Editing Evolutionary psychology (section)

==In psychology sub-fields==

===Developmental psychology===
{{Main|Evolutionary developmental psychology}}

According to [[Paul Baltes]], the benefits granted by evolutionary selection decrease with age. Natural selection has not eliminated many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics that appear among older adults, such as [[Alzheimer disease]]. If it were a disease that killed 20-year-olds instead of 70-year-olds this might have been a disease that natural selection could have eliminated ages ago. Thus, unaided by evolutionary pressures against nonadaptive conditions, modern humans suffer the aches, pains, and infirmities of aging and as the benefits of evolutionary selection decrease with age, the need for modern technological mediums against non-adaptive conditions increases.<ref>Santrock, W. John (2005). A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. p. 62.</ref>

===Social psychology===
As humans are a highly social species, there are many adaptive problems associated with navigating the social world (e.g., maintaining allies, managing status hierarchies, interacting with outgroup members, coordinating social activities, collective decision-making). Researchers in the emerging field of evolutionary social psychology have made many discoveries pertaining to topics traditionally studied by social psychologists, including person perception, social cognition, attitudes, altruism, emotions, [[group dynamics]], [[leadership]], motivation, prejudice, intergroup relations, and cross-cultural differences.<ref>Neuberg, S. L., Kenrick, D. T., & Schaller, M. (2010). Evolutionary social psychology. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th Edition, Vol. 2, pp. 761–96). New York: John Wiley & Sons.</ref><ref>Schaller, M., Simpson, J. A., & Kenrick, D. T. (Eds.) (2006). Evolution and social psychology. New York: Psychology Press.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1037/1089-2699.12.1.1 |title=Evolutionary approaches to group dynamics: An introduction |year=2008 |last1=Van Vugt |first1=Mark |last2=Schaller |first2=Mark |journal=Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice |volume=12 |pages=1–6 }}</ref><ref>Van Vugt, Mark & Kameda, Tatsuya. Evolution and Groups. In J. Levine Group Processes Chapter 12 (2012). New York: Psychology Press.</ref>

When endeavouring to solve a problem humans at an early age show determination while chimpanzees have no comparable facial expression. Researchers suspect the human determined expression evolved because when a human is determinedly working on a problem other people will frequently help.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livescience.com/43875-human-chimpanzee-determination-face.html|title=Humans Evolved 'Game Face' As Plea for Help, Study Suggests|website=[[Live Science]]|date=5 March 2014|access-date=10 August 2016}}</ref>

===Abnormal psychology===
{{Main|Evolutionary psychiatry}}
Adaptationist hypotheses regarding the etiology of psychological disorders are often based on analogies between physiological and psychological dysfunctions,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nesse |first1=R |last2=Williams |first2=George C. |title=Why We Get Sick |year=1996 |publisher=Vintage |location=NY|author1-link=Randolph M. Nesse |author2-link=George C. Williams (biologist) }} (adaptationist perspective to both physiological and psychological dysfunctions)</ref> as noted in the table below. Prominent theorists and evolutionary psychiatrists include [[Michael T. McGuire]], [[Anthony Stevens (Jungian analyst)|Anthony Stevens]], and [[Randolph M. Nesse]]. They, and others, suggest that mental disorders are due to the interactive effects of both nature and nurture, and often have multiple contributing causes.<ref name=Gaulin-Steven-J-C-2003-pp.1-24/>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Possible causes of psychological 'abnormalities' from an adaptationist perspective <br />
<small>Summary based on information in these textbooks (all titled "Evolutionary Psychology"): Buss (2011),<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Gaulin & McBurney (2004),<ref name="Gaulin-2004" /> Workman & Reader (2008)<ref>Workman & Reader (2008), Evolutionary Psychology, 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,</ref> as well as Cosmides & Tooby (1999) ''Toward an evolutionary taxonomy of treatable conditions''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cosmides |first1=L. |last2=Tooby |first2=J. |year=1999 |title=Toward an evolutionary taxonomy of treatable conditions |journal=Journal of Abnormal Psychology |volume=108 |issue=3| pages=453–64 |doi=10.1037/0021-843X.108.3.453 |pmid=10466269 }}</ref></small>
|-
! Causal mechanism of failure or malfunction of adaptation !! Physiological Example !! Hypothesized Psychological Example
|-
| '''Functioning adaptation (adaptive defense)'''
| Fever / Vomiting <br><small>(functional responses to infection or ingestion of toxins)</small>
| Mild depression or anxiety <small>(functional responses to mild loss or stress</small><ref name=ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>{{cite journal | last1 = Andrews | first1 = P. W. | last2 = Thomson | first2 = J. A. | date = July 2009 | title = The bright side of being blue: Depression as an adaptation for analyzing complex problems | journal = Psychol. Rev. | volume = 116 | issue = 3| pages = 620–654 | doi = 10.1037/a0016242 | pmid = 19618990 | pmc = 2734449 }}</ref><small>/ reduction of social interactions to prevent infection by contagious pathogens)</small><ref>Raison, C.L, Miller, A. N. (2012). The evolutionary significance of depression in Pathogen Host Defense (PATHOS-D) Molecular Psychiatry 1–23. [http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/mp20122a.pdf PDF].</ref>
|-
|'''By-product of an adaptation(s)'''
| Intestinal gas <br><small>(byproduct of digestion of fiber)</small>
| [[Sexual fetishism|Sexual fetishes]] (?)<br><small>(possible byproduct of normal sexual arousal adaptations that have 'imprinted' on unusual objects or situations)</small>
|-
| '''Adaptations with multiple effects'''
| [[Sickle cell disease]] <small>(Gene that imparts malaria resistance, in homozygous form, causes sickle cell anemia)</small>
| [[Schizophrenia]] or [[bipolar disorder]] <small>(May be side-effects of adaptations for high levels of creativity, perhaps dependent on alternate developmental trajectories)</small>
|-
| '''Malfunctioning adaptation'''
| Allergies <br><small>(over-reactive immunological responses)</small>
| [[Autism]] <br><small>(possible malfunctioning of [[theory of mind]] module)</small>
|-
| '''[[Frequency-dependent selection|Frequency-dependent]] morphs'''
| The two sexes / Different blood and immune system types
| [[Personality disorders]] <br><small>(may represent alternative behavioral strategies possibly dependent on its prevalence in the population)</small>
|-
| '''Mismatch between ancestral & current environments'''
| [[Type 2 Diabetes]] <br><small>(May be related to the abundance of sugary foods in the modern world)</small>
| More frequent modern interaction with strangers (compared to family and close friends) may predispose greater incidence of depression & anxiety
|-
| '''Tails of [[normal distribution]] (bell curve)'''
| [[Dwarfism]] or [[gigantism]]
| Extremities of the distribution of cognitive and personality traits<br><small>(e.g., extremely introversion and extraversion, or [[intellectual giftedness]] and [[intellectual disability]])</small>
|}

Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may reflect a side-effect of genes with fitness benefits, such as increased creativity.<ref name=Gaulin-11>Gaulin and McBurney 2003 pp. 239–56.</ref> (Some individuals with bipolar disorder are especially creative during their manic phases and the close relatives of people with schizophrenia have been found to be more likely to have creative professions.<ref name=Gaulin-11/>) A 1994 report by the American Psychiatry Association found that people with schizophrenia at roughly the same rate in Western and non-Western cultures, and in industrialized and pastoral societies, suggesting that schizophrenia is not a disease of civilization nor an arbitrary social invention.<ref name=Gaulin-11/> Sociopathy may represent an evolutionarily stable strategy, by which a small number of people who cheat on social contracts benefit in a society consisting mostly of non-sociopaths.<ref name=Gaulin-Steven-J-C-2003-pp.1-24/> Mild depression may be an adaptive response to withdraw from, and re-evaluate, situations that have led to disadvantageous outcomes (the "analytical rumination hypothesis")<ref name=ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/> (see [[Evolutionary approaches to depression]]).

Trofimova reviewed the most consistent psychological and behavioural sex differences in psychological abilities and disabilities and linked them to the Geodakyan's evolutionary theory of sex (ETS).<ref name=Trofimova> {{cite journal|last1=Trofimova |first1=I.|year=2015| title= Do psychological sex differences reflect evolutionary bi-sexual partitioning? |journal =American Journal of Psychology|volume=128 |issue=4 |pages=485–514|doi= 10.5406/amerjpsyc.128.4.0485| pmid=26721176}}</ref> She pointed out that a pattern of consistent sex differences in physical, verbal and social dis/abilities corresponds to the idea of the ETS considering sex dimorphism as a functional specialization of a species. Sex differentiation, according to the ETS, creates two partitions within a species, (1) conservational (females), and (2) variational (males). In females, superiority in verbal abilities, higher rule obedience, socialisation, empathy and agreeableness can be presented as a reflection of the systemic conservation function of the female sex. Male superiority is mostly noted in exploratory abilities - in risk- and sensation seeking, spacial orientation, physical strength and higher rates in physical aggression. In combination with higher birth and accidental death rates this pattern might be a reflection of the systemic variational function (testing the boundaries of beneficial characteristics) of the male sex. As a result, psychological sex differences might be influenced by a global tendency within a species to expand its norm of reaction, but at the same time to preserve the beneficial properties of the species. Moreover, Trofimova<ref name=Trofimova/> suggested a "redundancy pruning" hypothesis as an upgrade of the ETS theory. She pointed out to higher rates of psychopathy, dyslexia, autism and schizophrenia in males, in comparison to females. She suggested that the variational function of the "male partition" might also provide irrelevance/redundancy pruning of an excess in a bank of beneficial characteristics of a species, with a continuing resistance to any changes from the norm-driven conservational partition of species. This might explain a contradictory allocation of a high drive for social status/power in the male sex with the their least (among two sexes) abilities for social interaction. The high rates of communicative disorders and psychopathy in males might facilitate their higher rates of disengagement from normative expectations and their insensitivity to social disapproval, when they deliberately do not follow social norms.

Some of these speculations have yet to be developed into fully testable hypotheses, and a great deal of research is required to confirm their validity.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = O'Connell | first1 = H | year = 2004 | title = Evolutionary theory in psychiatry and psychology | journal = Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine | volume = 21 | issue = 1| pages = 37 | doi=10.1017/s0790966700008193| pmid = 30308732 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rose |first1=S. |year=2001 |title=Revisiting evolutionary psychology and psychiatry |journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry |volume=179 |pages=558–59 |doi=10.1192/bjp.179.6.558-b |pmid=11731363 |issue=6 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Antisocial and criminal behavior===
{{Main|Biosocial criminology#Evolutionary psychology}}
Evolutionary psychology has been applied to explain [[criminal]] or otherwise immoral behavior as being adaptive or related to adaptive behaviors. Males are generally more aggressive than females, who are more selective of their partners because of the far greater effort they have to contribute to pregnancy and child-rearing. Males being more aggressive is hypothesized to stem from the more intense reproductive competition faced by them. Males of low status may be especially vulnerable to being childless. It may have been evolutionary advantageous to engage in highly risky and violently aggressive behavior to increase their status and therefore reproductive success. This may explain why males are generally involved in more crimes, and why low status and being unmarried are associated with criminality. Furthermore, competition over females is argued to have been particularly intensive in late adolescence and young adulthood, which is theorized to explain why crime rates are particularly high during this period.<ref name=AEP>Aurelio José Figueredo, Paul Robert Gladden, Zachary Hohman. The evolutionary psychology of criminal behaviour. In {{Cite book | last1 = Roberts | first1 = S. C. | editor1-last = Roberts | doi = 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586073.001.0001 | editor1-first = S. Craig | title = Applied Evolutionary Psychology | year = 2011 | publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 9780199586073 }}</ref> Some sociologists have underlined differential exposure to androgens as the cause of these behaviors, notably Lee Ellis in his [[Evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory|evolutionary neuroandrogenic (ENA) theory]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ellis|first=Lee|date=2005|title=A Theory Explaining Biological Correlates of Criminality|journal=European Journal of Criminology|language=en-US|volume=2|issue=3|pages=287–315|doi=10.1177/1477370805054098|s2cid=53587552|issn=1477-3708}}</ref>

Many conflicts that result in harm and death involve status, reputation, and seemingly trivial insults.<ref name=AEP/> [[Steven Pinker]] in his book ''[[The Better Angels of Our Nature]]'' argues that in non-state societies without a police it was very important to have a credible [[deterrence theory|deterrence]] against aggression. Therefore, it was important to be perceived as having a credible reputation for retaliation, resulting in humans developing instincts for [[revenge]] as well as for protecting reputation ("[[honor]]"). Pinker argues that the development of the state and the police have dramatically reduced the level of violence compared to the ancestral environment. Whenever the state breaks down, which can be very locally such as in poor areas of a city, humans again organize in groups for protection and aggression and concepts such as violent revenge and protecting honor again become extremely important.<ref name=AEP/>

Rape is theorized to be a reproductive strategy that facilitates the propagation of the rapist's progeny. Such a strategy may be adopted by men who otherwise are unlikely to be appealing to women and therefore cannot form legitimate relationships, or by high-status men on socially vulnerable women who are unlikely to retaliate to increase their reproductive success even further.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hagen|first1=Edward H.|title=Evolutionary Psychology FAQ|url=http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/human/evpsychfaq.html|website=anth.ucsb.edu|access-date=16 May 2016}}</ref> The [[sociobiological theories of rape]] are highly controversial, as traditional theories typically do not consider rape to be a behavioral adaptation, and objections to this theory are made on ethical, religious, political, as well as scientific grounds.

===Psychology of religion===
{{Main|Evolutionary psychology of religion}}
Adaptationist perspectives on [[religious belief]] suggest that, like all behavior, religious behaviors are a product of the human brain. As with all other organ functions, [[cognition]]'s functional structure has been argued to have a genetic foundation, and is therefore subject to the effects of natural selection and sexual selection. Like other organs and tissues, this functional structure should be universally shared amongst humans and should have solved important problems of survival and reproduction in ancestral environments. However, evolutionary psychologists remain divided on whether religious belief is more likely a consequence of evolved psychological adaptations,<ref name=Sosis>{{cite journal |year=2003 |title=Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: the evolution of religious behavior |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology |issue=6 |pages=264–74 |last1=Sosis |first1=R. |first2=C. |last2=Alcorta |doi=10.1002/evan.10120 |volume=12|s2cid=443130 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Szocik K, Van Eyghen H | title=Revising cognitive and evolutionary science of religion: Religion as an adaptation |publisher=Springer |location=Cham|year=2021|pages=49–81  |isbn=9783030635152}}</ref> or a byproduct of other cognitive adaptations.<ref>{{cite journal |year=2006 |title=Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior|journal=American Anthropologist |issue=4 |pages=824–27 |last1=Lienard |first1=P. |first2=P. |last2=Boyer |doi=10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.814 |volume=108}}</ref>

===Coalitional psychology===
Coalitional psychology is an approach to explain political behaviors between different [[coalitions]] and the [[conditionality]] of these behaviors in evolutionary psychological perspective. This approach assumes that since human beings appeared on the earth, they have evolved to live in groups instead of living as individuals to achieve benefits such as more mating opportunities and increased status.<ref name="Lopez 2011 and all">{{cite journal | last1 = Lopez | first1 = Anthony C. | last2 = McDermott | first2 = Rose | last3 = Bang Petersen | first3 = Michael | year = 2011| title = States in Mind: Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and International Politics | journal = International Security | volume = 36 | issue = 2| pages = 61–66 | doi=10.1162/isec_a_00056| s2cid = 57562816 }}</ref> Human beings thus naturally think and act in a way that manages and negotiates [[group dynamics]].

Coalitional psychology offers falsifiable [[Ex-ante|ex ante]] prediction by positing five hypotheses on how these [[psychological adaptation]]s operate:<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lopez | first1 = Anthony C. | last2 = McDermott | first2 = Rose | last3 = Bang Petersen | first3 = Michael | year = 2011| title = States in Mind: Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and International Politics | journal = International Security | volume = 36 | issue = 2| pages = 66–82 | doi=10.1162/isec_a_00056| s2cid = 57562816 }}</ref>
* Humans represent groups as a special category of individual, unstable and with a short shadow of the future
* [[Political entrepreneurs]] strategically manipulate the coalitional environment, often appealing to emotional devices such as "outrage" to inspire [[collective action]].
* [[Relative gains]] dominate relations with enemies, whereas [[absolute gains]] characterize relations with allies.
* Coalitional size and male physical strength will positively predict individual support for aggressive foreign policies.
* Individuals with children, particularly women, will vary in adopting aggressive foreign policies than those without progeny.