Evolution and Psychology

Evolution and Psychology is a critical exploration of how evolutionary approaches can be used to understand the human mind and behaviour.

Written for undergraduate students in the social sciences, this text provides an accessible introduction to foundational concepts in evolutionary biology. It then explores evolutionary perspectives on key psychological topics such as cognition, development, group dynamics, mate choice, language and communication, psychopathology, and culture. An interdisciplinary approach is woven throughout, integrating evolutionary psychology with insights from behavioural ecology, anthropology, genetics, and neuroscience.

You will learn to think critically about evolutionary explanations, with Warning Flag features throughout the text that address frequently misunderstood topics, common fallacies, and historical misuses and abuses of applying evolutionary theory to human behaviour.

This is an essential read for students of Evolutionary Psychology and anyone looking for a contemporary overview of this complex and captivating field.

Scott A. MacDougall-Shackleton is Professor of Psychology at Western University.

Scott A. MacDougall-Shackleton, PhD earned his BSc and MSc in Biology at Queen’s University in Canada. He then moved to the Johns Hopkins University to complete his PhD in Psychology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. MacDougall-Shackleton has been at the Department of Psychology at Western University in London, Canada, since 2002 where he is Professor and has served as Chair of the Department. His research uses evolutionary and ecological approaches to study the mechanisms of bird behaviour, and he has published extensively on topics including vocal learning, seasonal changes in brain and behaviour, and the levels of analysis. He has taught courses on evolution and psychology for two decades.