From computers to cultivation: reconceptualizing evolutionary psychology
Date
2014
Authors
Barrett, Louise
Pollet, Thomas V.
Stulp, Gert
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Abstract
Does evolutionary theorizing have a role in psychology?This is a more contentious issue than one might imagine, given that, as evolved creatures, the answer must surely be yes. The contested nature of evolutionary psychology lies not in our status as evolved beings, but in the extent to which evolutionary ideas add value to studies of human behavior, and the rigor with which these ideas are tested. This, in turn, is linked to the framework in which particular evolutionary ideas are situated. While the framing of the currentresearchtopicplacesthebrain-as-computermetaphorinoppositiontoevolutionary psychology, the most prominent school of thought in this field (born out of cognitive psychology, and often known as the Santa Barbara school) is entirely wedded to the computational theory of mind as an explanatory framework. Its unique aspect is to argue that the mind consists of a large number of functionally specialized (i.e., domain-specific) computational mechanisms, or modules (the massive modularity hypothesis). Far from offering an alternative to, or an improvement on, the current perspective, we argue that evolutionary psychology is a mainstream computational theory, and that its arguments for domain-specificityoftenrestonshakypremises.Wethengoontosuggestthatthevarious forms of e-cognition (i.e., embodied, embedded, enactive) represent a true alternative to standard computational approaches, with an emphasis on “cognitive integration” or the “extended mind hypothesis” in particular.We feel this offers the most promise for human psychology because it incorporates the social and historical processes that are crucial to human “mind-making” within an evolutionarily informed framework. In addition to linking to other research areas in psychology, this approach is more likely to form productive links tootherdisciplineswithinthesocialsciences, notleastbyencouragingahealthypluralism in approach.
Description
Sherpa Romeo green journal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
Keywords
Evolutionary psychology , Cognition , Cognitive integration , Modules , Extended mind
Citation
Barrett, L., Pollet, T. V., & Stulp, G. (2014). From computers to cultivation: Reconceptualizing evolutionary psychology. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 867. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00867