Summary Evolutionary Psychology(PSY227) Flashsheet

Evolutionary Psychology



The study of evolutionary history & adaptive function of psychological traits



 Focus on psychological traits
 Adaptive responses organised in dif domains of mind
Tinbergen’s 4 Whys: Buss’s tenets of evolutionary psychology

1. Proximate mechanism All behaviour function of psychological
mechanisms
2. Development
Selection most important for creating
3. Function psychological adaptations

4. Phylogeny (what is its history?) Psychological mechanisms = information
processing devices




The Evolutionary Psychology of Rape

‘Natural History of Rape’
 Sexual coercion common in animal kingdom (female ducks drowned)
 Sexual conflict theory (conflicting optimal fitness strategies)
o Forced mating: females develop pouches divert sperm
 Men target fertile women (evidence impregnation more frequent as result of rape)
 Females have ‘adaptive responses’ trauma highest in reproductive age, costs are
higher so fight back hardest

X can't generalise to humans
X females rape
X "extra-special loony" - Susan Brownmiller
X "scientific pornography" = Steven Rose



THEIR DEFENCE: naturalistic fallacy (Hume) just because there's an adaptive basis to
rape, doesn't mean they think its right