Criticism of evolutionary theory

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Quantifying common criticisms of evolutionary psychology

To browse Academia. Theories from evolutionary biology have many implications for research in the cognitive sciences. Evolutionary psychologists have been using these theories to guide their research, the goal of which is to map the evolved, species-typical cognitive and neural architecture of humans and other species. As a result, evolutionary theories have opened up many previously unexplored research areas to investigation.

Moreover, topics that have already been explored from other perspectives can be advanced empirically and theoretically by adding an evolutionary perspective to the mix. Evolutionary analyses of the adaptive functions that a mechanism evolved to perf With a focus on evolved psychological mechanisms and associated information processing features, evolutionary psychology has risen as a compelling and fruitful approach to the study of human psychology and behavior.

In this article we review the instrument of evolution: natural selection, the products of evolution, and the impact of evolutionary thinking on modern psychological science. We conclude that as prejudicial barriers are overcome, as more evolutionary psychological work is conducted, and as hypothesized psychological mechanisms are substantiated in other disciplines, evolutionary psychology will emerge as the metatheory for psychology.

Given the recent explosion of interest in applications of evolutionary biology to understanding human psychology, we think it timely to assure better understanding of modern evolutionary theory among the psychologists who might be using it. We find it necessary to do so because of the very reduced version of evolutionary theorizing that has been incorporated into much of evolutionary psychology so far.

Our aim here is to clarify why the use of a reduced version of evolutionary genetics will lead to faulty science and to indicate where other resources of evolutionary biology can be found that might elevate the standard of the evolutionary component of evolutionary psychology. Abstract 1. Evolutionary psychology has emerged over the past 15 years as a major theoretical perspective, generating an increasing volume of empirical studies and assuming a larger presence within psychological science.

At the same time, it has generated critiques and remains controversial among some psychologists.