An Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is a very different discipline than other fields of

psychology. At the core of evolutionary psychology is Charles Darwin's theory of
evolution which simply means change over time. I want to be clear and note that this
change over time does not mean leaves falling from trees or an infant growing into an
adult. This change over time deals specifically with descent through genetic inheritance.
For example: the traits we observe in an organism such as blue eyes, an excitable
personality, the claws on a lion or even the beautiful feathers on a peacock are related to
the genes that organism inherited from its parents. Extrapolating from this principle is the
main idea that many of the traits humans possess today are present because they held
survival and reproductive advantages for individuals over the course of our evolution. In
other words, humans had ancestors with several advantageous traits. The ancestors with
the advantageous traits reproduced more and spread the genes that were associated with
those traits.

Let me give you a solid example of the type of question evolutionary psychology
tries to address. It was noted that male gorillas often engaged in jumping into water and
splashing in it from time to time. A casual observer would dismiss such actions as
"playful behavior" or the gorilla is simply bathing when in fact it has a distinct purpose.
The gorillas that do this are specifically male gorillas and they only splash at certain
times. An evolutionary approach would argue that such behavior must have offered some
kind of survival or reproductive advantage to male gorillas. The genes that are associated
with splashing behavior would spread in the gorilla population. It turns out that Richard
Parnell and Hannah Buchanan-Smith proposed the idea that male gorillas engage in
water-splashing displays to intimidate other males and keep them away from the females.

After three years of research, the researchers catalogued the splashing activities of
gorillas in the Congo. The displays occurred mostly in swampy forest clearings where
different groups of gorillas gathered for feeding. A large portion of the displays were by
dominant males and could be seen by other males’ great distances away. Greater than
half of the displays happened when absolutely no females were present. This would rule
out the possibility that the splashing was directed at females. The behavior is directed at
strange males that could pose a threat to the male gorilla’s control of his group. In
summary, males who didn't prevent other males from stealing females from their group
had a lower chance of leaving offspring than males who did prevent this behavior. A
countermeasure was adapted in the course of gorilla evolution in the form of splashing to
look strong when unknown males are present because genes associated with those
behaviors gave an evolutionary advantage to allow them to reproduce and pass on their
genes.