Evolved psychological mechanism

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An Evolved psychological mechanism is a set of processes inside an organism, which has been evolved through natural selection. A similar concept is Psychological adaptation.

[edit] Properties

According to (Buss 2004:50ff), an evolved psychological mechanism has the following properties:

1. It solved a specific problem of survival or reproduction in evolutionary history.
2. It is designed to take in a specific slice of information.
3. It tells the organism the particular adaptive problem it is facing.
4. This information is transformed through a set of rules to a decision.
5. This decision can cause physiological activity, input to other psychological mechanisms or other behaviour.
6. This activity is directed to solve a specific adaptive problem.

[edit] See also

Psychological adaptation

Cognitive module

Evolutionary psychology

[edit] References

Buss, David M 2004: Evolutionary Psychology - The New Sciend of the Mind] - 2nd edition, Pearson Education 2004, pages 50ff.