Taking a Look at Evolutionary Psychology - 1094 Words

Evolutionary Psychology is a practice of social and natural sciences that studies human characteristics through the lens of modern evolutionary theory. This is exactly what Dunbar and his colleges attempt to do with â€Å"the family† in their book. The discussion of the family has to start with defining what parent involvement actually is. The authors of the book Evolutionary Psychology use Robert Trivers’ definition from 1972 that states, â€Å"any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving at the cost of parent’s ability to invest in other offspring†. This means that if a parent of a individual uses any of their resources to help improve their child’s chance of survival, meaning†¦show more content†¦The second circumstance for infanticide is if the child is born with severe disabilities or deformities for the simple reason of is the child worth the investment. Is involved in a child’s life who is going to require more of an investment that an average child, and still highly unlikely to reproduce worth it? Twins are a similar circumstance. Parents have the dilemma of possibly of not having adequate resources for both children at the same time. So infanticide could be logical in this situation so the parents could invest heavily into one of the twins to help ensure the best opportunity for the child throughout life as opposed to dividing the resources in half. This leads into the last circumstance, which is just not having the adequate amount of resources to raise even a single child. This practice is exemplified to the rate of aborted children or children sent to orphanages in young single women, or old married women who have had several children prior. Also discussed is how unique the human family is. Human fathers are involved in their children’s lives more than any other species and humans are the only species where grandparents exist . The explanation for these occurrences are that the human infant is so dependant that it needs the support of more than just a mother, and even just the mother and father in some cases. The occurrence of grandparents can also be explained by the phenomenon of menopause. The humanShow MoreRelatedThe Conflict Between Evolutionary Psychology And Scientific Scripture Scholarship912 Words   |  4 PagesIn this chapter, the author highlights some of the superficial conflicts between evolutionary psychology and scientific scripture scholarship (or historical biblical criticism). As the author notes, â€Å"...evolutionary psychology is an attempt to explain important human traits and behaviors in terms of the evolutionary origin of the human species (131).† It attempts to contextualize all the things we humans think, feel, and create in the contexts of Darwinian evolution, and natural selection. ButRead MoreEvolutionary Psychology : The Brain, Immune System, And Genetics894 Wor ds   |  4 Pagesnervous system of the body.’ (Sammons, no date), so they look at the way the human brain works when it is dealing with thoughts, feelings and how it reacts to behaviours. They study the ‘the brain, immune system, nervous system, and genetics’ (Cherry, 2015) they do this to get the best results about how the brains reacts when put within these situations. Evolutionary Psychology is of humans when they experience a changing environment and look for differences within their behaviours, their cognitionRead MoreInnate Theory : Innate Factors1258 Words   |  6 Pagesthe essay I will look at key branches of psychology which contribute to our behaviour. I will also compare and contrast both heritable and environmental factors, this comparison will enable me to uncover the level of importance within heritability. 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