Evolutionary Psychology.

What Is Evolutionary Psychology

An evolutionary psychologist (EP) studies the structure of the mind by trying to identify evolved structure gave a benefit (at least in the Pleistocene) in terms of survival and reproduction. Thus they look for "Darwinian algorithms": specialized learning mechanisms that evolved in our ancestral populations.
EPs study:
1. Problems and stresses in our ancestral environment: physical (shelter, warmth, safety, food, water, etc.) and social (e.g. group cohesion, mate selection, reciprocal relationships, cheater detection, communication, protection from enemies, status acquisition).
2. Mental proximate mechanisms that evolved to deal with such problems and stresses. EPs think these mechanisms were shaped by natural selection. [A proximate cause is an immediate factors responsible for a particular response (conditions in the environment, internal physiology, previous experience, etc.).
3. How the present environment differs from the environment when those mechanisms developed. While some differences have little impact, some can change the behaviors, sometimes in ways that are maladaptive.

Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, two researchers at U.C. Santa Barbara.

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