Is evolutionary psychology a metatheory for psychology? A discussion of four major issues in psychology from an evolutionary developmental perspective

Authors
Publication date 2008
Journal Psychological Inquiry
Volume | Issue number 19 | 1
Pages (from-to) 1-18
Number of pages 18
Organisations
  • Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) - Psychology Research Institute (PsyRes)
Abstract
Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer
new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature-nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.
Document type Article
Related publication Is evolutionary developmental biology a viable approach to the study of the human mind? Reply
Published at https://doi.org/10.1080/10478400701774006
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