Controversies in Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract

Synonyms Controversial issues in evolutionary psychology Definition Controversies in evolutionary psychology attend two kinds of critique related to the field: intrinsic and radical. Intrinsic critiques originate from within the "Broad Church" of evolutionary psychology , and typically take the form of critiques of the Santa Barbara School, or "High Church" evolutionary psychology, with its emphasis on human universals and massive modularity and the primacy of cultural over biological evolutionary change since the Pleistocene epoch. Radical critiques originate from outside of the field and are usually either implicitly or explicitly (in some cases) ideologically motivated. Radical critics often call into question the sufficiency of adaptationist accounts of the origin of the human mind and human behavior and frequently assert that such accounts are ad hoc and inherently untestable. Some radical critics substitute sociological mechanisms (such as social construction) for evolutionary ones in order to explain human behavior.