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Course, academic year 2024/2025
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Evolutionary Psychology - APS100084
Title: Evoluční psychologie
Guaranteed by: Department of Psychology (21-KPS)
Faculty: Faculty of Arts
Actual: from 2024
Semester: summer
Points: 0
E-Credits: 4
Examination process: summer s.:combined
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unlimited / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: doc. RNDr. Marek Špinka, CSc.
Teacher(s): doc. RNDr. Marek Špinka, CSc.
Annotation -
Evolutionary psychology is a discipline that explores the possibilities of applying the methods and findings of evolutionary biology to various fields of psychology. The course is introduced by presenting the background and method of investigation of evolutionary biology. Students are introduced to the basic trends in evolutionary psychology. Representative topics in evolutionary psychology are then discussed in a critical discourse, with a focus on intersections with other psychological disciplines.
Course content: principles of evolutionary theory and phylogeny applied to humans. An experimental demonstration of the evolutionary psychology approach to the study of human behavior. The main goals of evolutionary psychology. What is evolutionary psychology. Why and from what evolutionary psychology arose. . Human behavior and psyche as a result of evolution. Basic background of EP, concepts of evolutionary psychology: environment of evolutionary adaptation and related concepts. Contemporary integration of EP with other psychological disciplines. Phylogeny of the human psyche. Cognitive evolutionary psychology. Phylogeny of the human psyche as a unique species of primate and ape. Major phylogenetic features of mammals and primates relevant to human behavior and psyche. Sensory perception, emotion, cognition, communication and social organization in mammals, primates and humans. Cognitive evolutionary psychology: an example of one cognitive adaptation. Mate preferences and mate choice. Investment theory, sexual strategy, preferences for markers of "good" vs "complementary" genes, homogamy, latent choice theory. Specifics of human sexuality. Reproductive systems, evolution of "hidden" ovulation, extended sexuality, same-sex oriented sexuality. Offspring care & the evolution of menopause. Paternal investment, cooperative offspring care, evolution of menopause. Family and attachment. Specifics of human birth, attachment concept issues, child schema, caregiver-child relationship. An evolutionary perspective on the ontogeny of behaviour and psyche. Life strategy theory, timing of puberty, artifice of the innate vs. learned dichotomy, behavioral genetics - benefits and criticisms, interaction effects, the sensitive period. Evolution of culture and cultural evolution. Memetics contribution and critique, dual inheritance theory, interaction of cultural and biological evolution, cognitive shifts, social constructs. Cooperation, competence and altruism. Kin selection, reciprocal altruism, competitive altruism, reputation and the stowaway problem. Playful behaviour in humans from an evolutionary and phylogenetic perspective. Uniqueness of playful behaviour in mammals. Ontogenetic course of playful behaviour in mammals, primates and humans. Spontaneous versus controlled play. What is the purpose of play? Play and laughter, smiling. Play and humor. Play and cooperation, play and dominance, play and competition. Play and sport. Applications of evolutionary psychology / Ethical aspects of evolutionary psychology. Possibilities of grounding ethics in biology. Historical attempts to biologize ethics. Darwinism, selfishness and altruism. Genetic, individual and group selection. Evolutionary and psychological altruism. The "social brain" hypothesis. The role of reason and emotion in moral discernment and decision-making. Building blocks of morality, proto-morality in primates and other non-human animals. Ethical aspects of evolutionary psychology in contemporary information society.

Last update: Špinka Marek, doc. RNDr., CSc. (24.09.2024)
Course completion requirements -

Attestation in Evolutionary Psychology will be awarded on the basis of the points obtained mainly for the preparation of the assigned tasks, their timely submission and for active participation in individual lectures.

Last update: Dragomirecká Eva, PhDr., Ph.D. (13.10.2023)
Literature -

Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (2006). Not by genes alone. How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Buss, D. (2014) Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. Boston: Pearson.
Buss, D. M. (2005). The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Last update: Špinka Marek, doc. RNDr., CSc. (24.09.2024)
Syllabus - Czech

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Last update: Hradcová Radka (27.09.2024)
 
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