Four aspects that can not explain all human behaviour to argue evolutionary psycholog
Evolutionary psychology treats the mental attributes of human beings as a result of evolution. In other words, many of the psychological attributes that humans possess have been chosen over the years, and some of the early psychological behaviours are still in play today. On this basis, the ultimate solution for explaining the human mind is to use evolution to expose social phenomena and human anomalies, or to use natural science to justify social and human theories (Sterelny & Griffiths, 2012). Evolutionary psychology can explain many human behaviours and cultures, particularly those that are universal. But it is a theory, one of the ways human nature is understood, and it does not represent the whole range of human behaviour. This essay sets out four aspects that can not explain all human behaviour to argue evolutionary psychology. First, evolutionary psychology attributes all human nature to the psychological problems caused by evolution, ignoring the role of free will. Second, evolutionary psychology blurs the notion that physiology and psychology are not the same. Thirdly, one can not ignore the role of cultural background. Finally, the evolutionary psychology theory is contentious.
Evolutionary Psychology emphasises that the psychological adaptors and environmental inputs of evolution determine human behaviour, but ignores the influence of free will. Evolutionary psychological mechanisms have been described as input-output responses to problems faced. According to Cosmides and Tooby (2007), The human brain has developed a standard set of the rationale and regulatory circuits, the functions of which are specialised and usually specific to a specific field. These circuits organise how we interpret experience, inject certain recurring concepts and motivations into our spiritual lives, and provide a universal framework for meaning. For example, people are very nervous when they go to the stage for the first time because they are not familiar with the environment. However, when they often perform on stage, they gradually get used to and understand each other and find themselves “not dangerous” and gradually feel safe on stage. Evolutionary psychology, however, attributes all human nature to the evolution of psychological mechanisms, ignoring the role of human consciousness or human reason. The existence of free will plays a role in everyone. It manifests itself in different forms due to the existence of special psychological states, leading to the emergence of a coherent pattern of social behaviour (Ramos, 2011). People’s choices may be influenced by a variety of factors.
For example, Mary went out for dinner today. Restaurants A and B are outside. Which restaurant is she going to choose? A has lots of good choices, but it’s crowded, B has good food and few people. If Mary were a practical consumer, she would choose Restaurant A because the price is low. If she is in a hurry to get to work and wants to save time, she is going to choose Restaurant B because she does not want to wait in line. Therefore, people are always active in the process of making a choice. Whether or not they can make a free choice is free will. Within the theoretical framework of evolutionary psychology, simple human actions and decisions can be explained by the concepts of biological evolution, but it ignores the products of free will. Volition-The act of choice and decision is a special event produced by thought, and when it appears in the complex evolution of nature, it is a key part of what the developed mind does (Rescher, 2014). In conclusion, the free will of man has the highest administrative power over him. The objective is that the actions of the actor are not entirely affected by default factors, while the subjective is that the actor thinks that his actions are caused by his own will.
There is a degree of similarity between humans and animals in these two aspects of mind and body. However, the degree to which mental and physical evolution are similar does not mean that human and animal nature follow the same logic. Dewsbury (1978) explained that the human mind evolved from the animal mind, that the development of the mental capacity and the development of the mind of the organism were adapted to the gradual evolution of the mind. The spiritual difference between human beings and animals is that human beings have language ability, thinking skills and mathematical reasoning abilities. The physiological evolution of human beings will, therefore, be more advanced than that of animals.
On the one hand, although animals form ‘social’ groups, they also exhibit emotional behaviours. But the slowness of an animal’s physical evolution affects emotional change. Humans and animals, on the other hand, have evolved in different directions. It leads to a psychological sense of superiority that human beings have evolved over animals. Because human evolution is primarily reflected in the brain, brain development promotes the infinite potential of human development. In my opinion, the reason for the evolution of the human brain is the flexible use of human hands and legs, rather than the high predation capacity of humans. It also improves the ability of the brain to function. As a result, human brains are getting more nutrients than other animals, and their development is faster. Therefore, the evolutionary process of the brain should not be analysed in evolutionary psychology. There are still a lot of uncharted areas for its evolutionary principles.
Also, evolutionary psychology is often cited in the field of sex. For example, men prefer someone younger than themselves to women. It does not mean that every man likes someone younger than himself, and people can not deny the existence of brother-sister love. It is just that brother-sister love is a bit less than brother-sister love. Evolutionary psychology, therefore, describes general statistical characteristics (Confer et al., 2010). The so-called ‘genetic’ probability is a statistical concept that cannot be taken as a decision. Also, evolutionary psychology offers no convincing explanation for psychological phenomena far removed from survival and reproduction (Confer et al., 2010). For example, homosexuality is often used to argue against the rationality of evolutionary psychology. Thus, the practice of evolutionary psychology to reduce the psychological mechanism to the physiological mechanism ignores the special difference between the psychological phenomenon and the physiological phenomenon.
Evolutionary psychology treats the influence of culture as a result of the mutual evolution of instincts and living environments. It ignores the evolutionary role of culture. There is nothing in the world that interacts with biological organisms, so for humans, cultural power is biological, social power is biological, and society and culture are not biological substitutes (Hamilton, 2008). However, in the transmission of culture, there is no semi-reserved gene-like replication heredity. At the same time, variation is relative to heredity, there is no real inheritance, and there is no variation. Thus, by analogy, culture can not apply the theory of psychological evolution to genetic problems. For example, through the birth of human civilisation, the way of life of humanity has become different from the past. Humans are constantly absorbing the experience gained in the life of the previous generation, but human knowledge and experience are not reflected in genetic changes.
Human culture is therefore acquired through acquired learning. Also, for evolutionary psychology, society is synonymous with culture, and culture itself is mere “the product of the evolutionary psychological mechanism of individuals living in groups” (Hamilton, 2008). The definition of society is a “social environment” in which people are constantly accepting different rules, institutions and behavioural norms in the living environment and complying with social requirements in the process of growing up. Social and evolutionary psychology does not conflict, but society should not be placed within the system of evolutionary psychology. From a society perspective, cross-cultural psychology research emphasises the differences and distinctions of human psychology under different backgrounds. At the same time, research on the universality of human experience also exists in the context of social culture (Confer et al., 2010). Evolutionary psychologists, however, believe that human beings are ‘adaptive executors’ or ‘mechanism activators,’ and believe that the main goal of human beings is to help them to breed and improve the adaptability of survival. Evolutionary psychology overemphasises the role of natural selection and neglects the role and influence of culture on human evolution, but the impact of culture on humanity is clear. For example, Western festivals are widely popular all over the world. It can be seen that the influence of different cultural exchanges promotes the transformation of human culture. In conclusion, culture in evolutionary psychology uses it as a background for interpretation that ignores the importance of culture.
The study of evolutionary psychology is an important factor in explaining human social behaviour, for example, the possibility of natural science can be explained in terms of love, belief and other aspects. However, evolutionary psychology deals only with phenomena that repeatedly occur over multiple generations of evolutionary history, and those that occur occasionally can not be explained by fixed psychological phenomena of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology, for example, points out that all human behaviour follows ancient instincts, but there are exceptions. Some people will choose not to have children after marriage, which will deprive them of the opportunity to reproduce their genes. The impact of the living environment may be the reason for this. Thus, human behaviour is not exactly instinctive, as evolutionary psychology suggests.
On the other hand, Cosmides and Tobby (2007 ) suggested evolutionary psychology believes that the difference between humans can be explained by the difference in their genes because it is a manifestation of the underlying architecture shared by all humans. However, discoveries in genetic embryology and developmental biology provide a new explanation for the relationship between gene activity and the outcome of the phenotype (Schneider & Niemeyer, 2018). It can be seen that modern life sciences research on the dynamics of development proves that genes are not the driving force of individual development. This overturns the assertion that evolutionary psychology emphasises the physiological structure of genes. There is no linear relationship between the genotype and the phenotype that is determined and determined. Genetic and environmental factors can not be completely separated from each other.
Moreover, the information closure characteristic of evolutionary psychology indicates that the psychological module only processes information in a given field or channel, and that information in other fields is beyond its reach (Cosmides & Tobby, 2007). The study of the brain is physical, which is not exactly equivalent to the theory of evolutionary psychology. For example, just as people say that the left brain and the right brain control different things if you think of the brain as a paste, it overlaps. This is not consistent with the theory of evolutionary psychology. The basic construction of evolutionary psychology is therefore based on the conclusion of biology, but the system is based on statistical data. However, the statistical results do not represent all the facts, and therefore the theoretical knowledge of evolutionary psychology can not fully explain human behaviour.
In conclusion, while evolutionary psychology can explain part of human psychology, it is also controversial because evolutionary psychology theory is the result of continuous summing up and is limited to answering questions about human psychology. There are, therefore, gaps in evolutionary psychology that do not account for certain characteristics of human behaviour and come up with theories of sexual selection. People themselves have a complex adaptive mechanism, just as the skin colour of people living in different regions is different. This is also the evolution process. But that does not mean that evolution is necessarily innate. Culture has an equally important role to play. Although evolutionary psychology has taken a ‘past tense’ view of human evolution, it can still help us to understand the psychological changes of the past.