Essential Evolutionary Psychology

Article Outline

• References
• Copyright

Evolutionary psychology provides a meta-theoretical approach to psychology which makes use of the principles of evolution to aid in the understanding of psychological phenomena. It is an exciting new field that is of particular interest because it is shedding new light on issues (such as altruism, gender differences and mate selection, to name a few) that have been insufficiently understood within traditional schools of thought in psychology.

Simon Hampton’s Essential Evolutionary Psychology provides a condensed introduction to this field in 210 pages and twelve chapters which cover the history of evolutionary theory and its recent applications to psychology. The chapters cover topics such as consciousness, cooperation and interdependence, families and parenting, mate selection, competition and aggression, language, abnormal psychology, and culture. Each chapter starts with an overview of key concepts and learning objectives and finishes with suggestions for further reading. The text itself is interspersed with boxes containing asides to the core content.

Hampton’s text is particularly effective in its introduction of the history of evolutionary thinking and pays tribute not just to Darwin’s contribution, but also to Mendel, Linnaeus and others. Furthermore, he makes a point of addressing just about all possible philosophical aspects and issues of debate around evolutionary thinking. The main strength of the text is that Hampton consistently presents each debate in such a way that the reader is forced to make up his/her own mind. As such, the text is thought provoking and a rich source of material for discussion. The main weakness of the text is that the first half of the book is so devoid of any effort to make the core aspects of evolutionary psychology come to life. This is not helped by Hampton’s wordy, indirect and unnecessarily complex and often abstract writing style. As a consequence, the uninitiated reader is not guided effectively to think in terms of adaptations, survival and reproductive fitness, or in making the leap from the evolutionary era of adaptation (EEA) to the present. Furthermore, while doing justice to theories and findings of the main contributors to the field, very little insight is given in the research done by them. This is particularly sad in relation to the recent work of Tooby & Cosmides, Baker & Bellis, and Buss. While the second half of the book partly makes up for the shortcomings of the first half, the sections on the debates rather than research and application remain the more convincing.

The layout of the text, the size of chapters, and other formatting aspects are user friendly, except for the boxes dotted throughout the text which are hit and miss in providing welcome additions or simply interrupting the flow of the text. Perhaps these could have been used more effectively by giving examples of research.

A variety of introductions to evolutionary psychology have been published in recent years, including Buss (2008) authoritative text (now in its 3rd edition) and a number of briefer introductions suitable for undergraduate course work, such as Gaulin and McBurney (2004, 2nd ed) and Palmer and Palmer (2002). Especially the latter two texts succeed in expressing and applying the principles of evolutionary psychology in a thought provoking but also transparent and enthusiastic way, which makes them more suitable for undergraduate students than Hampton’s book.

Back to Article Outline

References 

1. Buss DM. Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. third ed.. Boston, MA.: Pearson Education; 2008;ISBN-10: 020569439X
   • View In Article
2. Gaulin SJC, McBurney DH. Evolutionary Psychology. Second ed.. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Allyn & Bacon/Prentice Hall; 2004;ISBN-10: 0131115294
   • View In Article
3. Palmer JA, Palmer LK. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior. Boston, MA.: Allyn & Bacon; 2002;ISBN 0.205-27868-X
   • View In Article