Evolutionary psychology. Taking Darwin seriously

Abstract

In this article, the origins of evolutionary psychology are presented beginning with Charles R. Darwińs main works (1859, 1871, 1872). In his books, Darwin wrote about the mind, the behavior, and the cognition of human and non-human animals. He stated that the theory of evolution could contribute to a better understanding of the human species and its behavior and that psychology could be studied in a "new light". Many years later, Wilson (1975) introduced sociobiology as a discipline, and later, other authors set the fundamentals of evolutionary psychology (Buss, 1999; Cosmides & Tooby, 1992, 2005, 2017; Barkow, et al., 1992). Evolutionary psychology has been one of the most relevant research and theorizing fields in behavioral sciences in the first decades of the 21st Century. The present paper analyzes the origins of evolutionary psychology, its development, achievements, and the criticism it has received.