Open Questions: Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology
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See also: Evolutionary theory --
Genes and behavior
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Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary
aquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will
be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
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This is all about the hoary "nature vs. nurture" debate. In a nutshell
(and limiting the issue specifically to humans), is human behavior
"determined" by heredity or (social) environment?
As stated that baldly, the question is, at best, poorly conceived.
In the first place, we have no reason
to presuppose that any particular human behavior is entirely "determined"
by either heredity or environment. It makes much more sense to take as a
baseline (null) hypothesis that a particular behavior is "influenced" to
some degree or another by both heredity and environment. Then the
question becomes one of determining the relative importance of each.
Secondly, note the emphasis on particular behavior. Again, we
have no reason to presuppose that the relative importance of heredity
and environment should be the same for all types of behavior. It would,
in fact, be quite remarkable if this were so.
The notion of "animal instincts" has been around, it seems, forever.
Some philosophers have held that, while typical animal behavior is
"instinctive" or "hard-wired", human behavior is different and
that this fact distinguishes humans from other animals.
Others philosophers, however, have wondered why, if humans are also
properly regarded biologically as animals, their behavior should be
understood in a radically different way from that of other species
in the animal kingdom.
Evolutionary psychology has a distinctive way of answering questions
about "why" a particular sort of human behavior exists and is the way
it is. As with other applications of evolutionary thinking, a behavior
is "explained" by showing its adaptive value to individuals
or related groups of individuals. This kind of explanation may be
complementary to, rather than exclusive of, other kinds of explanations,
such as how the behavior might be learned from or conditioned by
environmental influences or how the behavior is a result of
biological or neurological characteristics.
Here are some examples of human behavior and/or mental life that figure
prominently in debates over heredity vs. environment:
- Origins of morality, altruism, and cooperative behavior
- Violence, aggression, selfishness, territoriality
- Human mating and child-rearing behavior, sexual jealousy
- Use of logic, reasoning, and different thinking styles
- Language acquisition
- Incest taboos
- Dominance, hierarchy, herd/hive/swarm behavior
Site indexes
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Open Directory Project: Sociobiology
- Categorized and annotated links. A version of this
list is at
Google, with entries sorted in "page rank" order. May also be
found at
Netscape.
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Open Directory Project: Evolutionary Psychology
- Categorized and annotated links. A version of this
list is at
Google, with entries sorted in "page rank" order. May also be
found at
Netscape.
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Galaxy: Evolutionary Psychology
- Categorized site directory. Entries usually include
descriptive annotations.
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Galaxy: Sociobiology
- Categorized site directory. Entries usually include
descriptive annotations.
Sites with general resources
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The evolution of communication
- Web site of a research project that uses simple robots to
simulate the evolution of social communication.
Surveys, overviews, tutorials
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The Evolutionary Psychology FAQ
- Very complete set of questions and answers, maintained by
Edward Hagen.
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The Evolution of Cooperation
- A computer simulation of the evolution of cooperation.
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Psyching Out Evolutionary Psychology: Interview with
David J. Buller
- July 2005 Scientific American In Focus article,
consisting of an interview with the author of a book critical
of evolutionary psychology.
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The Samaritan Paradox
- November 2004 Scientific American Sidebar that asks
"If we live in a dog-eat-dog world, then why are we frequently
so good to each other?"
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Biological Aspects of Altruism
- A ScienceWeek
"symposium" consisting of excerpts and summaries of
articles from various sources.
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The Myths of Monogamy
- Transcript of a radio dicussion about monogamy in humans.
Participants include evolutionary psychologists David Barash and
Judy Lipton.
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Evolutionary Psychology: Innateness vs. Learning
- Detailed critique of the validity of evolutionary psychology,
by Yehouda Harpaz.
- Evolutionary Upstarts
Bruce Bower
Science Week, September 21, 2002, pp. 186-188
- The relative weights of biology and culture in affecting
human behavior is a contentious issue. The availability of
testable predictions to compare evolutionary psychology to
various alternatives may be on the horizon.
[References]
- Why We Take Risks
Richard Conniff
Discover, December 2001, pp. 62-67
- The "handicap principle" posits that animals (possibly including
humans) take risks as an outward display of their genetic fitness.
It may help explain why females are attracted to males of their
species which have seemingly excessive nonfunctional characteristics,
such as a peacock's tail.
- The Genetic Mystery of Music
Josie Glausiusz
Discover, August 2001, pp. 71-75
- Enjoyment of music seems to be nearly universal among humans.
The question is how this came about. Could it somehow be an
evolutionary adaptation?
- The End of Nature versus Nurture
Frans B. M. deWaal
Scientific American, December 1999, pp. 94-99
- There is no longer any doubt that both nature (the genes)
and nurture (the environment) jointly shape animal (and human)
behavior. Setting aside ideological disputes, psychology and
sociology will find a more solid foundation in biology.
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Animal Contests as Evolutionary Games
Michael Mesterton-Gibbons; Eldridge S. Adams
American Scientist, July-August 1998, pp. 334-341
- Understanding animal behavior in terms of biology may be
assisted by studying what happens in direct competition between
individual animals. The concept of evolutionary stable strategies
emerges as a key explanatory tool.
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How Females Choose Their Mates
Lee Alan Dugatkin; Jean-guy J. Godin
Scientific American, April 1998, pp. 56-61
- Darwin himself proposed that sexual selection may influence
evolution not by survival ability but by systematic choices in
selection of mates. Observation of many types of animal species
from insects to mammals has give much support to this notion,
though the degree it seems to occurs varies among species.
Imitation, in which a female (for example) tends to choose males
that other females are observed to prefer, may sometimes be a
factor.
- The New Social Darwinists
John Horgan
Scientific American, October 1995, pp. 174-181
- Evolutionary theory is being used to provide explanations for
many types of human behavior. Evidence for this point of view is
accumulating, but there are also reasons for skepticism.
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Copyright © 2002 by Charles Daney, All Rights Reserved