Almost 150 years after the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, the impact of evolutionary theory still resonates in the sciences and society. Though initially concerned with understanding the diversity of species in the world, Darwin eventually realized that the implications of his theory extended beyond basic biology.
An examination of his published work reveals that Darwin held a deep interest in psychology. That interest, however, was also present in many of his unpublished notebooks. For example, his notebooks “M” and “N,” both dated 1838, contained exhaustive recordings of Darwin’s thoughts on “metaphysics” (i.e. psychology). At that time, psychology was only beginning to emerge as a field distinct from philosophy.
Charles Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory of Human Nature
With an understanding of classical philosophy, Darwin sought to integrate his theory of evolution with ancient metaphysical quandaries. He wrote in his notebooks, “Origin of man now proved — Metaphysics must flourish.” Applying a number of comparative methods, Darwin set out to discover the evolutionary elements to modern human behavior.
He began by studying plants to uncover simple behavioral adaptations. Later, he postulated that both emotional expression and a sense of morality were the products of evolution and studied the inheritance of handwriting patterns to find a connection between genes and behavior.
In his landmark book, On the Origins of Species, Darwin wrote, “In the distant future, I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.”
The Field of Evolutionary Psychology
Today, a field of psychology known as evolutionary psychology focuses on the same questions Darwin asked in his notebooks more than 150 years ago. It uses the principles and theories of evolutionary biology as tools to uncover the structure and function of the human mind.
Norwegian psychologist Leif Kennair, in a 2002 article in The Human Nature Review, described evolutionary psychology as “a synthesis of modern evolutionary theory, studies of behaviour inspired by evolutionary theory, and cognitive psychology” and as something that “aspires to become the first real unifying paradigm of psychology.”
Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, leaders in the field, aimed to define evolutionary psychology as an approach to human psychology based on established biological knowledge. They noted that the human brain acts as a system that's similar to the way in which a computer functions; it's believed the circuits of this system were selected by evolution to solve problems that primitive humans faced. Cosmides and Tooby further explained that the environments that shaped the brain’s evolution were very different from the environment in which it currently operates.
How Darwin’s Theories Led to the Evolutionary Psychology Movement
So how did the basic contemplations of Charles Darwin in the 19th century become the technical field of modern evolutionary psychology? If the pun is excusable, evolutionary psychology is itself the product of a slow evolution of ideas. New ideas and modifications to evolutionary theory came and went in the years after Darwin, and by the 1960s, biologists began using evolution to explain some paradoxical elements of behavior.
With the publication of Edward O. Wilson’s Sociobiology in 1975, evolutionary explanations of animal and human behavior were brought to greater attention. Since then, a handful of psychologists have incorporated Wilson’s theory into contemporary psychology to create what has become modern evolutionary psychology.
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