Behaviorism vs. evolutionary psychology

The behaviorists on this group always seem to leave out a big part of the
picture (specifically: the "nature" part of "nature vs. nuture"). I recently
saw this article:

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070622-000002.xml

from what seems to almost be the complete opposite perspective. Namely,
what general behaviors can you predict about humans which are NOT a function
of their lifetime exposure to stimuli.

I especially enjoyed this introduction:

[O]ur thoughts, feelings, and behavior are produced not only by our
individual experiences and environment in our own lifetime but also
by what happened to our ancestors millions of years ago.

[...]

[M]ost social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops
at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of
environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary
psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological
adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve
problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or
feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an
evolved psychological mechanism. We do not consciously choose to like
sweets and fats; they just taste good to us.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Don Geddis http://don.geddis.org/ don@xxxxxxxxxx

A Stanford research group advertised for participants in a study of
obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were looking for therapy clients who had
been diagnosed with this disorder. The response was gratifying; they got
3,000 responses about three days after the ad came out.

All from the same person.
.

Relevant Pages

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