Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology or EP is the branch of psychology that studies psychological traits, for example perceptions, memory, language etc. it seeks to study the psychological traits that are evolved adaptations as a result of natural or sexual selection. The evolutionary psychologists believe that human behaviors are the output and results of psychological adaptations that developed to solve the problems at a given time in human inherited problems. (Durrant & Ellis, 2003).

Many books and articles have made claims against the subjective explanations that the evolutionary psychology gives. There are two different approaches in this regard. According to the first approach, genetic differences are responsible for the behavioral differences among human groups. The other approach holds that genetic similarities are responsible for the behavioral similarities among human groups. Evolutionary explanations usually come from an amalgamation of evolutionary logic and correlations or general observations, behavioral analogies and also the inferences drawn from the comparisons with animals and other nonhuman species. The statistical data that is usually generated by using non-experimental research method is also employed. All these approaches lead to inconsistent and subjective result that may be harmful when it comes to the individual cases that need specific treatment modalities for the problems or abnormalities that are noticed as in such condition, the approach has to be tailored in accordance to the individual need and generalization done on the bases of subjective findings can be dangerous. Evolutionary explanations need to be objective and for this purpose object and pure experimental research, methods should be used. (Confer et al, 2010).

As compared to this approach, learning/experimental account of behaviors should be preferred. Instead of relying on subjective methods, the research techniques that ensure a complete control over environmental variables