characteristics from a current evolutionary view. It tends to show that evolutionary psychology is in more of a pseudoscientific view because it is more based on the human’s emotions and personality traits the way they are rather than evidence based. Many people believe the type of nature humans are supposed to show and follow that just like people say men are not supposed to be masculine and not

Evolutionary psychology and the fundamental basis of attraction: Psychologist William James proposed functionalism, which is a theory that saw behaviour as meaningful, purposeful and creating a contribution to our survival. James emphasised the role of evolution. He had the belief that evolution had a part to play in creating and moulding human behaviour. Evolutionary psychology as a whole, looks at how the behavioural and physical structure has been shaped by our evolutionary need to reproduce

The evolutionary perspective of psychology focuses on how natural selection has given rise to traits that promote the survival of genes. The tendency of depressive symptoms is not always maladaptive; natural selection has proven it to be adaptive in certain environments. The functional purpose of depression is the ability to withdrawal from unfavourable situations as a defense strategy. Evolution has favoured certain depressive symptoms for just that purpose: being anxious and uneasy encourages skepticism

Genetic susceptibility is defined by the terms "behavioral genetics" and "evolutionary psychology" because both are theories given on the traits of a human being that are used to explain criminal tendencies. "Behavioral genetics" and "evolutionary psychology" are similar because they both evaluate what determines a criminal by the use of past behaviors. Behavioral genetics use the features of a human being to explain that the characteristics of a person who may have existed in an earlier stage of

II Geographic Distributions of Personality Traits and Attachment CHAPTER 3: EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE AND PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY 3.1 Introduction This section will address issues of ecological fit and psychological traits in the context of evolutionary science and personality psychology. The upcoming chapters in Part II and Part III present six prior publications that illustrate how personality traits

committing the most violent crimes, ignoring desperate pleas, but they’re also capable of helping and saving strangers in life-threatening situations. The motivation and reasons for helping others can be argued from multiple perspectives. Evolutionary psychology posits people help due to kin selection and due to the norm of reciprocity, social exchange theory argues that people help to maximize social rewards and minimize social costs, whereas according the empathy-altruism hypothesis, when people

The psychological perspective on relationships was viewed from an experimental social psychology, evolutionary social psychology, developmental social psychology and health psychology. Willerton (2010) proposes four perspectives, however two will be examined: Evolutionary social psychology and developmental social psychology. Willerton (2010) stated that evolutionary social psychology draws on the idea proposed by Charles Darwin (1871) of natural selection and sexual selection. Our ancestors'

Evolutionary psychology is based on Darwinism and is used to explain human nature by making an effort to understand what motivates us to behave the way that we do. It implies that everything we do is either consciously or unconsciously motivated by the intent to either prosper, evolve, or to reproduce. Although we would like to believe we are moral beings, evolutionary psychology suggests that we may be driven solely by the instinct to survive. In doing so, our behavior may sometimes be naturally

Evolutionary Psychologists are making a mistake in supposing that modern human behavior can be explained by our evolutionary history. Although applying the evolutionary theory to the way we as humans act, there are still problems with the evolutionary theory. In this essay, I argue that (i) Humans do not solely act based on instinct like evolutionary history would suggest and (ii)not everyone’s behaviors are for reproductive success. I will start off this essay by explaining what evolutionary psychologists

that would have solved those adaptive problems; then to assess the fit of the behaviour that these psychological mechanisms produce across different environments.” Describing evolutionary psychologists to understand adaptations. However, it is difficult to precisely describe ancestral environments and the science of psychology is not equipped to distinguish psychological

Book examine the gender problem about sociologic sides. It emerged by six parts. These parts are gender and social psychology , theories related to gender , gender stereotypes and gender discrimination , the handling of gender roles in the media , sex differences and lastly the results of the gender stereotypes and gender roles. First part of book , gender and social psychology. Society behave different men and women. It gives different responsibilities them. For example, women should do chores

The dictionary defines the term outlier as “a person or thing situated away or detached from the main body or system”. In both Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”, a person being an outlier is something that is a fairly common thing. The term outlier is consequently the theme of Gladwell’s “Outliers”, whereas in Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”, being an outlier means not conforming to society's norms. Emerson’s

Case Analysis We have previously reviewed some of the fundamental tenets highlighted in the literature for each of these strategy theories. We now move to applying these theories to Outback Steakhouse. Question Number 1 - Has Outback Steakhouse employed aspects of their strategy as rational thought, to include strategic planning and decision-making? Should they? There was little evidence that Outback had employed strategy as rational thought in their decision-making. Their founding principle of ownership

Freud, Kant and Nostalgia Sigmund Freud never directly tackled the concept of collecting in his psychology but just before he was forced to leave Vienna for London, the photographer ‘Edmund Engelmann’ photographed his 2,000 objects that Freud had kept over the previous 40 years after his father had passed away. These photographs provided a record that served as a replicate to the desk full of specimens that had always dominated Freud’s room in England. He proposed a more pragmatic account for

Steven Pinker made so very interesting arguments in The Blank Slate that caused me to question and try to rationalize how I truly came about to become the person that I am today. When I was younger I was always taught to believe that God has some plan for me and that everything that occurred in my life was all apart of some grand master plan that God had laid out for me and not to worry and that everything was going to work out fine as long as I was a good person. I believed that people were definitely

In Chapter 19 of The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker discusses children which is one of his hot button topics. Pinker opens with a discussion on the nature-nurture debate - a debate pinning biology and environment against each other. Pinker states that Eric Turkheimer declares the debate to be over because he did a study that was completed over and over again, refined, and yielded the same results time and time again. Thus, creating the three laws of behavioral genetics. The first of the three laws

One of the oldest controversies in psychology is whether a person’s development is determined by their DNA or their environment and life experiences. This argument is known as the nature versus nurture debate, where nature represents an individual’s genetics and inherited components, while nurture refers to the environment an individual grew up in and their life experiences. The concept of nature versus nurture is seen throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a novel that follows a group of

The book Survival of the Sickest was written by Sharon Moalem, an evolutionary biologist and neurogeneticist. Dr. Moalem earned his PhD is Human Physiology, specializing in neurogenetics, from the University of Toronto. He earned his MD at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Moalem is the author of three books: Survival of the Sickest, How Sex Works, and Inheritance. Dr. Moalem’s research emphasized bringing together evolution, genetics, and modern medicine to revolutionize how we understand

Cormac McCarthy’s novel ,Child of God, is the tale of a violent, dispossessed man living on the outskirts of society. Set in 1960s rural Tennessee, the novel focuses on the life of Lester Ballard, a murdering necrophiliac who seemingly only follows his own rules. Ballard is represented as a despicable, unhuman character, who apparently is, “A child of God much like yourself perhaps” (4). While Ballard repeatedly commits evil acts, one cannot help but find a soft spot for this man who was unloved