Altruism: What Is Charles Darwin´s Evolutionary Psychology?

Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that studies the psychological behaviours and adaptations of humans to the changing physical and social environment. It’s basically a combination of evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology. In 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution by natural selection as an explanation for adaptation and speciation. He believed that all plants and animals had evolved from a few common ancestors by means of natural selection. The theory is based on the assumption that living organisms face environmental challenges. This means that those who adapt best to the environment will have a greater chance of surviving, having children, and passing on their genes to the next
Altruism involves the unslefish concern for other people. It involves doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty. It’s a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions. If there were species whose only concern was themselves, they wouldn’t survive for long, would just quickly die off and leave the more selfless behind. Therefore, altruism exists for a purpose, and that purpose being survival of the
Charles Darwin noted that humans have a number of behaviours in common with other animals. However, apart from the moral issues of using animals in research, Cardwell argues that studying animals can lead to ‘anthropomorphism’, which is the error of seeing animal characteristics in people and human characteristics in animals. Just because animal behaviour looks like human behaviour, that doesn’t mean it has the same causes.
There is an issue of defining psychological mechanisms. In order for something to be inherited it has to exist. Certain psychological mechanisms that have been identified by evolutionary psychologists such as ‘jealousy’ and ‘depression’ are abstract opinions. These conditions may not actually exist, and so therefore are impossible to inherit- so the whole debate on the inheritance of certain adaptations collapses.
Biological researchers often adopt a ‘reductionist’ approach to the study of human behaviour. This is a micro-level of research, which breaks down complex behaviour into smallest parts. This micro approach is criticised for being overly simplistic in explaining behaviour. However, it’s important to have detailed knowledge of the components of human behaviour in order to understand how several factors may interact to cause certain