Evolutionary Psychology： How Psychological Mechanisms Shaped by Natural Selection for Ancestral Environments Produce Current Behaviours

The central purpose of this paper is to explain how Darwin′s theory of evolution by natural selection can be used in understanding current human behaviour. First, Darwin′s logic is briefly described. Development is an important issue when applying evolutionary theory to human behaviour. The notion of innate developmental organization of psychological mechanisms is introduced. The possible social and political outcomes produced when different levels of innate developmental organization are paired with differ...

Evolutionary Psychology: How Psychological Mechanisms Shaped by Natural Selection for Ancestral Environments Produce Current Behaviours

The central purpose of this paper is to explain how Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection can be used in understanding current human behaviour. First, Darwin's logic is briefly described. Development is an important issue when applying evolutionary theory to human behaviour. The notion of innate developmental orga-nization of psychological mechanisms is introduced. The possible social and political outcomes produced when differ-ent levels of innate developmental organization are paired with different beliefs about it are considered. The notion of psychological mechanisms as evolved adaptations is considered in some detail. Then I discuss different ways evo-htionists think about how genes are involved in the development of adaptations. The paper concludes with a frame-work for considering how ancestral adaptations function in current environments and outlines some ways of studying them. In China and many other parts of the world people desire a more harmonious society. Ⅰ hope that this paper will be of some small help in achieving this great task.