A Criticism of Evolutionary Psychology is That It is Inherently Biased towards Adaptationism. What Does This Mean? Can This Criticism Be Overcome or Is The Evolutionary Psychology Research Program Doomed To Fail? Illustrate Your Answer with a Specific Example
Criticism of Evolutionary Psychology
Introduction
Evolutionary Psychology makes use of a biologically informed approach (modern evolutionary perspective) to examine human behavior as well psychological traits like language, perception and memory. Specifically, Evolutionary Psychology has the primary objective of identifying which human psychological traits can be attributed to natural selection. Buss (1999) points that cognitive psychology is similar to Evolutionary Psychology in the sense that they both agree that human behavior is linked to internal psychological mechanisms; the only difference is that evolutionary psychologists propose that the internal psychological mechanisms are adaptations. According to Rose & Rose (2000), adaptationist thinking is the main focus of Evolutionary Psychology, in the sense that it makes use of the principles applied in evolutionary biology. In this regard, evolutionary psychologists maintain that the modular structure of the human mind is the same as that of the body, wherein different modular adaptations serve various functions. As a result, Evolutionary Psychology holds that most elements of human behavior are attributed to psychological adaptations, which evolved with the aim of solving the recurring problems faced by human ancestors in their environments (Workman & Reader, 2004). Despite the adaptationist approach being the cornerstone of Evolutionary Psychology, it has drawn significant criticism, especially basing on the fact that Evolutionary Psychology is inherently biased towards adaptationism. This paper reviews the criticism of Evolutionary Psychology with regard to its adaptationist perspective and evaluates whether this Evolutionary Psychology can overcome this critique or whether Evolutionary Psychology is doomed to fail.
Evolutionary Psychology makes use of the theoretical perspectives outlined in evolutionary biology to have an understanding of the design of the human mind. Ryle (2005) asserts that the influence of Evolutionary Psychology has grown significantly in the last 20 years, especially among behavioral scientists as well the public. However, many people are of the view that the core assumptions of Evolutionary Psychology are somewhat extraordinary and radical. According to Workman & Reader (2004), Evolutionary Psychology perceives the human brain to be comprised of mainly adaptations. The fundamental precept help by Evolutionary Psychology is that natural selection resulted in both morphological adaptations as well as psychological adaptations, which are common among human beings. In the light of this view, adaptation refers to a mechanism that helped in solving a specific problem linked to reproduction and survival during the ancestral past (Wilson, Dietrich, & Clark, 2003).
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