Abstract

LORDELO, Eulina da Rocha. Evolutionary psychology and human development. Temas psicol. [online]. 2002, vol.10, n.3, pp. 285-296. ISSN 1413-389X.

Evolutionary psychology is a psychology that is informed by the knowledge from evolutionary biology. It aims at understanding the information-processing mechanisms comprised in the human mind, which were constructed through natural selection affecting the most important psychological processes. The claim for a universal human nature does not contradict the diversity of culturally expressed behaviors, because its existence occurs through common psychological mechanisms, related to selective pressures which were operative on a hunter-gatherer way of life during the Pleistocene era. There is a special concern about the relationships between biology, culture and development. Evolutionary psychology proposes conceptual and empirical integration between these branches. This perspective sustains that all human beings share specific mechanisms which organize appropriated ways of action to the input provided by diverse environments. The joint operation of this responsive psychology plus the ability to learn socially will explain more about culture and cultural change than would each term isolated. Implications of this approach are viewed, in specific topics in human development.

Keywords : evolutionary psychology; human development; development environment.