About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherMIT Press

ISBN-100262182602

ISBN-139780262182607

eBay Product ID (ePID)59935532

Product Key Features

Number of Pages248 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameEvolutionary Psychology As Maladapted Psychology

SubjectLife Sciences / Evolution, General, Evolutionary Psychology

Publication Year2007

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaPhilosophy, Science, Psychology

AuthorRobert C. Richardson

SeriesLife and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Weight16.2 Oz

Item Length9.1 in

Item Width6.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2006-030807

Reviews"In this excellent book, Richardson shows very clearly that attempts at reconstruction of our cognitive history amount to little more than 'speculation disguised as results.'" Johan Bolhuis Science, In this excellent book, Richardson shows very clearly that attempts at reconstructionof our cognitive history amount to little more than 'speculation disguised as results.', "In this excellent book, Richardson shows very clearly that attempts at reconstruction of our cognitive history amount to little more than 'speculation disguised as results.'" - Johan Bolhuis, Science, Richardson's arguments are informed, informative, and incisive, and they provide an important cautionary brief against the adaptationist program in evolutionary psychology., In this excellent book, Richardson shows very clearly that attempts at reconstruction of our cognitive history amount to little more than 'speculation disguised as results.', Richardson's arguments are informed, informative, and incisive, and they provide animportant cautionary brief against the adaptationist program in evolutionary psychology., "Richardson's arguments are informed, informative, and incisive, and they provide an important cautionary brief against the adaptationist program in evolutionary psychology." David J. Buller Ethology

Dewey Edition22

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal155.7

SynopsisA philosopher subjects the claims of evolutionary psychology to the evidential and methodological requirements of evolutionary biology, concluding that evolutionary psychology's explanations amount to speculation disguised as results. Human beings, like other organisms, are the products of evolution. Like other organisms, we exhibit traits that are the product of natural selection. Our psychological capacities are evolved traits as much as are our gait and posture. This much few would dispute. Evolutionary psychology goes further than this, claiming that our psychological traits -- including a wide variety of traits, from mate preference and jealousy to language and reason -- can be understood as specific adaptations to ancestral Pleistocene conditions. In Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology , Robert Richardson takes a critical look at evolutionary psychology by subjecting its ambitious and controversial claims to the same sorts of methodological and evidential constraints that are broadly accepted within evolutionary biology. The claims of evolutionary psychology may pass muster as psychology; but what are their evolutionary credentials? Richardson considers three ways adaptive hypotheses can be evaluated, using examples from the biological literature to illustrate what sorts of evidence and methodology would be necessary to establish specific evolutionary and adaptive explanations of human psychological traits. He shows that existing explanations within evolutionary psychology fall woefully short of accepted biological standards. The theories offered by evolutionary psychologists may identify traits that are, or were, beneficial to humans. But gauged by biological standards, there is inadequate evidence: evolutionary psychologists are largely silent on the evolutionary evidence relevant to assessing their claims, including such matters as variation in ancestral populations, heritability, and the advantage offered to our ancestors. As evolutionary claims they are unsubstantiated. Evolutionary psychology, Richardson concludes, may offer a program of research, but it lacks the kind of evidence that is generally expected within evolutionary biology. It is speculation rather than sound science -- and we should treat its claims with skepticism., A philosopher subjects the claims of evolutionary psychology to the evidential and methodological requirements of evolutionary biology, concluding that evolutionary psychology's explanations amount to speculation disguised as results.

LC Classification NumberBF698.95.R44 2007