S u m m a r y

Lindeman M & Selin R (1997)

Evolutionary psychology - the first coherent view of human nature?

Psykologia 32/1 (4-12). Rauma ISSN 0355-1067.

 

This article presents an overview on evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology is a new paradigm trying to bring the subfields of psychology together and to integrate psychology into the natural sciences, especially biology. The overview covers the basic principles of this paradigm, which is based on general evolutionary theory. Evolutionary psychology, however, differs from social biology, which has the same base, and earlier psychological theories in many ways. These differences are discussed in the article.

In addition to these topics, the article thoroughly covers the basis of evolutionary psychological research and also presents some research results. These results are mainly from cognitive, personality, developmental and social psychology. Finally, the article discusses briefly the old problem of psychology, philosphy and other sciences: human nature.

 

Key words:

Evolutionary psychology, metatheory, human nature.

 

Marjaana Lindeman, Ph.D., Risto Selin, B.A. Department of Psychology, PO Box 4, 00014 University of Helsinki.