Evolutionary Psychology: Understanding Human Development
Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary psychology is the psychological discipline that studies the behavioral changes that occur in people over their development, in relation to age, from conception to death. It seeks to identify mechanisms to monitor these changes.
Objectives of Evolutionary Psychology
- Identify and disclose changes related to age and experience in physical growth, thinking, and personality.
- Explain the changes and development sequences as general principles (assimilation and accommodation).
- Predict patterns of development.
- Improve and optimize development, seeking to positively influence it (e.g., intervention programs for mothers to support children at risk).
Research in Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary research uses two main types of designs: longitudinal and transversal.
Longitudinal Studies
In longitudinal studies, a sample of subjects is studied over time to observe changes in the characteristic under consideration.
- Measures intraindividual change.
- Challenges: experimental mortality, high cost in time, and risks to the continuity of the research team.
Transversal Studies
In transversal studies, several groups of subjects of different ages are studied simultaneously to analyze age-related differences in the characteristic being studied.
- Does not measure intraindividual change.
- Advantages: speed and economy.
- Note: samples from the various groups should be homogeneous.
Core Concepts
- Law of the Double Occurrence of Psychological Functions: Every function appears twice in the child’s development: first at the social level (interpsychological) and then at the individual level (intrapsychological).
- Internalization: The process that allows the internal reconstruction of an external activity. It is the process by which language transitions from a communicative function to the engine of thought.
- Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The distance between the actual level of development, as determined by the ability to solve a problem independently, and the level of potential development, as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with a more capable peer.
Educational Applications in the Zone of Proximal Development
Creating ZPD in teacher-student interaction involves:
- Inserting the activity within the context of broader frameworks or objectives.
- Enabling maximum participation of all students.
- Establishing an affective and emotional climate based on trust, security, and mutual acceptance.
- Introducing specific modifications and adjustments in programming and the development of one’s own performance.
- Promoting the use and deepening of self-knowledge.
- Establishing consistent and explicit relationships between new content and students’ background knowledge.
- Using language as clearly and explicitly as possible.
- Using language to re-contextualize and reconceptualize experience.