View source for Philosophy:History of evolutionary psychology

The '''history of [[Philosophy:Evolutionary psychology|evolutionary psychology]]''' began with [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin]], who said that humans have social instincts that evolved by natural selection. Darwin's work inspired later psychologists such as [[Biography:William James|William James]] and [[Biography:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]] but for most of the 20th century psychologists focused more on behaviorism and proximate explanations for human behavior. [[Biography:E. O. Wilson|E. O. Wilson]]'s landmark 1975 book, ''Sociobiology'', synthesized recent theoretical advances in evolutionary theory to explain social behavior in animals, including humans. [[Biography:Jerome H. Barkow|Jerome Barkow]], [[Biography:Leda Cosmides|Leda Cosmides]] and [[Biography:John Tooby|John Tooby]] popularized the term "evolutionary psychology" in their 1992 book ''The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation of Culture''.<ref name="Tooby, John; Barkow, Jerome H.; Cosmides, Leda 1995">{{cite book |author1=Tooby, John |author2=Barkow, Jerome H. |author3=Cosmides, Leda |title=The Adapted mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=1995 |isbn=0-19-510107-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/adaptedmindevolu0000unse }}</ref> Like sociobiology before it, evolutionary psychology has been embroiled in controversy, but evolutionary psychologists see their field as gaining increased acceptance overall.
==19th century==
After his seminal work in developing theories of natural selection, Charles Darwin devoted much of his final years to the study of animal emotions and psychology. He wrote two books;''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' in 1871 and ''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'' in 1872 that dealt with topics related to evolutionary psychology. He introduced the concepts of [[Biology:Sexual selection|sexual selection]] to explain the presence of animal structures that seemed unrelated to survival, such as the peacock's tail. He also introduced theories concerning [[Biology:Group selection|group selection]] and [[Philosophy:Kin selection|kin selection]] to explain [[Philosophy:Altruism|altruism]].<ref name="moralanimal">Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology. Vintage. 1995.</ref> Darwin pondered why humans and animals were often generous to their group members. Darwin felt that acts of generosity decreased the fitness of generous individuals. This fact contradicted natural selection which favored the fittest individual. Darwin concluded that while generosity decreased the fitness of individuals, generosity would increase the fitness of a group. In this case, altruism arose due to competition between groups.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Science of Good and Evil|last=Shermer|
authorlink=Michael Shermer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=igN6Q9weoYQC&q=%22from+competition+between+groups%22&pg=PA51 |isbn=978-0-8050-7769-8 |year=2004 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co.}}</ref> The following quote, from Darwin's ''Origin of Species'', is often interpreted by evolutionary psychologists as indication of his foreshadowing the emergence of the field:
{{blockquote|In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation.|{{cite wikisource |first=Charles |last=Darwin |title=The Origin of Species |year=1859 |page=488 |wslink=Page:Origin_of_Species_1859_facsimile.djvu/500}}}}

==20th century==
Darwin's theory inspired [[Biography:William James|William James]]'s [[Philosophy:Functional psychology|functionalist]] approach to psychology.<ref name="Psychology">Schacter, Daniel L, Daniel Wegner and Daniel Gilbert. 2007. Psychology. Worth Publishers. pp. 26-27</ref> At the core of his theory was a system of "instincts."<ref name="Buss 1"/> James wrote that humans had many instincts, even more than other animals.<ref name="Buss 1"/> These instincts, he said, could be overridden by experience and by each other, as many of the instincts were actually in conflict with each other.<ref name="Buss 1">Buss, David M. Evolutionary psychology: the new science of the mind. Pearson. 2008. Chapter 1, p. 2-35.</ref>

In their [http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/EP-primer.html Evolutionary Psychology Primer] Tooby and Cosmides make note of James' perspective, and also quote him:

:"We do not realize that 'normal' behavior needs to be explained at all. This "instinct blindness" makes the study of psychology difficult. To get past this problem, James suggested that we try to make the "natural seem strange":

::''It takes...a mind debauched by learning to carry the process of making the natural seem strange, so far as to ask for the why of any instinctive human act. To the metaphysician alone can such questions occur as: Why do we smile, when pleased, and not scowl? Why are we unable to talk to a crowd as we talk to a single friend? Why does a particular maiden turn our wits so upside-down? The common man can only say, Of course we smile, of course our heart palpitates at the sight of the crowd, of course we love the maiden, that beautiful soul clad in that perfect form, so palpably and flagrantly made for all eternity to be loved!''

::''And so, probably, does each animal feel about the particular things it tends to do in the presence of particular objects. ... To the lion it is the lioness which is made to be loved; to the bear, the she-bear. To the broody hen the notion would probably seem monstrous that there should be a creature in the world to whom a nestful of eggs was not the utterly fascinating and precious and never-to-be-too-much-sat-upon object which it is to her.''

::''Thus we may be sure that, however mysterious some animals' instincts may appear to us, our instincts will appear no less mysterious to them.'' (William James, 1890)

:In our view, William James was right about evolutionary psychology. Making the natural seem strange is unnatural -- it requires the twisted outlook seen, for example, in Gary Larson cartoons. Yet it is a pivotal part of the enterprise. Many psychologists avoid the study of natural competences, thinking that there is nothing there to be explained."

According to [[Biography:Noam Chomsky|Noam Chomsky]], perhaps Anarchist thinker [[Biography:Peter Kropotkin|Peter Kropotkin]] could be credited as having founded evolutionary psychology, when in his 1902 book [[Organization:Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution|Mutual Aid]] he argued that the human instinct for cooperation and mutual aid could be seen as stemming from evolutionary adaption.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/200401--.htm |title=On Terrorism, Noam Chomsky interviewed by John Bolender |access-date=2011-05-08 |archive-date=2013-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509054617/http://chomsky.info/interviews/200401--.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Biography:William McDougall (psychologist)|William McDougall]] made a reference to "evolutionary psychology" in his 1919 book ''An Introduction to Social Psychology'': "It is only a comparative and evolutionary psychology that can provide the needed basis (for psychology); and this could not be created before the work of Darwin had convinced men of the continuity of human with animal evolution as regards all bodily characters, and had prepared the way for the quickly following recognition of the similar continuity of man's mental evolution with that of the animal world." (p.&nbsp;16)

==Post world war II==
While Darwin's theories on natural selection gained acceptance in the early part of the 20th century, his theories on evolutionary psychology were largely ignored. Only after the second world war, in the 1950s, did interest increase in the systematic study of animal behavior. It was during this period that the modern field of [[Biology:Ethology|ethology]] emerged. [[Biography:Konrad Lorenz|Konrad Lorenz]] and [[Biography:Nikolaas Tinbergen|Nikolaas Tinbergen]] were pioneers in developing the theoretical framework for ethology for which they would receive a Nobel prize in 1973.

[[Biography:Desmond Morris|Desmond Morris]]'s book ''The Naked Ape'' attempted to frame human behavior in the context of evolution, but his explanations failed to convince academics because they were based on a teleological (goal-oriented) understanding of evolution. For example, he said that the pair bond evolved so that men who were out hunting could trust that their mates back home were not having sex with other males.<ref name="moralanimal"/>

==Sociobiology==
In 1975, [[Biography:E. O. Wilson|E. O. Wilson]] built upon the works of Lorenz and Tinbergen by combining studies of animal behavior, social behavior and evolutionary theory in his book ''Sociobiology:The New Synthesis.'' Wilson included a chapter on human behavior. Wilson's application of evolutionary analysis to human behavior caused bitter debate.<ref name="BS">[[Biography:Steven Pinker|Pinker, Steven]]. The Blank Slate. New York: Penguin. 2002</ref><ref name="thirdchimpanzee">Diamond, Jared. The Third Chimpanzee.</ref>

With the publication of ''Sociobiology'', evolutionary thinking for the first time had an identifiable presence in the field of psychology.<ref name="Psychology"/> E. O. Wilson argues that the field of evolutionary psychology is essentially the same as "human [[Philosophy:Sociobiology|sociobiology]]".<ref>{{cite book |title=Sociobiology |last=Wilson |first=E. O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v7lV9tz8fXAC&q=Human+sociobiology+...now+called+evolutionary+psychology+...+emerged+as+its+own+field+of+study+...+from+biology+and+social+science |quote=Human sociobiology, now often called evolutionary psychology, has in the last quarter of a century emerged as its own field of study, drawing on theory and data from both biology and the social sciences. |isbn=978-0-674-00235-7 |year=2000 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press}}</ref>

Edward H. Hagen writes in ''The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology'' that sociobiology is, despite the public controversy regarding the applications to humans, "one of the scientific triumphs of the twentieth century." "Sociobiology is now part of the core research and curriculum of virtually all biology departments, and it is a foundation of the work of almost all field biologists" Sociobiological research on nonhuman organisms has increased dramatically and appears continuously in the world's top scientific journals such as ''Nature'' and ''Science''.The more general term [[Biology:Behavioral ecology|behavioral ecology]] is commonly used as substitute for the term sociobiology in order to avoid the public controversy.<ref>The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, edited by David M. Buss, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. Chapter 5 by Edward H. Hagen .</ref>

==Modern use of the term "evolutionary psychology"==
The term ''evolutionary psychology'' was used by American biologist [[Biography:Michael Ghiselin|Michael Ghiselin]] in a 1973 article published in the journal ''Science''.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Ghiselin MT |title=Darwin and Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin initiated a radically new way of studying behavior |journal=Science |volume=179 |issue=4077 |pages=964–968 |year=1973 |pmid=17842154 |doi=10.1126/science.179.4077.964}}</ref> Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby popularized the term "evolutionary psychology" in their 1992 book ''The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation of Culture''.<ref name="Tooby, John; Barkow, Jerome H.; Cosmides, Leda 1995"/> The term is sometimes abbreviated "EvoPsych" or "evo-psych" or similar.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/115416058/Interaction-with-PZ-Myers-commenters|title=Interaction with PZ Myers' Commenters &#124; PDF &#124; Evolution &#124; Science}}</ref>

In contrast to sociobiology and behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology emphasizes that organisms are "adaptation executors" rather than "fitness maximizers."<ref name="Buss, D. M. 1995">Buss, D. M. (1995). Evolutionary psychology: A new paradigm for psychological science. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 1-30.</ref> In other words, organisms have emotional, motivational and cognitive adaptations that generally increased inclusive fitness in the past but may not do so in the present. This distinction may explain some maladaptive behaviors that are the result of "fitness lags" between ancestral and modern environments.<ref name="Buss, D. M. 1995"/> For example, our ancestrally developed desires for fat, sugar and salt often lead to health problems in modern environment where these are readily available in large quantities.

Also, in contrast to sociobiology and behavioral ecology (which mostly study non-human animal behavior), rather than focus primarily on overt behavior, EP attempts to identify underlying psychological adaptations (including emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms), and how these mechanisms interact with the developmental and current environmental influences to produce behavior.<ref>[http://instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/371g/Smith2001.pdf Controversies in the evolutionary social sciences: a guide for the perplexed]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Ni9ggiew1UC&pg=PA17&dq=sociobiology+evolutionary+psychology+controversy Evolutionary Psychology By Lance Workman, Will Reader]</ref>

Before 1990, introductory psychology textbooks scarcely mentioned Darwin.<ref name="Gaulin, Steven J. C 2003. p 1-24">Gaulin, Steven J. C. and Donald H. McBurney. Evolutionary psychology. Prentice Hall. 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-13-111529-3}}, Chapter 1, p 1-24.</ref> In the 1990s, evolutionary psychology was treated as a fringe theory,<ref name="Confer 2010">[http://docshare.tips/jm-confer-et-al-2010-evolutionary-psychology_574a6f72b6d87faa0d8b46ec.html Confer, et al., 2010]</ref> and evolutionary psychologists depicted themselves as an embattled minority.<ref name="moralanimal"/> Coverage in psychology textbooks was largely hostile.<ref name="Confer 2010"/> According to evolutionary psychologists, current coverage in psychology textbooks is usually neutral or balanced.<ref name="Confer 2010"/>

The presence that evolutionary theory holds in psychology has been steadily increasing.<ref name="Psychology"/> According to its proponents, evolutionary psychology now occupies a central place in psychological science.<ref name="Confer 2010"/>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Biology:Behavioural genetics}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Criticism of evolutionary psychology}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Dual inheritance theory}}
* {{annotated link|Finance:Evolutionary economics}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Evolutionary developmental psychology}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Evolutionary educational psychology}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Evolutionary psychology research groups and centers}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Gene-centered view of evolution}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Human behavioral ecology}}
* {{annotated link|Biography:List of evolutionary psychologists}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Memetics}}
* {{annotated link|History:Multiple discovery}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Universal Darwinism}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Darwinian literary studies}}

==Notes==
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[[Category:Evolutionary psychology|History]]

{{Sourceattribution|History of evolutionary psychology}}