Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Introduction

The last decade has witnessed an exciting change in our understanding of the way in which the mind operates the reasons behind a myriad of human behaviours. The traditional idea that nurture trumps nature in explanations of human behaviour has been supplanted by Evolutionary Psychologists, who argue that human beings share evolved mental architectures that govern their behaviour. Indeed, Evolutionary Psychological explanations have been postulated for all manner of human behaviour, from mate choice preferences to jealousy, cheater detection to suicide bombing. Yet, not all research groups are in agreement with this perspective: some authors have challenged the Evolutionary Psychological focus on biological or genetic explanations of behaviour, while others suggest that the Evolutionary Psychological paradigm is methodologically flawed. To be sure, it is now possible to find critiques of Evolutionary Psychology from different viewpoints, and a common theme shared by such critiques is that an evolutionary approach to psychology is welcome but not sufficient. This volume, which will serve as an introduction to evolutionary approaches to psychology, will bring together seminal work in the field and explore the ways in which evolutionary psychological research can illuminate our understanding of human behaviours and nature. Together, the chapters in this volume will present a fresh perspective on evolutionary approaches to psychology, critically evaluating the extant literature while maintaining the need for evolutionary psychologies.
Most introductions to evolutionary approaches to psychology tend to take an uncritical stand, stemming from what has been dubbed ‘Evolutionary Psychological’ viewpoints. The current volume begins from the same vantage point – that an evolutionary psychology is required – but nevertheless critically examines the extant literature from different evolutionary perspectives (e.g., developmental systems sciences, evolu tionary biology, evolutionary developmental psychology, cultural studies, etc). The list of potential authors (see attached document) has been compiled to reflect this critical approach.

Spis treści:
1 EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY – LINDDA CAPORAEL?.
This chapter will introduce the basic principles of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, before discussing the historical and philosophical origins of evolutionary approaches to psychology. A key focus, given its dominance in the literature, will be on the field known as Evolutionary Psychology (EP), including a discussion of key principles of EP (e.g., the thesis of ancient provenance; adaptationism; and massive modularity). However, this chapter will also discuss alternative evolutionary approaches to psychology, including in–depth introductions to human behavioural ecology and developmental systems theory. This chapter will also present a preliminary introduction to applications of evolutionary theory, including (but not limited to) controversial topics in evolutionary psychology. The chapter will end with a discussion of unified and grounded approaches to psychology, thus providing a critical introduction to subsequent chapters in the volume..
2 THE EVOLUTION OF COGNITION – CECELIA HEYES? LUDWIG HUBER?.
This chapter on the evolution of cognition will introduce research on human mentality and behaviour, encompassing a range of evolutionary approaches such as the phylogenetic, ecological and psychological or comparative approaches to the evolutionary cognition. A primary focus on the chapter will be on the way in which an evolutionary approach can illuminate human cognition (e.g., categorisation, representational or memory processes, and the way in which humans represent cause–and–effect relationships). This chapter will also introduce the evolution of consciousness, and throughout will emphasise the need for broader investigations of cognit ion rather than the nativist approach than currently dominates the field..
3 LANGUAGE – ROBIN DUNBAR? TOM DICKINS?.
This chapter will discuss aspects of human language from an evolutionary standpoint. This will initially involve an introduction to the evolution of language and speech, as well as the biology and genetics of language. The chapter will also focus on the social functions of language, specifically topics such as the social gossip hypothesis, the social contract hypothesis, and the Scheherazade effect. Finally, the chapter will provide an introduction to the cognitive underpinnings of language and possible adaptive features of language. Other topics of interest may include a discussion of the evolution of non–verbal language..
4 COOPERATION – REBECCA SEAR? RUTH MACE?.
A chapter on cooperation will highlight examples of altruistic behaviour, reciprocity and sharing among humans. A key focus of this chapter will be on different theories of kin selection, primarily an evaluation of Hamilton’s rule that individuals tend to favour kin over non–kin. This part of the chapter will also discuss apparently maladaptive behaviours such as adoption and infanticide from an evolutionary perspective. More broadly, different theoretical explanations that have been used to explain the existence of cooperation among non–kin will be discussed, and the different methods used by researchers in the field will be evaluated. Finally the chapter will discuss implications of selfish genery for cooperative behaviour among humans..
5 MATE CHOICE AND SEXUAL SELECTION – DAVID BULLER? DOROTHY EINON? GILLIAN BENTLEY?.
This chapter will discuss the basic principles involved in evolutionary psychological theories of mate choice, particularly the way in which essential differences between women and men in terms of fitness maximisation. Rather than suggest simplistic accounts of human mating (e.g., that women seek cues of wealth wh ereas men seek cues of fertility), this chapter will critically examine the evidence in favour of evolved mate choice strategies from converging perspectives. Specific attention will be paid to conditional mate choice strategies, which emphasise the influence of contextual and situational factors on mate choice. Finally, this chapter will examine the fitness consequences of mate choice and other associated topics such as the female orgasm or homosexuality..
6 HUMAN BEAUTY – VIREN SWAMI.
This chapter will introduce evolutionary psychological approaches to human physical attractiveness, building on the discussion of the previous chapter. A key focus of the chapter will be a critical evaluation of the waist–to–hip ratio hypothesis of women’s attractiveness. In doing so, this chapter will document how an evolutionary psychological approach to human beauty is possible, but not sufficient. This will provide the necessary background for discussing how evolutionary psychological approaches can be broadened to include individual, situational and cultural perspectives. The latter will focus on research on body size preferences, and the way in which different evolutionary perspectives can be combined to arrive at more sophisticated explanations of human beauty..
7 LIFE HISTORY THEORY – VIRPI LUMMAA? HILLARD S. KAPLAN?.
This chapter on life history theory (LHT) will introduce theories that seek to explain how, in the face of trade–offs, human beings allocate time and energy to tasks in a way that maximised their fitness. The key trade–offs that can be made by individuals will be reviewed (e.g., present and future reproduction, quality and quantity of offspring), as will the effects of key maturational and reproductive characteristics on the life course. In addition, this chapter will consider recent theoretical and empirical work in the field (e.g., foetal programming). Finally, this chapter will consider how life history t