Evolutionary Models In Psychology

A. Summarize the main thesis or argument of each assigned reading for the week (one to two sentences). The article, “Evolutionary Models in Psychology,” illustrated by Michael Wheeler states that according to the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM), the mind is innate with the ideas of senses and some basic drives such as hunger, fear and the capacity of learning. Additionally, according to the article, the mind at birth is a blank slate, and eventually as the mind evolves it learns new things from its environment. Furthermore, evolutionary psychology is explained by Darwin’s theories such as natural and sexual selection and how the mind eventually evolves and adapts to its environments and situations.

B. List a few questions you have from the reading(s). (Note: …show more content…
As stated in the article, according to Darwin, every species goes through an evolution in which they grow and adapt to their environment. Similarly, according to evolutionary psychology, the mind evolves and adapts throughout time according to its environment. Although, in some cases the mind is considered to be innate. If the mind can be considered to be innate, does that mean that ultra- Darwinism may be incorrect, since species already have the mechanism inside of them to adapt to an environment, and they do not have to learn and evolve, they’re just doing what they have been wired to do?
2. The article states that the mind is a domain-general learning, or a reasoning engine that has all the possible cognitive tools built inside. Although, a child is not able to understand that they must act accordingly to his or her peers, it is not initially in the mind of the child of how they are supposed to act; someone else, such as an adult is the one that tells the child what to do and what not to do. If the mind is infant hardwired to think a certain way, then why in society are children taught to act a certain way and why can they not just be left to act the way their mind already been built to do