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  • Essay / The Evolution of Behavior - 1952

    1. IntroductionHow to explain, predict and control human behavior? This question remains a central underlying theme within psychology as a whole. Few specific branches of psychology have attempted to integrate multiple perspectives into their areas of research. Evolutionary psychology appears to be unique in this endeavor, and as the following researchers point out: "Evolutionary psychology is the long-overdue scientific attempt to assemble, from disjointed, fragmentary, and mutually contradictory human disciplines, a unique research framework and logically integrated framework for the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences – a framework that not only integrates the evolutionary sciences on a full and equal basis, but that systematically elaborates all the revisions to existing beliefs and research practices that a such synthesis” (Tooby & Cosmides, 2005) A unification of this type is undoubtedly an enormous undertaking, but as the following review suggests, it will likely constitute an interesting contribution to a number of existing disciplines.2. Goals and Theoretical Framework In order to reach any type of conclusion as to the extent to which human behavior can be explained by an evolutionary psychology framework, it is necessary to understand what the goals of such a field are: "The goal of Evolutionary psychology is the study of human behavior as a product of evolved psychological mechanisms that depend on internal and environmental inputs for their development, activation, and expression in overt behavior. (Buss, et al., 2010) Like physiology, anatomy, and biology, evolutionary psychology examines human behavior from a Darwinian perspective. That is, like physical traits, psychological traits appear to contradict Darwinian theory and significantly reduce or eliminate an organism's fitness. However, this does not mean that such an explanation within evolutionary psychology cannot exist, it simply means that there is not currently a sufficient explanation for it. Undoubtedly, the claim that all human behavior can be explained in some way by evolutionary psychology is ambitious, but perhaps this is because evolutionary psychology pursues an ambitious goal: to unify not only psychological disciplines, but also anthropological, sociological and biological disciplines. With this in mind, it is easier to see how the previous conclusion could be possible, or even probable. At the very least, it is undeniable that evolutionary psychology provides a basis for exploring and interpreting human behavior, even despite the topics on which it says little...