Evolutionary Theory

Evolutionary Developmental Psychology

Evolutionary developmental psychology is the application of evolution by natural selection to explain contemporary human development. Humans spend more of their lives as juveniles who cannot reproduce than any other mammal. This prolonged childhood stage is highly risky for survival, as it requires extended care of the young, including time and resources. Therefore, any adaptation that increases the chance of surviving across early development to adulthood would be favored by natural selection (the process through which traits that contribute to reproduction and survival become a specieswide trait in the population).

Evolutionary developmental psychology adopts a developmental systems approach, which states that genes and environment interact at all levels of organization, from genes through environment. It posits that all evolved characteristics develop via continuous and bidirectional gene–environment interactions that emerge over time. This is in contrast to a strict evolutionary approach to psychology, which sometimes carries implications of genetic determinism. Genetic determinism is the idea that genes directly determine behavior. From the perspective of evolutionary developmental psychology, all development is the product of epigenesis. Epigenesis is the emergence of new structures and functions during the course of development due to the interactions occurring between the genes and the environment. Because the experiences of every individual are unique, there should be considerable plasticity (i.e., individual differences) in development. For example, women who have extremely poor nutrition during pregnancy are more likely to have overweight [Page 797]offspring. This phenomenon is explained by epigenetics; the offspring implicitly used the information from the environment in utero before birth to predict the availability of nutrition outside of the womb and adjusted its genetic makeup for fat storage to incorporate this information. Access to fewer calories during gestation leads to greater fat storage once born, which functions as an anticipatory adaptation for living in a future calorie-deprived environment. More so, when these offspring reproduce, their offspring are also more likely to be overweight, showing a cross-generational epigenetic effect.

...