Editing Evolutionary psychology (section)

===Principles===
Its central assumption is that the human brain is composed of a large number of specialized mechanisms that were shaped by [[natural selection]] over a vast period of time to solve the recurrent information-processing problems faced by our ancestors. These problems involve food choices, social hierarchies, distributing resources to offspring, and selecting mates.<ref name=":1" /> Proponents suggest that it seeks to integrate psychology into the other natural sciences, rooting it in the organizing theory of biology ([[evolutionary theory]]), and thus understanding [[psychology]] as a branch of [[biology]]. Anthropologist [[John Tooby]] and psychologist [[Leda Cosmides]] note:

{{blockquote|Evolutionary psychology is the long-forestalled scientific attempt to assemble out of the disjointed, fragmentary, and mutually contradictory human disciplines a single, logically integrated research framework for the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences – a framework
that not only incorporates the evolutionary sciences on a full and equal basis, but that systematically works out all of the revisions in existing belief and research practice that such a synthesis requires.<ref name="Tooby Cosmides 2005">{{cite book |last1=Tooby |first1=John |last2=Cosmides |first2=Leda |chapter=Conceptual Foundation of Evolutionary Psychology |chapter-url={{Google books |id=esDW3xTKoLIC |page=PA5 |plainurl=yes}} |editor-last=Buss |editor-first=David M |title=The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2005 |isbn=9780470939376 |oclc=61514485 |access-date=2021-07-19 |page=5}}</ref>}}

Just as human [[physiology]] and [[evolutionary physiology]] have worked to identify physical adaptations of the body that represent "human physiological nature," the purpose of evolutionary psychology is to identify evolved emotional and cognitive adaptations that represent "human psychological nature." According to [[Steven Pinker]], it is "not a single theory but a large set of hypotheses" and a term that "has also come to refer to a particular way of applying evolutionary theory to the mind, with an emphasis on adaptation, gene-level selection, and modularity." Evolutionary psychology adopts an understanding of the mind that is based on the [[computational theory of mind]]. It describes mental processes as computational operations, so that, for example, a fear response is described as arising from a neurological computation that inputs the perceptional data, e.g. a visual image of a spider, and outputs the appropriate reaction, e.g. fear of possibly dangerous animals. Under this view, any [[domain-general learning]] is impossible because of the [[combinatorial explosion]]. Evolutionary Psychology specifies the domain as the problems of survival and reproduction.<ref>Buss, David M. "Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of The Mind" 5th edition. pages 28-29.</ref>

While philosophers have generally considered the human mind to include broad faculties, such as reason and lust, evolutionary psychologists describe evolved psychological mechanisms as narrowly focused to deal with specific issues, such as catching cheaters or choosing mates. The discipline sees the human brain as having evolved specialized functions, called [[Cognitive module|cognitive modules]], or ''psychological adaptations'' which are shaped by natural selection.<ref>{{cite web |last=Buss |first=David |title=Evolutionary Theories in Psychology |url=https://nobaproject.com/modules/evolutionary-theories-in-psychology |accessdate=2021-04-09 |work=NOBA Textbook series |publisher=DEF Publishers}}</ref> Examples include [[language acquisition|language-acquisition modules]], [[Westermarck effect|incest-avoidance mechanisms]], [[Wason selection task|cheater-detection mechanisms]], intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking mechanisms, agent-detection mechanisms, and others. Some mechanisms, termed [[domain specificity|''domain-specific'']], deal with recurrent adaptive problems over the course of human evolutionary history. [[Domain-general learning|''Domain-general'']] mechanisms, on the other hand, are proposed to deal with evolutionary novelty.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Evolution of Domain-General Mechanisms in Intelligence and Learning |journal=The Journal of General Psychology |year=2005 |last1=Chiappe |first1=Dan |last2=MacDonald |first2=Kevin |volume=132 |issue=1 |pages=5–40 |doi=10.3200/GENP.132.1.5-40 |pmid=15685958 |s2cid=6194752 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8046442 |accessdate=2021-04-09 }}</ref>

Evolutionary psychology has roots in [[cognitive psychology]] and evolutionary biology but also draws on [[behavioral ecology]], [[artificial intelligence]], [[genetics]], [[ethology]], [[anthropology]], [[archaeology]], biology, [[Ecopsychology|ecopsycology]] and [[zoology]]. It is closely linked to [[sociobiology]],<ref name=Psychology/> but there are key differences between them including the emphasis on ''domain-specific'' rather than ''domain-general'' mechanisms, the relevance of measures of current [[fitness (biology)|fitness]], the importance of [[mismatch theory]], and psychology rather than behavior.

[[Nikolaas Tinbergen]]'s [[Tinbergen's four questions|four categories of questions]] can help to clarify the distinctions between several different, but complementary, types of explanations.<ref>Nesse, R.M. (2000). Tingergen's Four Questions Organized. [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nesse/Nesse-Tinbergen4Q.PDF Read online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118055035/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nesse/Nesse-Tinbergen4Q.pdf |date=18 January 2012 }}.</ref> Evolutionary psychology focuses primarily on the "why?" questions, while traditional psychology focuses on the "how?" questions.<ref name=Gaulin-Steven-J-C-2003-pp.1-24>Gaulin and McBurney 2003 pp. 1–24.</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |''Sequential vs. Static Perspective''
|-
| '''Historical/Developmental'''<br />''Explanation of current form in terms of a historical sequence''
| '''Current Form'''<br />''Explanation of the current form of species''
|-
! rowspan="2" |''How vs. Why Questions''
| '''Proximate'''<br />'''''How''''' an individual organism's structures function
| '''Ontogeny'''<br />Developmental explanations for changes in '''''individuals''''', from DNA to their current form
| '''Mechanism'''<br />Mechanistic explanations for how an organism's structures work
|-
| '''Evolutionary'''<br />'''''Why''''' a species evolved the structures (adaptations) it has
| '''Phylogeny'''<br />The history of the evolution of sequential changes in a '''''species''''' over many generations
| '''Adaptation'''<br />A species trait that evolved to solve a reproductive or survival problem in the ancestral environment
|}