Evolutionary Psychology: What It Is, And Main Authors And Theories
It is evident that we are not equal at the moment of birth, at five years old, at fifteen, at thirty or at eighty. And from the moment we are conceived until we die we are in a continuous process of change: throughout our lives, we are going to evolve and develop as individuals, and we are going to gradually acquire different capacities and abilities as our organism progresses. maturing both on a biological level and from experience and learning.
It is a development process that does not end until the moment of death, and that has been studied by different disciplines. One of them is evolutionary psychology which we are going to talk about in this article.
Evolutionary psychology is considered the branch of psychology that has as its object of study the development of human beings throughout their entire life cycle It is a discipline that arises from the interest in understanding the multiple changes that manifest in the mind and behavior of a being in continuous development from birth to the grave.
Although evolutionary psychology studies have traditionally focused mainly on child development, it is very important to highlight the fact that this discipline covers the entire life cycle: adolescence, maturity and senescence are also the subject of researched and very relevant study. despite having received a lower level of attention (perhaps the adult stage is the least investigated of all in this sense).
This discipline emphasizes the processes of change that the subject goes through throughout their life, taking into account the presence of distinctive and individual elements that make us unique but with similarities with regard to the development process in question.. It also takes into account that In this development we will find both biological and environmental factors The sociocultural environment, the degree of biological maturation and the interaction of the organism with the world are valued.
Physical, socio-affective, communicative and cognitive development are some of the main elements that this branch of psychology analyzes and of which the evolution is valued, having some models or paradigms, different theories and focusing more or less on specific aspects. Evolutionary psychology allows us to assess the point of view and knowledge of each subject based on how someone with a certain level of development perceives the world. The usefulness of this is broad, since thanks to the understanding of these factors we can adjust the education, jobs or services offered to different sectors of the population taking into account their needs.
The beginnings of this branch of psychology
Although one of its most representative authors is Jean Piaget, this discipline has multiple precursors to take into account. The first scientific records of development milestones date back to the 17th century, with the appearance of the first diaries or biographies of babies in which sensory, motor, cognitive and language behavior were observed (Tiedemann). Darwin would also make observations regarding the evolving behavior of children, making his own baby biography and recording the progress of his son.
The first properly scientific study on child development is that of Preyer, who developed standards of scientific observation to record the behavior of children and animals and published “The Soul of the Child” in 1882.
The institutional establishment of education as something obligatory in childhood led to greatly delving into the psyche and development processes. At this stage, Binet would develop the first intelligence test dedicated to the child population. In addition, Authors like Montessori emerged who would contribute to developing alternative educational systems beyond that used until now…Stanley Hall is also an essential precursor figure, being the introduction into evolutionary psychology of the study of the adolescent subject.
Likewise, currents such as psychoanalysis would be born that would begin to give importance to childhood experiences and development as an explanation of adult behavior. Freud himself would elaborate a series of phases of psychosexual development that would contemplate different changes linked to his theory, as well as Anna Freud and Melanie Klein would stand out in the field of child development as main exponents of this current.
Some of the theories and models proposed from this current
Evolutionary psychology has generated, throughout its history, a large number of theories and models. Winnicott, Spitz, Wallon, Anna Freud, Mahler, Watson, Bandura, Case, Fischer, Newgarten… all of them are names of authors and authors relevant to the evolution of this discipline. Some of the most well-known and classic, however, are those indicated below.
Freud’s contribution
Although the Freudian conception of child development is not especially popular today and is not usually among the most accepted explanatory models, it is true that Freud’s contribution is one of the oldest and best known models within child psychology. that is recorded. Freud considered that the personality was structured by three instances, the Id or instinctual part, the Superego or critical, censoring and moral part and the Ego or element that integrates the information of both and configures the rational and conscious way of acting based on the principle. of reality. The baby would not have I during birth being pure it, and forming the first as the subject evolves and differentiates itself from the environment.
Among many other contributions, the monitoring of a developmental sequence in the form of phases also stands out, in which it is possible to suffer regressions or blockages that prevent the subject from advancing appropriately in their development and generate fixations. We are talking about phases that Freud links to sexual development, called stages of psychosexual development and receiving a name based on the main focus of seeking gratification and resolving conflicts in the poles of satisfaction-frustration, authority-rebellion and Oedipal conflict.
The phases in question are oral (first year of life), anal (between one and three years), phallic (from three to six years), latency (in which sexuality is repressed), and goes from six until puberty) and genital (from adolescence).
Another psychodynamic author of great importance in the study of child development was Melanie Klein, who considered that human beings are motivated by establishing relationships with others
This author, who would develop the study of children based on symbolic play and the theory of object relations, considered that the self existed from birth and that the human being went through two fundamental stages in the first year of life: schizophrenic position, paranoid (in which the subject does not differentiate people as a whole but divides between good and bad parts as if they were differentiated elements) and depressive position (in which there is recognition of objects and people as a whole, guilt appearing when understanding that that previously considered a good object and a bad object are part of the same object).
Eriksson’s stages and crises
Perhaps one of the most far-reaching psychoanalytic contributions, in the sense that it covers not only childhood but the entire life cycle, is that of Eriksson. This author, a disciple of Anna Freud, considered that Society and culture had a much more relevant role in shaping personality throughout life. He identified a series of stages based on the existence of crises (since human beings have to face the search for satisfaction of their own needs and environmental demands) during psychosocial development.
During the first year of life, the baby has to face the crisis of basic Trust vs. Distrust, learning or not to trust others and the world. The second phase is Autonomy vs. Shame, between the first and third year of life, in which the child must seek seek independence and autonomy in basic skills
Afterwards, the subject must face the crisis of Initiative vs. Guilt, seeking the balance between having his own initiative and accepting the responsibility of not imposing himself on others. The fourth stage (6-12 years) is Industriousness vs Inferiority, in which social skills are learned. Later, between the ages of twelve and twenty, the subject would reach the crisis of Identity vs. Role Confusion (in which one seeks one’s own identity).
From then on, approximately forty years, the crisis of Intimacy vs. Isolation would emerge as the stage in which we seek to generate strong bonds of love and commitment with friends and couples. The seventh crisis or stage occurs between the ages of forty and sixty-five, being that of Generativity vs. Stagnation in which one seeks to be productive in order to provide well-being for future generations. Finally, during old age the phase of Integrity vs Despair would be reached, as a moment when you look back and value life as something meaningful or disappointing
Piaget’s cognitive-evolutionary theory
Perhaps the best-known and most accepted model of evolutionary psychology is that of Jean Piaget, whom some authors consider the true father of the discipline. This author’s theory tries to explain how human cognition evolves and adapts throughout development.
The developing subject It generates different structures and mental schemes that allow him to explain the world based on his own action on it (being the action and interaction of the subject with the environment necessary for development to exist). The minor acts based on two main functions: organization (understood as the tendency to develop progressively more complex mental structures) and adaptation (which in turn can arise as assimilation of new information as something added to what is already known or accommodation. from pre-existing schemes to this one if it is necessary to change them to adapt to the new information).
This theory assumes that throughout development more and more complex capacities and thinking schemes emerge, passed in subject through various stages or periods of development For this author, the biological/organic prevails over the social, depending on and following development.
The author identifies the sensorimotor period (in which the purely reflexive schemes of the interaction last approximately until two years of age), the preoperative period (in which he begins to learn to use symbols and abstractions between the ages of two and six), the of concrete operations (between the ages of seven and eleven, in which the ability to do different mental operations and solve logical problems appears) and that of formal operations (in which a hypothetico-deductive thinking and a capacity for complete abstraction, typical of adults).
Vygotsky’s sociocultural model
Another of the great authors of evolutionary psychology, Vygotsky considered that it was learning that made us develop. Cognitive growth is learned from interaction, and not the other way around. The most relevant concept of this author is that of the Zone of Proximal Development, which marks the difference between what the subject is capable of doing on his own and what he can achieve with the existence of external help, in such a way that Through the granting of aid we can contribute to developing and optimizing the subject’s skills
Culture and society largely mark the development of the child, through processes of internalization of external information obtained through action. The child first learns interpersonally to later carry out intrapersonal learning.
Bronfenbrenner ecological model
This author’s model describes and analyzes the importance of different ecological systems in which the minor moves in order to evaluate their development and performance.
Microsystem (each of the systems and environments in which the child participates directly, such as family and school), mesosystem (relationships between the components of the microsystems), exosystem (the set of elements that influence the child without him directly participating in them) and macrosystem (the cultural context) are, together with the chronosystem (events and changes that can occur over time), are the aspects that this author values most at a structural level.
Sanz, L.J. (2012). Evolutionary and educational psychology. CEDE PIR Preparation Manual, 10. CEDE: Madrid.
