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The social contexts in which children develop have transformed over recent decades, but also over millennia. Modern parenting practices have diverged greatly from ancestral practices, which included natural childbirth, extensive and on-demand breastfeeding, constant touch, responsiveness to the needs of the child, free play in nature with multiple-aged playmates, and multiple adult caregivers. Only recently have scientists begun to document the outcomes for the presence or absence of such parenting practices, but early results indicate that psychological wellbeing is impacted by these factors. This book addresses how a shift in the way we parent can influence child outcomes. It examines evolved contexts for mammalian development, optimal and suboptimal contexts for human evolved needs, and the effects on children's development and human wellbeing. The book examines how different parenting styles and cultural personality influence one another. Chapters discuss the nature of childrearing, social relationships, the range of personalities people exhibit, the social and moral skills expected of adults, and what “wellbeing” looks like. As a solid knowledge base regarding normal development is considered integral to understanding psychopathology, this book also focuses on the effects of early childhood maltreatment. By increasing our understanding of basic mammalian emotional and motivational needs in contexts representative of our ancestral conditions, we may be in a better position to facilitate changes in social structures and systems that better support optimal human development.

Evolutionary psychology aims to understand and describe human behaviour in the light of past and continuing selection and adaptation. Still a young and developing discipline, the past couple of decades has seen enormous progress. As the science matures, its scope is inevitably beginning to broaden towards tackling contemporary issues in human society. To date, however, concerted effort to apply principle to practice has been patchy and limited in extent. This book aims to provide a foundation for an incipient focus on applications of evolutionary psychology. It draws together a collection of renowned academics from a very disparate set of fields, whose common interest lies in using evolutionary thinking to inform their research. It is the first book to overtly consider how basic evolutionary thinking is being applied to such a wide range of specific social, economic and technological problems.

Eighty years ago the greatest mass murder of human beings of all time occurred in Nazi occupied Europe. This began with the mass extermination of patients with neurologic and psychiatric disorders that rendered them “useless eaters” to Hitler’s regime. The neuropsychiatric profession was systematically “cleansed” beginning in 1933, but racism and eugenics had infiltrated the specialty in the decades before that. With the installation of Nazi-principled neuroscientists, mass forced sterilization was enacted, which slowed down by the start of World War II and the advent of patient murder. But the murder of roughly 275,000 patients by the end of the war was not enough. The patients’ brains and neurologic body parts were stored and used in scientific publications both during and long after the war. Also, patients themselves were used in unethical ways for epilepsy and multiple sclerosis experiments. Relatively few neuroscientists resisted the Nazis, with some success in the occupied countries. Most neuroscientists involved in unethical actions continued their careers unscathed after the war. Few answered for their actions in a professional or criminal sense, and few repented. The legacy of such a depraved era in the history of neuroscience and medical ethics is that codes exist by which patients and research subjects are protected from harm. But this protection is possibly subject to political extremes and only by understanding the horrible past can our profession police itself. Individual neuroscientists can protect patients and colleagues if they are aware of the dangers of a utilitarian, unethical, and uncompassionate mindset.

This book deals with our innate motivation to care, give, help, and nurture another person or entity. Several conceptual frameworks—spiritual views of caring, evolutionary accounts, biological bases (genetic, hormonal, neural), empathic processes, attachment theory and feminism—are reviewed in this book and provide the theoretical foundations. In addition, a large variety of research paradigms are reviewed to uncover the rich and multidimensional nature of cargiving. These include parenting, social support, prosocial behavior, altruism, volunteering, heroism, mentoring, donations, teachers’ caring, working in the helping professions, caring for pets, gardening, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Caring is extended to a variety of targets, familiar and unfamiliar, human and nonhuman (pets, gardens); it covers diverse provisions and involves a variety of dynamics. All of these manifestations are viewed as reflecting the same overarching general motivation and evince a common core as well as distinct adaptations. Based on these accounts, the book underscores that we as a species have an innate, biologically driven, and evolutionarily chosen yet contextually sensitive motivation to care, tend, empower, and nurture. A general conceptual model of the caring motivational system as a fundamental human motivation manifested in the different domains is presented, including a suggested understanding of gender differences and a proposed model for the universal developmental course of this sophisticated and complex system. The ramifications of this conceptual model for our view of human nature and applied domains is considered and new research directions are explored.

From emails to social media, from instant messaging to political memes, the way we produce and transmit culture is radically changing. This book uses, for the first time, cultural evolution theory to analyze how information spreads, and how it affects our behavior in the digital age. Online connectedness and digital media allows access to networks where cultural transmission is possible, increasing both the availability of cultural models (from whom we can copy) and our reach (the number of individuals who can copy from us). This poses new problems, and new opportunities (Chapter 1). A cognitive and evolutionary approach suggests that we are wary learners, and the power of social influence, either online or offline, is often overestimated (Chapter 2). The background developed in the initial chapters into the details of different online phenomena is used: the tendency to copy popular individuals (Chapter 3), popular opinions (Chapter 4), or exchange information only with same-minded individuals (Chapter 5). The spread of online misinformation is then scrutinized at length (Chapter 6), proposing that to understand the phenomenon we need to understand why, generally, some information is more successful in spreading than other. The last two chapters examine how online, digital, transmission is different from other forms of cultural transmission, providing more “fidelity amplifiers” (Chapter 7), and how this could affect future cultural cumulation (Chapter 8). Overall, it is proposed that a “long view” to the current situation, based on a personal perspective of cognitive and evolutionary approaches to culture, suggests that some of the dangers of digital, online, interactions may have been overestimated, and the opportunities still ahead of us are discussed.

Darwin has long been hailed as forefather to behavioural science, and even more so nowadays, with the growing popularity of evolutionary psychologies. This is the first book to examine Darwin’s own extensive writings about psychological matters. It finds that Darwin’s fulcrum was the agency of living creatures—both in his psychology and in his theory of evolution. A careful reading of Darwin’s writings on topics from climbing plants to babies shows that no individual-based theory of evolution can explain everything about human action. The interpersonal domain, group-life and culture, are also key, whether we consider the dynamics of conscience, emotional expressions or the dramas of desire. For example, Darwin argues that the anatomy and physiology of evolutionarily ‘purposeless’ facial movements gain meaning through their perception by others. His explanation of blushing adds a layer of complexity to such recognition—my blush results from my perception of how you are reading me. A similar reflexive dynamic governs how Darwin understands sexual desire, conscience, the setting of social standards, and the place of culture in human agency. Testing the main plank of Darwin’s psychology—that a capacity for group-interaction underpins the most human aspects of human agency—has awaited contemporary research, being recently confirmed by film-studies of young babies. Darwin’s writings frame a surprisingly well-resourced arena for elaboration of a socialized, agentic account of how we and our fellow creatures live. Moreover, Darwin stands at the forefront of moves toward an evolutionary biology in which organisms lead and genes follow.

This book integrates the vast literature in the interdisciplinary field of Evolutionary Studies (EvoS), providing clear examples of how evolutionary concepts relate to all facets of life. It provides chapters dedicated to the processes associated with an EvoS education, including examples of how an interdisciplinary approach to evolutionary theory has been implemented successfully at various colleges and universities and in degree programs. Chapters outline a variety of applications to an evolution education, including improved sustainable development, medical practices, and creative and critical thinking skills. Finally, this book explores controversies surrounding evolution education and provides a roadmap to help shape a positive future for this approach to asking and answering questions. Although Darwin’s theories have famously changed the foundational ideas related to the origins of life, shaping entire disciplines in the biological sciences, across the globe today people are famously misinformed and uneducated about Darwinian principles and ideas. Applications of evolutionary theory outside the traditional areas of biology have been slow to progress. Further, scholars doing such work regularly experience political backlash. But there is hope. A slow but study push to advance the teaching of evolution across academic disciplines has been under way for more than a decade, with the editors of this book sitting at the forefront of this trend. This book is designed to provide a model for ways to ask Darwinian questions across all areas of intellectual inquiry.

Why do we believe to understand animal voices such as whining or aggressive barking of our dogs, the longing meows of our cats? Why do we frequently assess deep voices as dominant and high voices as submissive. Are there universal principles governing our own communication system? Can we even see how close animals are related to us by constructing an evolutionary tree based on similarities and dissimilarities in acoustic signaling? Research on the role of emotions in acoustic communication and its evolution was neglected for a long time. When we infect others with our laugh, soothe a crying baby with a lullaby or get goose bumps listening to classical music, we are barely aware of the complex processes upon which this behavior is based. It is not facial expressions or body language that is affecting us, but sound. They are present in music and speech as “emotional prosody” and allow us to communicate not only verbally but also emotionally. In this book we will demonstrate new and surprising insights how acoustically conveyed emotions are generated and processed in animal and man. We will demonstrate why acoustic communication of emotions are of paramount importance and essential for communication across all mammal species and human cultures.

Rather than viewing individual differences as merely the raw material upon which selection operates, this book provides theories and empirical evidence which suggest that personality and individual differences are central to evolved psychological mechanisms and behavioral functioning. The book draws theoretical inspiration from life history theory, evolutionary genetics, molecular genetics, developmental psychology, personality psychology, and evolutionary psychology, while utilizing the theories of the “best and the brightest” international scientists working on this cutting edge paradigm shift. The first three sections analyze personality and the adaptive landscape; here, the book offers a novel conceptual framework for examining “personality assessment adaptations.” Because individuals in a social environment have momentous consequences for creating and solving adaptive problems, humans have evolved “difference-detecting mechanisms” designed to make crucial social decisions such as mate selection, friend selection, kin investment, coalition formation, and hierarchy negotiation. The second section examines developmental and life-history theoretical perspectives to explore the origins and development of personality over the lifespan. The third section focuses on the relatively new field of evolutionary genetics and explores which of the major evolutionary forces—such as balancing selection, mutation, co-evolutionary arms races, and drift—are responsible for the origins of personality and individual differences.

The field of cognitive psychology is in a state of empirical abundance, and experts now know more about mammalian brain function than ever before. In contrast, psychological problems such as ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression are on the rise, as are medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disorders. Why, in this era of unprecedented scientific self-knowledge, does there seem to be so much uncertainty about what humans need for optimal development? Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development asserts that human development is being misshaped by government policies, social practices, and public beliefs that fail to consider basic human needs. In this pioneering volume, scientists from a range of disciplines theorize that the rise of problems like depression and obesity is partially attributable to a disparity between the environments and conditions under which our mammalian brains currently develop and those in which the brains of our distant ancestors developed—and evolved to suit. These early environments and conditions have been named the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, or EEA. For example, healthy brain and emotional development depends to a significant extent on caregiver availability and quality of care, which is argued to be in decline by some experts; in addition, practices such as breastfeeding, cosleeping, and parental social support, which have waned in modern society, may be integral to healthy infant development. As the authors argue, without a more informed appreciation of the ideal conditions under which human brains develop and function, human beings will continue to struggle with maintaining mental and physical health, and psychological treatments will not be effective. Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development puts forth a logical, empirically based argument regarding human mammalian needs for optimal development, based on research from anthropology, neurobiology, animal science, and human development. The result is a unique exploration of evolutionary approaches to human behavior that will support the development of new policies, new attitudes toward health, and alterations in childcare practices that will better promote optimal human development.

Evolution’s Empress identifies women as active agents within the evolutionary process. The chapters in this volume focus on topics as diverse as female social interactions, mate competition and mating strategies, motherhood, women’s health, sex differences in communication and motivation, sex discrimination, and women in literature. The volume editors bring together a diverse range of perspectives to demonstrate ways in which evolutionary approaches to human behavior have thus far been too limited. By reconsidering the role of women in evolution, this volume furthers the goal of generating dialogue between the realms of women’s studies and evolutionary psychology.

We tend to think about memory in terms of our own experience, but a series of our direct ancestors—from the earliest vertebrates to archaic humans—also had memories. The evolutionary history that we share with these ancestral species has left its mark on modern memory, complemented by other forms of memory that are uniquely human. This book traces the long evolutionary road to human memory by explaining how a series of now-extinct ancestral species adapted to life in their world, in their time and place. As they did, new brain areas appeared, each of which supported an innovative form of memory that helped them gain an advantage in life. Through inheritance and modification across millions of years, these evolutionary novelties created several kinds of memory that influence the human mind today. Then, during human evolution, yet another new kind of memory emerged: about ourselves and others. This evolutionary innovation ignited human imagination; empowered us to remember and talk about a personal past; and enabled the sharing of knowledge about our world, our cultures, and ourselves. Through these developments, evolution made it possible for every individual, day upon day, to add new pages to the story of a life: the remarkable, rich record of experiences and knowledge that make up a human mind.

The book examines the issue of whether there is any general theory in the biological and social sciences that has similar explanatory power to the general theories of physics. Specifically selection theory and niche construction are deemed to have wide explanatory scope within the transformation of species, certain forms of learning and knowledge gain, the operation of the vertebrate immune system, and the way science itself operates as a process. Cultural change in general is also assessed as a possible consequence of selection processes. It is concluded that in addition to the selection and construction processes themselves, the complexity of the multiple forms of co-evolving selection processes operating at different levels of selection must be considered as an essential part of any general theory.

This book develops a new theory of the evolutionary origins of human abilities to understand the world of objects and other people: the evolution of mind. Defining mental representation and computation as “insight,” it reviews the evidence for insight in the cognition of animals. Communication by vocalization and gesture, understanding others, and learning from them all provide evidence that such insight is not unique to humans, but is found also in apes and several other animal taxa. Neocortical change, driven by social complexity, relates to quantitative increase in sophisticated tactics but not the step-change of apes’ superior understanding. Equally, evidence for representation and computation of foraging information is widespread in animals. Where our closest relatives are “special” is in developing hierarchically organized programs of skilled action for feeding efficiently, based on learning complex behavior by imitation from others. As a result, the living great apes survived the late Miocene extinction, and can compete effectively with monkeys today. Imitation by behavior parsing of statistical regularities can explain these characteristics without mystique. However, behavior parsing also provides rough-and-ready, operational equivalents of causality and intentionality. The book proposes that the understanding of causality and intentionality evolved twice in human ancestry: the “pretty good” understanding given by behavior parsing, shared with other apes and related to cerebellar expansion; and the deeper understanding which requires language to model and is unique to humans. Ape-type insight may underlie non-verbal tests of intentionality and causal understanding, and much everyday human action.

From an early age, humans know a surprising amount about basic physical principles, such as gravity, force, mass, and shape. We can see this in the way that young children play and manipulate objects around them. The same behavior has long been observed in primates — chimpanzees have been shown to possess a remarkable ability to make and use simple tools. But what does this tell us about their inner mental state — do they therefore share the same understanding to that of a young child? Do they understand the simple, underlying physical principles involved? Though some people would say that they do, this book reports groundbreaking research that questions whether this really is the case. Challenging the assumptions so often made about apes, it offers us a rare glimpse into the workings of another mind, examining how apes perceive and understand the physical world — an understanding that appears to be both similar to, and yet profoundly different from our own.

The science of psychological well-being has gained a lot of interest in the last decade. While it has been shown that psychological well-being is partly heritable, research focused on the investigation of specific genetic factors related to well-being emerged only in the last few years. This relatively new research explores not only heritability based on traditional twin study designs, but also includes studies combining some of the most recent molecular genetic techniques and methods. This book summarizes the state of knowledge regarding heritability and molecular genetics in positive psychology and is divided into four sections. In Section 1, the basics of genetics and associated research methodology are introduced in order to provide the reader with the knowledge required to understand the empirical work presented throughout the book. The second section focuses on heritability estimates of the most important positive psychology concepts based on quantitative behavioral genetics studies. In the third section of the book, results from more recent molecular genetics studies are presented, including candidate gene, gene–environment interaction, as well as genome-wide association studies (GWAS). This section also contains chapters on epigenetics and imaging genetics, both relatively new methodologies that are just about to make their way into the field of positive psychology. The fourth and final section of the book discusses more overarching questions regarding the roles of genes and environment in the development of well-being, as well as a review and discussion of the current state of knowledge and future direction in this new field of inquiry.

Infants and children are the often-ignored heroes when it comes to understanding human evolution. Evolutionary pressures acted upon the young of our ancestors more powerfully than on adults. Changes over the course of development in our ancestors were primarily responsible for the species and the people we have become. This book takes an evolutionary developmental perspective, emphasizing that developmental plasticity—the ability to change our physical and psychological selves early in life—is the creative force in evolution, with natural selection serving primarily as the Grim Reaper, or a filter, eliminating novel developmental outcomes that did not benefit the survival of those individuals who possessed them, while letting the more successful outcomes through. Over generations as embryos, infants, and children continued to change and to produce slightly different adults, a new species was born—Homo sapiens. This book is about becoming—of becoming human and of becoming mature adults. One theme of this book is about how an understanding of our species’ evolution can help us better understand current development and how to better rear successful and emotionally healthy children. The second theme turns the relation between evolution and development on its head: How can an understanding of human development help us better understand human evolution? The short answer to this second question is that children invented humanity, and that human evolution can be seen as children setting the stage and leading the way to species innovation.

‘IF’ is one of the most important and interesting words in the English language, being used to express hypothetical thought. The use of conditionals such as ‘if’ also distinguishes human intelligence from that of all other animals. This book presents a new theoretical approach to understanding hypothetical thought. It draws on studies from the psychology of judgement and decision making, as well as philosophical logic.

“Touch makes our world real”. Starting from this assumption, this book summarizes the latest findings to have emerged from the field of cognitive neuroscience in recent years concerning the processing of tactile information in humans. In particular, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art concerning scientific knowledge regarding themes such as tactile memory, tactile awareness (consciousness), tactile attention, the role of touch in interpersonal and sexual interactions, and the neurological substrates underlying tactile perception. Crucially, this volume highlights the many ways in which our growing understanding of the world of touch can, and in some cases already are, being applied in the real world in everything from the development of virtual reality (VR) environments, tablet PCs, mobile phones, and even teledildonics – perhaps the ultimate frontier in terms of adult entertainment. This volume demonstrates how the cognitive neuroscience approach to the study of tactile perception can be applied to help improve the design of many real-world applications/products. It can even be used to improve our common everyday experiences, such as those related to the appreciation of food. The application of tactile research to a variety of other domains such as marketing, packaging design, the development of enhanced sensory substitution systems, art, and man-machine interface design is also covered. The book approaches the study of the sense of touch through a multisensory perspective. In particular, this volume highlights the fact that the sense of touch cannot really be understood, especially not in a real-world context, without placing it in a multisensory context. The senses interact and those interactions can dramatically change the nature of our tactile perception – everything from changing the feel of a surface or product by changing the sound it makes when touch, or even the fragrance it has.

What is animal intelligence? In what ways is it similar to human intelligence? Many behavioral scientists have realized that animals can be rational, can think in abstract symbols, can understand and react to human speech, and can learn through observation as well as conditioning many of the more complicated skills of life. This book explores the mysteries of the animal mind even further, identifying an advanced level of animal behavior—emergents—that reflects animals' natural and active inclination to make sense of the world. The authors unify all behavior into a framework they call Rational Behaviorism and present it as a new way to understand learning, intelligence, and rational behavior in both animals and humans. Drawing on years of research on issues of complex learning and intelligence in primates (notably rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, and bonobos), the authors provide examples of animal ingenuity and persistence, showing that animals are capable of very creative solutions to novel challenges. They analyze learning processes and research methods, discuss the meaningful differences across the primate order, and point the way to further advances, enlivening theoretical material about primates with stories about their behavior and achievements.