Evolutionary Theory: Fringe or Central to Psychological Science

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Danielle Sulikowski

Series:

Frontiers Research Topics

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (62 p.)

Other Title:

Evolutionary Theory

Place of Publication:

Frontiers Media SA 2016

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The computational theory of mind, which views the brain as an information processor that operates on cognitive representations, is central to modern cognitive psychology and is the dominant perspective from which brain function is conceptualized and studied. Evolutionary Psychology (EP) is the application of evolutionary theory to understanding human behaviour and cognition. Unlike other core Psychology topic areas (such as Personality, Learning or Developmental Psychology), however, EP is not defined by the subset of psychological phenomena it seeks to describe and understand. It is instead defined by a specific meta-theoretical perspective, from which it seeks to (potentially) explain all psychological phenomena. The central question posed by this volume is whether this over-arching nature provides an opportunity for evolutionary approaches to offer an alternative meta-theoretical perspective to the information processing / representational view of brain function and behavior.