John Tooby's Model of Evolutionary Psychology

Since its inception, the field of social services has been a challenging, complicated, and intellectually exhausting discipline. Practitioners are often required to assess the behavioral, cognitive, emotional, economic, and relational issues of clients, then outline potential solutions while simultaneously maintaining a paradigm by which the client does the majority of the work. Very little about field is easy, so any theory or model that attempts to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the human condition while providing achievable solutions to common social or psychological problems is a welcome addition to the body of research currently available to social service workers. John Tooby's model of evolutionary psychology is slowly gaining ground as such an addition.

The Man, the Theory, and the Controversy

Tooby first developed the framework for his model when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. He found a steadfast companion in Leda Cosmides, and they married and undertook a 29-year collaboration. After obtaining a PhD in biological anthropology and an A.B. in experimental psychology, he helped form the Special Project on Evolutionary Psychology at Stanford. After an indeterminate amount of time, the intrepid anthropologist and his wife moved and became professors of anthropology at the University of California. Their brainchild, the volume The Adapted Mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, was published in 1992. This text still serve as a staple in any cultural or biological anthropologist’s repertoire today, and the insights, suggestions, explanations, and research presented therein expose the work as a labor of love that further bolstered the public's understanding of his field (Tooby, 199...

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...dict, and resolve potential issues that might arise.

Works Cited

Eldakar, O., Wilson, D., & O'Gorman, R. “Emotions and actions associated with altruistic

helping and punishment”. Human Nature Review, 4, (2006): 274-286. Print.

Howe, D. (2009). A brief introduction to social work theory. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave

Macmillan. Pg. 34-91.

Ohman, A., & Mineka, S. "Fears, phobias, and preparedness: toward an evolved module of

fear and fear learning." Psychological Review 108.3 (2001): 483-522. Print.

Rogers, M. "How social can we get?: what evolutionary psychology says about social

networking." The Practical Futurist 10 Nov. (2007): 1-2. NBC News. Print.

Tooby, J., Cosmides, L., & Barkow, J. (1992). The Adapted Mind: evolutionary psychology and the

generation of culture. New York: Oxford University Press.