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Evolved Psychological Mechanisms

Evolved Psychological Mechanisms. Kristin Jones and Emily Polachek. Evolved Psychological Mechanisms. EPMs are the result of specific adaptive problems that a species encounters

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Evolved Psychological Mechanisms

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  1. Evolved Psychological Mechanisms Kristin Jones and Emily Polachek

  2. Evolved Psychological Mechanisms • EPMs are the result of specific adaptive problems that a species encounters • Evolutionary Psychology (EP) focuses on psychological adaptations by analyzing the human mind as a collection of evolved mechanisms • CONTEXT  MECHANISM  BEHAVIOR

  3. Properties of EPMs • EPMs are the way they are because they sucessfully overcame obstacles to their survival • an EPM only deals with a small amount of information • the stimulus of an EPM tells the organism what adaptive problem it is facing

  4. Properties of EPMs (continued) • the EPM processes the stimulus using decision rules (if/then statements) • an EPM will respond to the stimulus with physiological activity, information to other psychological mechanisms, or manifest behavior • the response from the EPM is oriented towards solving the adaptive problem

  5. Important Aspects of EPMs • EP views EPMs as separate mechanisms, defined by their function, that interact with one another • EPMs tend to be problem-specific • general solutions do not lead to one optimal adaptive solution • general solutions produce too many errors • solutions will differ on their definition of success • humans possess hundreds of specific mechanisms • the large number of mechanisms results in behavioral flexibility

  6. The Unknown Aspects of EPMs • Scientists have yet to reach a consensus concerning the generality of EPMs • Some scientists claim they are domain-specific, interacting in innumerable ways • Others feel that domain-general mechanisms must be present to deal with novel situations using plasticity • To deal with this controversy, superordinate mechanisms have been proposed to act in an executive fashion

  7. Examples of EPMs • Sexual Jealousy • Food • Ophidiophobia • it is important to remember that EPMs lag behind current environmental changes

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