Experiential influences on hormonally dependent ring dove parental care

The Growth of Developmental Thought: Implications for a New Evolutionary Psychology

Evolution has come to be increasingly discussed in terms of changes in developmental processes rather than simply in terms of changes in gene frequencies. This shift is based in large part on the recognition that since all phenotypic traits arise during ontogeny as products of individual development, a primary basis for evolutionary change must be variations in the patterns and processes of development. Further, the products of development are epigenetic, not just genetic, and this is the case even when considering the evolutionary process. These insights have led investigators to reconsider the established notion of genes as the primary cause of development, opening the door to research programs focused on identifying how genetic and non-genetic factors coact to guide and constrain the process of development and its outcomes. I explore this growth of developmental thought and its implications for the achievement of a unified theory of heredity, development, and evolution and consider its implications for the realization of a new, developmentally-based evolutionary psychology.

Developing human nature: "development to" versus "development from?"

Evolutionary psychology (EP) emphasizes that socio-cultural experiences are constrained by the characteristics of the individual. Therefore, cultural experience acts on a nervous system biased to respond to in particular ways (i.e., human nature). For EP, evolutionary lineage and adaptive significance explain the development of such human nature (a "development to" approach). Gottlieb, and others in Developmental psychobiology (DPB), have explained the development of "instinctive" behavior patterns of a wide variety of animals using a "development from" approach. The DPB approach does not contradict a human nature that reflects an evolutionary heritage with adaptive value. We present three examples that demonstrate how a DPB approach to development accounts both for the expression of patterns specific to the individual as well as patterns that are species-typical (human nature, for humans) without shifting explanatory constructs and frameworks.