Evolutionary psychology: what it is, main authors and theories

It is evident that we are not the same at the time of birth, at five years, at fifteen to thirty or at eighty. And it is that from the moment we are conceived until we die we are in a continuous process of change: throughout our lives, we will evolve and develop as individuals, and we are going to gradually acquire different capacities and abilities as our organism matures both at a biological level and from experience and learning.

It is a development process that does not end until the moment of death, and that has been studied by different disciplines. One of them is evolutionary psychology, which we are going to talk about in this article.

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Evolutionary psychology: basic definition

Evolutionary psychology is considered the branch of psychology whose object of study is the development of the human being throughout its entire life cycle. It is a discipline that arises from the interest of understanding the multiple changes that manifest the mind and behavior of a being in continuous development from birth to the grave.

While evolutionary psychology studies have traditionally focused primarily on child development, it is very important highlight the fact that this discipline covers the entire life cycle: adolescence, maturity and old age are also the object of study researched and very relevant despite having received a lower level of care (being perhaps the adult stage the least investigated of all in this sense).

This discipline emphasizes the processes of change through which the subject goes through throughout his life, taking into account the presence of distinctive and individual elements that make us unique but of similarities with regard to the development process in question. It also takes into account that in this development we will find both biological and environmental factors. The sociocultural environment, the degree of biological maturation and the interaction of the organism with the world are valued.

Physical, socio-affective, communicative and cognitive development are some of the main elements that from this branch of psychology are analyzes and of which it values ​​evolution, having some models or paradigms different theories and focusing more or less on aspects concrete. Evolutionary psychology allows us to assess the point of view and knowledge of each subject based on how someone with a certain level of development perceives the world. The utility of this is wide, since thanks to the understanding of these factors we can adjust the education, the jobs or services offered to different sectors of the population taking into account their needs.

The beginnings of this branch of psychology

Although one of its most representative authors is Jean Piaget, this discipline has multiple precursors to take into account. The first scientific records of development milestones date back to the 17th century, with the appearance of the first diaries or biographies of babies in which sensory, motor, cognitive and language behavior were observed (Tiedemann). Darwin would also make observations regarding the evolving behavior of children, making his own baby biography and recording the progress of his son.

The first properly scientific study on child development is that of Preyer, which he came to elaborate norms of scientific observation to record the behavior of children and animals and publishing in 1882 “El alma del boy".

The institutional establishment of education as something mandatory in childhood led to a great deepening of the psyche and development processes. At this stage, Binet would develop the first intelligence test dedicated to the child population. In addition, authors such as Montessori emerged who would contribute to developing alternative educational systems beyond the employee thus far.. Stanley Hall is also an essential precursor figure, the introduction of the study of the adolescent subject into evolutionary psychology due to him.

Likewise, currents such as psychoanalysis would be born that would begin to give importance to children's experiences and development as an explanation of adult behavior. Freud himself would elaborate a series of phases of psychosexual development that would contemplate different changes linked to his theory, as well as Anna Freud and Melanie Klein would also stand out in the field of child development as main exponents of this current.

Some of the theories and models proposed from this current

Evolutionary psychology has generated, throughout its history, a large number of theories and models. Winnicott, Spitz, Wallon, Anna Freud, Mahler, Watson, Bandura, Case, Fischer, Newgarten... all of them are names of relevant authors and authors in the evolution of this discipline. Some of the best known and classic ones, however, are listed below.

Freud's contribution

While the Freudian conception of child development is not particularly popular today and is rarely among the most popular explanatory models. accepted, it is true that Freud's contribution is one of the oldest and most well-known models within psychology of which there is constancy. Freud considered that the personality was structured by three instances, the id or instinctual part, the superego or critical part, censorship and moral and the Self or element that integrates the information of both and configures the rational and conscious way of acting based on the principle of reality. The baby would not have I during the birthThis being pure, and the first being formed as the subject evolves and differs from the environment.

Among many other contributions, the monitoring of a development sequence in the form of phases, in the that it is possible to suffer regressions or blockages that prevent the subject from advancing appropriately in their development and generate fixings. We are talking about phases that Freud links to sexual development, being called stages of psychosexual development and receiving a name based on from the main focus of seeking gratification and conflict resolution in the poles of satisfaction-frustration, authority-rebellion and conflict oedipal.

The phases in question are oral (first year of life), anal (between one year and three years), phallic (from three years to six), latency (in which sexuality is repressed), and goes from six to puberty) and genital (from the adolescence).

• Related article: "Sigmund Freud's 5 Stages of Psychosexual Development"

Melanie Klein and child development

Another psychodynamic author of great importance in the study of child development was Melanie Klein, who she considered that the human being is motivated by establishing relationships with others.

This author, who would develop the study of the child from symbolic play and the theory of object relations, considered that the self existed since birth and that the human being went through two fundamental stages in the first year of life: paranoid-schizoid position (in which the subject does not differentiate people as a whole but splits between good and bad parts as if they were differentiated elements) and depressive position (in which there is recognition of objects and people as a whole, guilt appearing when understanding that what previously considered a good object and a bad one are part of the same object).

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Eriksson's stages and crisis

Perhaps one of the most far-reaching psychoanalytic contributions, in the sense that it encompasses not only childhood but the entire life cycle, is Eriksson's. This author, a disciple of Anna Freud, considered that society and culture played a much more relevant role in shaping the personality throughout life. He identified a series of stages based on the existence of crisis (since the human being has to face the search for satisfaction of own needs and environmental demands) during development psychosocial.

During the first year of life, the baby has to face the crisis of Basic Trust vs. Mistrust, learning or not to trust others and the world. The second phase is Autonomy vs. Shame, between the first and third year of life, in which the child must seek seek her independence and autonomy in basic skills.

Then the subject must face the crisis of Initiative vs. Guilt, seeking the balance between having their own initiative and accepting the responsibility of not imposing themselves on others. The fourth stage (6-12 years) is that of Industriousness vs Inferiority, in which social skills are learned. Later, between the ages of twelve and twenty, the subject would reach the crisis of Identity vs. Confusion of roles (in which one's own identity is sought).

From there, at approximately forty years of age, the crisis of Intimacy vs. Isolation would arise as the stage in which it is sought to generate strong bonds of love and commitment with friends and partners. The seventh crisis or stage occurs between forty and sixty-five years, being Generativity vs. Stagnation in which it is sought to be productive in order to provide well-being for generations future. Finally, during old age the phase of Integrity vs Despair would be reached, as a time when you look back and see life as meaningful or disappointing.

• Related article: "Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development"

Piaget's cognitive-evolutionary theory

Perhaps the best known and most accepted model of evolutionary psychology is that of Jean Piaget, whom some authors consider the true father of the discipline. This author's theory tries to explain how human cognition evolves and adapts throughout development.

The developing subject generates different mental structures and schemes that allow him to explain the world from his own action on it (being the action and interaction of the subject with the environment necessary for there to be development). The minor acts based on two main functions: organization (understood as the tendency to develop progressively more complex mental structures) and adaptation (which in turn can arise as assimilation of the new information as something added to what is already known or accommodation of the pre-existing schemes to this if it is necessary to change them to adapt to the new information).

This theory assumes that more and more capacities and more complex thinking schemes emerge throughout development. passed in subject through various stages or periods of development. For this author, the biological / organic prevails over the social, depending on and following development learning.

The author identifies the sensorimotor period (in which the merely reflexive patterns of the interaction, lasts approximately up to two years of age), the preoperative (in which he begins to learn to use symbols and abstractions between two and six years), the concrete operations (between the seven and eleven years, in which the ability to do different mental operations and solve logical problems appears) and that of formal operations (in which hypothetical-deductive thinking and a capacity for complete abstraction, typical of Adults).

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Vygotsky's sociocultural model

Another of the great authors of evolutionary psychology, Vygotsky considered that it was learning that made us develop. Cognitive growth is learned from interaction, and not the other way around. The most relevant concept of this author is that of the Zone of Proximate Development, which marks the difference between what the subject is capable of doing by himself and what he can achieve with the existence of external help, in such a way what Through the granting of grants we can contribute to develop and optimize the skills of the subject.

Culture and society largely mark the development of the child, through processes of internalization of external information obtained through action. The child first learns interpersonally to later carry out intrapersonal learning.

Bronfenbrenner ecological model

This author's model describes and analyzes the importance of different ecological systems in which the minor moves in order to evaluate his development and performance.

Microsystem (each of the systems and environments in which the child participates directly, such as family and school), mesosystem (relationships between the components microsystems), exosystem (the set of elements that influence the child without the child directly participating in them) and macrosystem (the context cultural) are together with the chronosystem (events and changes that may occur over time) are the aspects that this author values ​​the most at the structural.

Bibliographic references:

• Sanz, L.J. (2012). Evolutionary and educational psychology. CEDE PIR Preparation Manual, 10. CEDE: Madrid.