Evolutionary Psych

Evolutionary Psychology

Every semester I ask students to explain their favorite and least favorite psychology perspectives.  There are no right or wrong answers here… Each perspective has it’s own merits and pitfalls. 

Today, I wanted to write about evolutionary psychology.  It gets a bad rap sort of like how Michael Jackson did (have I mentioned I am a huge Michael Jackson fan?).  I think people hear the term “evolution” and automatically jump to the creationism vs. evolution debate.  It’s understandable, but if you have an aversion just because of it’s name, I encourage you to dig a little deeper. 

Evolutionary psychology is all about using evolutionary ideas, like Darwin’s survival of the fittest and furthering the advancement of a species (spreading genes, reproduction) to describe behavior.  Please note, evolutionary psychology predicts why we might have certain impulses, because those impulses have served our species well for years and years.  However it is not an excuse to necessarily act on those drives.  We do have free will. 

What behaviors might further the advancement of a species?  Let’s look at dating behaviors as an example:

·      Ever hear people complain that all guys care about is a girls looks and that girls are gold-diggers?  Okay, obviously these statements aren’t always true, but the fact is these statements are rooted in evolutionary psychology and there is some truth to them. 

o   Men do place physical attractiveness at high importance because that represents health and fertility.  Their primal brain is saying “hey, this girl looks healthy enough to bare my child and further my genes.”  And women do place earning potential and stability of high importance because their primal brain is saying “he is a good hunter/gather/earner and can provide for my family which will further my genes.”

o   Another perception is that men generally are chasing tail more promiscuous than women.  Again, this thought process is rooted in evolutionary psychology.  Men do think about sex often, their hormones cycle over a 24-hour time span, where women’s hormones have more like a 28-day cycle.  According to evolutionary psychology a man’s goal is to further their genes, which would mean lots of sex with lots of different women (again, just because you have an impulse doesn’t mean you don’t have free will), resulting in as many children being produced as possible.  Males basically have an unlimited number of offspring they can produce.  Women on the other hand are often more selective.  We have to be.  We do have a limit on how many children we can have, as it takes us an entire year to produce a single offspring (or two, if the pregnancy results in twins). 

See, evolutionary psychology isn’t as boring as it sounds.  Fascinating stuff, huh?  Obviously the statements above are generalized ~ I don’t at all assume that all guys are looking to score 24/7 or that women just look at the size of a guys bank account.  There is so much more that goes into selection of a partner.  We do have free will, so we do get to choose our behavior, however we also have impulses like any other species and drives to further our species. 

Here's another example: You are on a boat with a grandmother and a 2 year old child.  You can only save one of them, who do you choose to save?  Most of us are likely to chose the 2 year old, rationalizing that the grandmother has lived a good life, but this child has a whole life ahead of him/her.  Evolutionary-ly speaking, that choice makes complete sense: the grandmother can no longer reproduce and is a lot closer to the end of their life, with possible health struggles, than a 2 year old who can grow up and contribute to the species.  Again, we do have free will, so we can choose to save whoever we want, but our primal brain may guide us into doing what is best for the survival of the species.