Evolutionary social psychology , Lecture notes of Social Psychology

Lecture 2 Evolutionary Social Psychology: Justin Park

Parent caregiver attachment. Parental responses to child are kinship mechanisms e.g. mothers

sensitivity to proximity seeking behaviours. Must provide secure base to allow child engage in non-

attachment behaviours. RESULTS in differing attachment styles of infant e.g. secure, avoidant,

ambivalent (anxious). Shapes relationships later on e.g. ambivalent-anxious tend to difficult forming

secure romantic relationships, jealous tendencies, negative view of self. Avoidant are dismissive of

relationships and mistrust individuals.

Then we have secondary attachments i.e. sibling attachments. If secure then healthy development. If

do not make these attachments then maladaptive consequences including incest.

• Animal’s behaviour can be explained in terms of Darwin’s organising principle: evolution by

natural selection e.g. imprinting in geese (Lorenz). However using evolution to explain the

behaviour of humans can result in misunderstandings

• Humans do what they do because of

• Culture: We conform to societal norms

• Learning: we do what we’ve learnt (from parents)

• Intelligence: we rationally make plans and carry them out

• Psychologists care because humans are animals who've evolved with physical

and psychological adaptations - we need evolutionary explanation to completely

answer psychological questions because other explanations: learning, culture,

theories to predict patterns of behaviour that otherwise wouldn’t have

been investigated by non-evolution minded researchers.

Voak (1999) asked women to judge attractiveness of male face at 2

different points in menstrual cycle. Least fertile stage, preferred feminine

faces. Most fertile preference for feminine only half as strong.