The Adapted Mind Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture

About this book

From reviews of the hardback: "A fascinating book which deserves a wide audience." European Medical Journal "a very significant contribution to the field of evolutionary thinking on human psychology and culture." British Journal of Medical Psychology Researchers have long been aware that the species-typical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, but it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have been made which have highlighted these changes. This book introduces the newly crystallizing field of evolutionary psychology to a wider scientific audience and focuses on the evolved information-processing mechanisms that comprise the human mind.

Contents

J. Tooby & L. Cosmides: Introduction; Part I: Theoretical framework: J. Tooby & L. Cosmides: The psychological foundations of culture; D. Symons: On the use and misuse of darwinism in the study of human behavior; Part II: Cooperation: L. Cosmides & J. Tooby: Cognitive adaptations for social exchange; W.C. McGrew & A.T.C. Feistner: Two non-human primate models for the evolution of human food-sharing: chimpanzees and callitrichids; Part III: The psychology of mating and sex: D. Buss: Mate preference mechanisms: consequences for partner choice and intrasexual competition; B. Ellis: The evolution of sexual attraction: evaluative mechanisms in women; M. Wilson & M. Daly: The man who mistook his wife for a chattel; Part IV: Parental care and children: M. Profet: Pregnancy sickness as adaptation: a deterrent to maternal ingestion of teratogens; J. Mann: Nurturance or negligence: maternal psychology and behavioral preference among preterm twins; A. Fernald: Human maternal vocalizations to infants as biologically relevant signals: an evolutionary perspective; M.J. Boulton & P.K. Smith: The social nature of play fighting and play chasing: mechanisms and strategies underlying cooperation and compromise; Part V: Perception and language as adaptations: S. Pinker & P. Bloom: Natural language and natural selection; R.N. Shepherd: The perceptual organization of colors: an adaptation to regularities of the terrestrial world?; I. Silverman & M. Eals: Sex differences in spatial abilities: evolutionary theory and data; Part VI: Environmental aesthetics: G.H. Orians & J.H. Heerwagen: Evolved responses to landscapes; S. Kaplan: Environmental preference in a knowledge-seeking, knowledge-using organism; Part VII: Intrapsychic processes: R.M. Nesse & A.T. Lloyd: The evolution of psychodynamic mechanisms; Part VIII: Understanding evolutionary new cultural forms: J.H. Barkow: Beneath new culture is old psychology: gossip, class, and the environment.

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