The colorful plumage of peacocks and the antlers of male deer are both examples of traits that evolved under this type of selection. Around the same time as Darwin, British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Three major psychosocial theories of aging–activity theory, disengagement theory, and continuity theory–are summarized and evaluated.

Definition. Evolutionary theory is the area that focuses on further development and refinement of the modern synthesis of evolution and genetics.

Evolution, in this context, is both a fact and a theory. It is an incontrovertible fact that organisms have changed, or evolved, during the history of life on Earth. And biologists have identified and investigated mechanisms that can explain the major patterns of change.”

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution states that evolution happens by natural selection. Individuals in a species show variation in physical characteristics. As a consequence those individuals most suited to their environment survive and, given enough time, the species will gradually evolve.

Evolution is only a theory. It is not a fact or a scientific law.

The theory of evolution is not a hypothesis, but the scientifically accepted explanation of the incontrovertible fact that life and its many forms has changed over the years.

• Vitalism.
• Theistic evolution.
• Orthogenesis.
• Lamarckism.
• Catastrophism.
• Structuralism.
• Saltationism, mutationism.
• Genetic drift.

A frequent criticism of evolutionary psychology is that its theories and assumptions are not falsifiable. One theory, for example, asserts that human social behavior is guided by specific evolved predispositions that were selected because they enhanced reproductive success during human evolutionary history.

There are well-developed principles and theories within evolutionary psychology that have sparked considerable empirical research. In this chapter, four major theories are explored—(1) prepared learning, (2) inclusive fitness and kin selection, (3) reciprocity and cooperation, and (4) parental investment.

Evolutionary psychologists test hypotheses using the wide variety of research methods available to the social and behavioral sciences, including, for example, cognitive and behavioral experiments, cross-species comparative analyses, questionnaire studies, analyses of archival databases, endocrine assays, and the latest …

The term evolutionary psychology was used by American biologist Michael Ghiselin in a 1973 article published in the journal Science. Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby popularized the term “evolutionary psychology” in their 1992 book The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation of Culture.

Evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuropsychology are mutually compatible – evolutionary psychology helps to identify psychological adaptations and their ultimate, evolutionary functions, while neuropsychology helps to identify the proximate manifestations of these adaptations.

Evolutionary psychology, the study of behaviour, thought, and feeling as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychologists presume all human behaviours reflect the influence of physical and psychological predispositions that helped human ancestors survive and reproduce.

The third and final product of the evolutionary process is noise, or random effects. Noise can be produced by mutations that neither contribute to nor detract from the functional design of the organism.

According to evolutionary social psychology, many social behaviors reflect the presence of adaptations – mechanisms that have been passed down through thousands of generations of human evolution, and that have been designed through natural and sexual selection to serve specific functions ultimately related to …

Evolutionary psychology is a scientific revolution.

Evolutionary psychology is inspired by the work of Charles Darwin and applies his ideas of natural selection to the mind. Darwin’s theory argues that all living species, including humans, arrived at their current biological form through a historical process involving random inheritable changes.

An evolutionary developmental perspective posits that an extended childhood is necessary to acquire the skills needed for the complexities of the human social world. These adaptation can be seen as “adult training,” and help children explicitly learn the skills necessary for adulthood.

Through this process of natural selection, favorable traits are transmitted through generations. Natural selection can lead to speciation, where one species gives rise to a new and distinctly different species. It is one of the processes that drives evolution and helps to explain the diversity of life on Earth.