Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology informs readers about the potential integration of evolutionary psychology and social psychology. This is an important issue because social psychology deals with a broad range of important psychological concepts (e.g., interpersonal relationships, aggression) and evolutionary psychology can offer an informative perspective on these issues that may allow for a deeper understanding of these important phenomena. This compilation is intended to provide a broad overview of the potential integration of evolutionary concepts into the topics that are often of interest to social psychologists. Contributors provide an in-depth review of their research areas. Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology demonstrates a current overview of how evolutionary theory has been integrated into social psychology research as well as offering a variety of future directions for this integration. Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology intends to offer suggestions for integrating evolutionary psychology (which is a relatively young and exciting perspective within psychology) with social psychology (which is a larger and more established area of psychology).
- How can an understanding of evolutionary psychology contribute to social psychology?
Section 1: Social Cognition
- Cognition
- Social cognition in children
- Modularity
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Emotion
- Religiousity
- Comparative social cognition
Section 2: Emergent self
- Social identity
- Self-esteem
- Self as an interpersonal signal
- Self-deception
- Cyber-psychology
Section 3: Attitudes and Attitude Change
- Attitudes
- Conformity
- Persuasion
- Obedience
- Feminism and social movements
- Social learning
Section 4: Interpersonal Processes
- Prosocial behavior
- Groups
- Friendships
- Cooperation
- Language and communication
- Stereotypes
- Competition
Section 5: Mating and Relationships
- Attraction and human matings
- Homosexuality
- Familial relationships
- Step families and step-dsibling relationships
- Life history
Section 6: Violence and Aggression
- War and aggression
- Violence in romantic relationships
- Violence toward children
- Bullying
- Terrorism
- Violent crime
Section 7: Health and Psychological Adjustment
- Behavioral immune system
- Psychopathology
- Happiness
Section 8: Individual differences
- Evolutionary personality psychology
- Evolutionary game theory and the development of personality
- Psychopathy
- Narcissism
- Genetics
- Integrating evolutionary psychology and social psychology: Reflections and future directions
Virgil Zeigler-Hill received his Ph.D. in social-personality psychology in 2004 from the University of Oklahoma. He is a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Oakland University. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books. His primary research interests are in four interrelated areas: self-esteem, narcissism, cognitive representations of the self, and interpersonal relationships.
Lisa L. M. Welling received her Ph.D. in experimental psychology in 2008 from the University of Aberdeen. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Lisa Welling has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and has presented at numerous international conferences. Her work focuses largely on the biological and social factors that influence mate choice, preferences, and behavior.
Todd K. Shackelford received his Ph.D. in evolutionary psychology in 1997 from the University of Texas-Austin. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where he is Co-Director of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab. He led the founding of new Ph.D. and M.S. programs, which launched in 2012. Shackelford has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and has edited 10 volumes, and his work has been cited over 7 000 times. Much of Shackelford's research addresses sexual conflict between men and women, with a special focus on testing hypotheses derived from sperm competition theory. Since 2006, Shackelford has served as editor of Evolutionary Psychology.