Authors offer the approach to explaining human ontogeny in terms of the evolutionary perspective and argue that evolutionary psychology can be extremely helpful in explaining childhood development. They also state that adaptive mechanisms and reasons for children’s maladjustment to the modern environment can be well seen as an outcome of evolutionary processes that occur throughout the civilization’s existence (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
They choose such adaptive functions as play and cognitive development, acquisition of language and theory of mind, etc. They also analyze sex differences evident in childhood as precursors of future gender roles’ acquisition and see the discrepancies in adjustment to contemporary reality in the failure to redesign the inherent evolutionary adjustment system to the changing conditions. The article represents qualitative theoretical research in the form of an argumentative literary review proving the consistency of each point in the thesis (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
The authors discuss Darwin’s theory of evolution, touching upon such notions as variation, inheritance, natural selection, and reproductive fitness. Judging from the point of view of fitness the authors analyze the evolved psychological mechanisms in the perspective of their adaptivity, apply functional analysis to it, and deal with such mechanisms as pregnancy-related sickness. Logically, they conclude that together with the physical and social environment produce blended action on the transformation of adaptivity with psychological mechanisms (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
From the point of view of evolutionary developmental psychology, authors explore the adaptive value of various behavior patterns throughout time; they agree that natural selection and environment have historically become the main factors shaping modern reality. They investigate the role of culture and experience from the evolutionary point of view and psychological systems approach. The authors argue that evolutionary psychological mechanisms serve as genetically coded “messages” due to inheritance of genomes and environment, proving this fact by examples of discontinued development in case of atypical experiences (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
Parental investment is the external factor that shapes children’s survival and reproductive success. The authors also correlate patterns of parenting and social status as well as childhood mortality rates. Attachment relations’ quality differs across families, cultures, and countries. Among other parenting-related issues, authors touch upon are effects of environmental conditions on reproductive maturity, gender differences and conflicts of interest arising in later childhood, as well as effects of parenting on personality development and socialization of children (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
The focus of the author lies within sex differences in reproductive strategies and their relation to parental investment theory. They explore the competition for mates, both for males and females, and analyze such notions as relational aggression, aggression in social relations, the roots of behaviors, and their adaptivity. One more subject authors touch upon is the mechanism of evolutionary sexual attractiveness and creating the image of an ideal mate. They observe precursors to sex differences in childhood and their revelation in play, behavioral and social inhibition (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
In connection to the contemporary culture, the authors distinguish biologically primary and secondary abilities of people according to their significance and way of acquisition. They look for reasons of maladjustment such as ADHD in the inability of evolutionary mechanisms to adjust to the altered conditions. Looking at the evolution in the diachronic aspect, they also find reasons for male-on-male violence, teenage pregnancy, sibling rivalry etc. (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2000).
The main contribution of the present article is in the advantages offered by evolutionary psychology to the overall psychological study. It helps explain human behavior of all types and integrates different subfields of psychology. The authors state that evolutionary psychology used to investigate mature people, while children were mostly ignored, despite their development being vital in understanding reproductive mechanisms and adaptivity.
References
Bjorklund, D.F., & Pellegrini, A.D. (2000). Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology. Child Development, Vol. 71, No. 6, pp. 1687-1708.