Synonyms
Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Defined
Psychological adaptations are problem-solving neurocognitive mechanisms that survived the process of natural selection because of their value in solving adaptive problems. The main feature of an evolved psychological mechanism is its functionality, that is, how it contributes to the survival or reproductive success of the individual in whose brain the mechanism resides (Cosmides and Tooby 1994). More inclusively, an evolved psychological mechanism’s function can be viewed in terms of its contribution to the survival or reproductive success of individuals who share genes with the individual in whose brain the mechanism resides (Dawkins 2016).
Evolutionary psychologist David Buss has identified six characteristics of evolved psychological mechanisms (Buss 1995). By these criteria, each EPM exists as it does because (1) it was designed by natural selection to solve a specific adaptive problem; (2) it...
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References
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Starratt, V.G. (2017). Evolved Psychological Mechanisms. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1633-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1633-1
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