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Author: Robert C. Richardson
Publisher: Bradford Book
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTakes 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.
Author: Robert C. Richardson
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2010-01-22
Total Pages: 227
ISBN-13: 0262261111
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA 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.
Author: Simon Baron-Cohen
Publisher: Psychology Press
Published: 2013-04-15
Total Pages: 301
ISBN-13: 1134836228
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNewly available in paperback, this is the first book to bring together classic and contemporary readings illustrating the new subdiscipline, evolutionary psychopathology. Each chapter demonstrates how evolutionary arguments are being brought to bear on the study of a different psychiatric condition or pathalogical behaviour. The Maladapted Mind is aimed primarily at primarily at advanced students and researchers in the fields of psychiatry, abnormal psychology, biological anthropology, evolutionary biology and cognitive science.
Author: Eva Jablonka
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2014-03-21
Total Pages: 577
ISBN-13: 0262525844
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA pioneering proposal for a pluralistic extension of evolutionary theory, now updated to reflect the most recent research. This new edition of the widely read Evolution in Four Dimensions has been revised to reflect the spate of new discoveries in biology since the book was first published in 2005, offering corrections, an updated bibliography, and a substantial new chapter. Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb's pioneering argument proposes that there is more to heredity than genes. They describe four “dimensions” in heredity—four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Jablonka and Lamb present a richer, more complex view of evolution than that offered by the gene-based Modern Synthesis, arguing that induced and acquired changes also play a role. Their lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors refine their arguments against the vigorous skepticism of the fictional “I.M.” (for Ipcha Mistabra—Aramaic for “the opposite conjecture”). The extensive new chapter, presented engagingly as a dialogue with I.M., updates the information on each of the four dimensions—with special attention to the epigenetic, where there has been an explosion of new research. Praise for the first edition “With courage and verve, and in a style accessible to general readers, Jablonka and Lamb lay out some of the exciting new pathways of Darwinian evolution that have been uncovered by contemporary research.” —Evelyn Fox Keller, MIT, author of Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines “In their beautifully written and impressively argued new book, Jablonka and Lamb show that the evidence from more than fifty years of molecular, behavioral and linguistic studies forces us to reevaluate our inherited understanding of evolution.” —Oren Harman, The New Republic “It is not only an enjoyable read, replete with ideas and facts of interest but it does the most valuable thing a book can do—it makes you think and reexamine your premises and long-held conclusions.” —Adam Wilkins, BioEssays
Author: Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-10-18
Total Pages: 575
ISBN-13: 1108470971
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA complete account of evolutionary thought in the social, environmental and policy sciences, creating bridges with biology.
Author: David Livingstone Smith
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007-08-07
Total Pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9780312310400
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReaders of Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker will find much to intrigue them in this fascinating book, which declares that our extraordinary ability to deceive others - and even our selves - 'lies' at the heart of our humanity.
Author: Marco Del Giudice
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-07-06
Total Pages: 579
ISBN-13: 0190670142
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMental disorders arise from neural and psychological mechanisms that have been built and shaped by natural selection across our evolutionary history. Looking at psychopathology through the lens of evolution is the only way to understand the deeper nature of mental disorders and turn a mass of behavioral, genetic, and neurobiological findings into a coherent, theoretically grounded discipline. The rise of evolutionary psychopathology is part of an exciting scientific movement in psychology and medicine -- a movement that is fundamentally transforming the way we think about health and disease. Evolutionary Psychopathology takes steps toward a unified approach to psychopathology, using the concepts of life history theory -- a biological account of how individual differences in development, physiology and behavior arise from tradeoffs in survival and reproduction -- to build an integrative framework for mental disorders. This book reviews existing evolutionary models of specific conditions and connects them in a broader perspective, with the goal of explaining the large-scale patterns of risk and comorbidity that characterize psychopathology. Using the life history framework allows for a seamless integration of mental disorders with normative individual differences in personality and cognition, and offers new conceptual tools for the analysis of developmental, genetic, and neurobiological data. The concepts presented in Evolutionary Psychopathology are used to derive a new taxonomy of mental disorders, the Fast-Slow-Defense (FSD) model. The FSD model is the first classification system explicitly based on evolutionary concepts, a biologically grounded alternative to transdiagnostic models. The book reviews a wide range of common mental disorders, discusses their classification in the FSD model, and identifies functional subtypes within existing diagnostic categories.
Author: Anthony Chemero
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2011-08-19
Total Pages: 269
ISBN-13: 0262516470
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA proposal for a new way to do cognitive science argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than computation and representation. While philosophers of mind have been arguing over the status of mental representations in cognitive science, cognitive scientists have been quietly engaged in studying perception, action, and cognition without explaining them in terms of mental representation. In this book, Anthony Chemero describes this nonrepresentational approach (which he terms radical embodied cognitive science), puts it in historical and conceptual context, and applies it to traditional problems in the philosophy of mind. Radical embodied cognitive science is a direct descendant of the American naturalist psychology of William James and John Dewey, and follows them in viewing perception and cognition to be understandable only in terms of action in the environment. Chemero argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than in terms of computation and representation. After outlining this orientation to cognition, Chemero proposes a methodology: dynamical systems theory, which would explain things dynamically and without reference to representation. He also advances a background theory: Gibsonian ecological psychology, “shored up” and clarified. Chemero then looks at some traditional philosophical problems (reductionism, epistemological skepticism, metaphysical realism, consciousness) through the lens of radical embodied cognitive science and concludes that the comparative ease with which it resolves these problems, combined with its empirical promise, makes this approach to cognitive science a rewarding one. “Jerry Fodor is my favorite philosopher,” Chemero writes in his preface, adding, “I think that Jerry Fodor is wrong about nearly everything.” With this book, Chemero explains nonrepresentational, dynamical, ecological cognitive science as clearly and as rigorously as Jerry Fodor explained computational cognitive science in his classic work The Language of Thought.
Author: Mike Abrams
Publisher:
Published: 2017-12-31
Total Pages: 502
ISBN-13: 9781516521623
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFilling a void in the clinical literature, The New CBT: Clinical Evolutionary Psychology integrates new techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with evidence-based evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics. The text addresses the need for clinicians to be conversant with the burgeoning research that has linked evolutionary and genetic processes to psychological problems. This text makes these essential elements accessible to both clinicians and their clients so they can develop a deeper understanding of crucial clinical topics, such as emotional feelings, cognition, and behavioral change. The New CBT explains the processes of the mind and provides solutions to many of the problems that arise when these processes lead to dysfunction or distress. The text reviews how the application of evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics provides both etiological insights and novel treatments for each of the major psychological disorders. Readers are offered evidenced-based explanations of how evolution and genetics can pragmatically resolve the enduring problem of nature versus nurture. Additionally, they come to understand how eons of environmental changes have guided the way people deal with distress, perceive their environment, and judge others as well as themselves. By viewing both normative and problematic behavior through an evolutionary lens, readers gain new perspectives in applying CBT that are thoroughly modern, effective, and take into consideration cutting-edge research. The New CBT is an ideal text for upper-division courses in psychology, psychotherapy, and psychopathology, especially those with an emphasis on CBT. It is also an excellent resource for practicing clinicians who wish to update or reframe their understanding and use of CBT, evolutionary psychology, or behavioral genetics. Mike Abrams is a practicing psychologist and clinical researcher with a specialty in cognitive behavioral therapy. He is an adjunct full professor in the M.A. program in psychology at New York University and Managing partner of Psychology for New Jersey, LLC a clinical research corporation. He is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and a supervisor, fellow, and diplomate of the Albert Ellis Institute. Dr. Abrams studied and worked closely with Dr. Albert Ellis, with whom he published several books, chapters, and articles on REBT and CBT. Dr. Abrams has also authored four other books on psychology and has practiced or taught professional psychology for more than thirty years. His research into the evolutionary basis of sexual and trauma disorders led the publication along with David Buss of the first clinical protocol combining evolutionary psychology and CBT.
Author: David J. Buller
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2006-02-17
Total Pages: 582
ISBN-13: 9780262261821
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWas human nature designed by natural selection in the Pleistocene epoch? The dominant view in evolutionary psychology holds that it was—that our psychological adaptations were designed tens of thousands of years ago to solve problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In this provocative and lively book, David Buller examines in detail the major claims of evolutionary psychology—the paradigm popularized by Steven Pinker in The Blank Slate and by David Buss in The Evolution of Desire—and rejects them all. This does not mean that we cannot apply evolutionary theory to human psychology, says Buller, but that the conventional wisdom in evolutionary psychology is misguided. Evolutionary psychology employs a kind of reverse engineering to explain the evolved design of the mind, figuring out the adaptive problems our ancestors faced and then inferring the psychological adaptations that evolved to solve them. In the carefully argued central chapters of Adapting Minds, Buller scrutinizes several of evolutionary psychology's most highly publicized "discoveries," including "discriminative parental solicitude" (the idea that stepparents abuse their stepchildren at a higher rate than genetic parents abuse their biological children). Drawing on a wide range of empirical research, including his own large-scale study of child abuse, he shows that none is actually supported by the evidence. Buller argues that our minds are not adapted to the Pleistocene, but, like the immune system, are continually adapting, over both evolutionary time and individual lifetimes. We must move beyond the reigning orthodoxy of evolutionary psychology to reach an accurate understanding of how human psychology is influenced by evolution. When we do, Buller claims, we will abandon not only the quest for human nature but the very idea of human nature itself.
