Adapting Minds

Adapting Minds
Author: David J. Buller
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 582
Release: 2006-02-17
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780262261821

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Was human nature designed by natural selection in the Pleistocene epoch? The dominant view in evolutionary psychology holds that it was—that our psychological adaptations were designed tens of thousands of years ago to solve problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In this provocative and lively book, David Buller examines in detail the major claims of evolutionary psychology—the paradigm popularized by Steven Pinker in The Blank Slate and by David Buss in The Evolution of Desire—and rejects them all. This does not mean that we cannot apply evolutionary theory to human psychology, says Buller, but that the conventional wisdom in evolutionary psychology is misguided. Evolutionary psychology employs a kind of reverse engineering to explain the evolved design of the mind, figuring out the adaptive problems our ancestors faced and then inferring the psychological adaptations that evolved to solve them. In the carefully argued central chapters of Adapting Minds, Buller scrutinizes several of evolutionary psychology's most highly publicized "discoveries," including "discriminative parental solicitude" (the idea that stepparents abuse their stepchildren at a higher rate than genetic parents abuse their biological children). Drawing on a wide range of empirical research, including his own large-scale study of child abuse, he shows that none is actually supported by the evidence. Buller argues that our minds are not adapted to the Pleistocene, but, like the immune system, are continually adapting, over both evolutionary time and individual lifetimes. We must move beyond the reigning orthodoxy of evolutionary psychology to reach an accurate understanding of how human psychology is influenced by evolution. When we do, Buller claims, we will abandon not only the quest for human nature but the very idea of human nature itself.

Adapting Minds

Adapting Minds
Author: David J. Buller
Publisher: Mit Press
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2005
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780262025799

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Was human nature designed by natural selection in the Pleistocene epoch? A provocative, yet balanced, appraisal of evolutionary psychology and its major claims.

The Adapted Mind

The Adapted Mind
Author: Jerome H. Barkow
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 679
Release: 1992
Genre: Behavior evolution
ISBN: 0195101073

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Although researchers have long been aware that the species-typical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have made the fact of our evolution illuminating. Converging findings from a variety of disciplines are leading to the emergence of a fundamentally new view of the human mind, and with it a new framework for the behavioral and social sciences. First, with the advent of the cognitive revolution, human nature can finally be defined precisely as the set of universal, species-typical information-processing programs that operate beneath the surface of expressed cultural variability. Second, this collection of cognitive programs evolved in the Pleistocene to solve the adaptive problems regularly faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors - problems such as mate selection, language acquisition, co-operation, and sexual infidelity. Consequently, the traditional view of the mind as a general-purpose computer, tabula rasa, or passive recipient of culture is being replaced by the view that the mind resembles an intricate network of functionally specialized computers, each of which imposes contentful structure on human mental organization and culture. The Adapted Mind explores this new approach - evolutionary psychology - and its implications for a new view of culture.

Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology
Author: Robert C. Richardson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2010-01-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0262261111

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A philosopher subjects the claims of evolutionary psychology to the evidential and methodological requirements of evolutionary biology, concluding that evolutionary psychology's explanations amount to speculation disguised as results. Human beings, like other organisms, are the products of evolution. Like other organisms, we exhibit traits that are the product of natural selection. Our psychological capacities are evolved traits as much as are our gait and posture. This much few would dispute. Evolutionary psychology goes further than this, claiming that our psychological traits—including a wide variety of traits, from mate preference and jealousy to language and reason—can be understood as specific adaptations to ancestral Pleistocene conditions. In Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology, Robert Richardson takes a critical look at evolutionary psychology by subjecting its ambitious and controversial claims to the same sorts of methodological and evidential constraints that are broadly accepted within evolutionary biology. The claims of evolutionary psychology may pass muster as psychology; but what are their evolutionary credentials? Richardson considers three ways adaptive hypotheses can be evaluated, using examples from the biological literature to illustrate what sorts of evidence and methodology would be necessary to establish specific evolutionary and adaptive explanations of human psychological traits. He shows that existing explanations within evolutionary psychology fall woefully short of accepted biological standards. The theories offered by evolutionary psychologists may identify traits that are, or were, beneficial to humans. But gauged by biological standards, there is inadequate evidence: evolutionary psychologists are largely silent on the evolutionary evidence relevant to assessing their claims, including such matters as variation in ancestral populations, heritability, and the advantage offered to our ancestors. As evolutionary claims they are unsubstantiated. Evolutionary psychology, Richardson concludes, may offer a program of research, but it lacks the kind of evidence that is generally expected within evolutionary biology. It is speculation rather than sound science—and we should treat its claims with skepticism.

The Evolution of Mind

The Evolution of Mind
Author: Denise D. Cummins
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1998
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780195110531

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In The Evolution of Mind, outstanding figures on the cutting edge of evolutionary psychology follow clues provided by current neuroscientific evidence to illuminate many puzzling questions of human cognitive evolution. With contributions from psychologists, ethologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, the book offers a broad range of approaches to explore the mysteries of the mind's evolution - from investigating the biological functions of human cognition to drawing comparisons between human and animal cognitive abilities.

Every Good Endeavor

Every Good Endeavor
Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1594632820

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New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shows how God calls on each of us to express meaning and purpose through our work and careers. “A touchstone of the [new evangelical] movement.” —The New York Times Tim Keller, pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the New York Times bestselling author of The Reason for God, has taught and counseled students, young professionals, and senior leaders on the subject of work and calling for more than twenty years. Now he pulls his insights into a thoughtful and practical book for readers everywhere. With deep conviction and often surprising advice, Keller shows readers that biblical wisdom is immensely relevant to our questions about work today. In fact, the Christian view of work—that we work to serve others, not ourselves—can provide the foundation of a thriving professional and balanced personal life. Keller shows how excellence, integrity, discipline, creativity, and passion in the workplace can help others and even be considered acts of worship—not just of self-interest.

The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind
Author: Czesław Miłosz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1959
Genre: Communism
ISBN:

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Psychology Book Introduction

Psychology Book Introduction
Author: Source Wikipedia
Publisher: University-Press.org
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2013-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781230486437

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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 39. Chapters: Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature, Bodies Under Siege, Body Language (book), Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences, Brainstorms, Children of Crisis, Coincidance: A Head Test, Consciousness Evolving, Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again, Delivered from Distraction, Emotional Design, Everything in Its Place, Foundations of Cyclopean Perception, Handbook for the Positive Revolution, Handbook of Educational Psychology, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (expanded edition), How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom, How the Mind Works, How the Self Controls Its Brain, Identity Formation, Agency, and Culture, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development, Intelligence in Nature, In a Different Voice, Liberation by Oppression, Love and Hate (book), Love and Will, Man and His Symbols, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), My Secret Garden, Obsession (book), On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Overcoming Autism, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Powers of Horror, Quantum Psychology, Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, Shrink Yourself, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, So Human an Animal, Straight and Crooked Thinking, Studies on Hysteria, The Act of Creation, The Behavior of Organisms, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, The Complexity of Cooperation, The Conscious Mind, The Cry for Myth, The Disowned Self, The Emotion Machine, The Feeling Good Handbook, The Great Mother, The Human Animal (book), The Insanity of Normality: Understanding Human Destructiveness, The International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method, The Meaning of Anxiety, The Myth of Mental Illness, The Myth of the First Three Years, The Noonday...

Adaptability

Adaptability
Author: Max McKeown
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0749464607

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Adaptability is the key human trait. The ability to adapt faster and smarter than the situation is what makes the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win. Our history is a story of adaptation and change. And in this time of brutal competition and economic uncertainty, it has never been more important to understand how to adapt successfully. In a series of powerful rules, Max McKeown explores how to increase the adaptability of you and your organization to create winning positions. Fascinating real-world examples from business, government, the military and sport bring the rules of adaptability to life - from the world s most innovative corporations to street-level creativity emerging from the slums. Adaptability is a powerful, practical and inspirational guide to success in uncertain times.

Streetlights and Shadows

Streetlights and Shadows
Author: Gary A. Klein
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2011-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 026225834X

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An expert explains how the conventional wisdom about decision making can get us into trouble—and why experience can’t be replaced by rules, procedures, or analytical methods In making decisions, when should we go with our gut and when should we try to analyze every option? When should we use our intuition and when should we rely on logic and statistics? Most of us would probably agree that for important decisions, we should follow certain guidelines—gather as much information as possible, compare the options, pin down the goals before getting started. But in practice we make some of our best decisions by adapting to circumstances rather than blindly following procedures. In Streetlights and Shadows, Gary Klein debunks the conventional wisdom about how to make decisions. He takes ten commonly accepted claims about decision making and shows that they are better suited for the laboratory than for life. The standard advice works well when everything is clear, but the tough decisions involve shadowy conditions of complexity and ambiguity. Gathering masses of information, for example, works if the information is accurate and complete—but that doesn't often happen in the real world. (Think about the careful risk calculations that led to the downfall of the Wall Street investment houses.) Klein offers more realistic ideas about how to make decisions in real-life settings. He provides many examples—ranging from airline pilots and weather forecasters to sports announcers and Captain Jack Aubrey in Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander novels—to make his point. All these decision makers saw things that others didn’t. They used their expertise to pick up cues and to discern patterns and trends. We can make better decisions, Klein tells us, if we are prepared for complexity and ambiguity and if we will stop expecting the data to tell us everything. “I know of no one who combines theory and observation—intellectual rigor and painstaking observation of the real world—so brilliantly and gracefully as Gary Klein.” —Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Blink