Book Description
Never Highlight a Book Again! Cram101 Textbook Outlines give the student all of the highlights, notes, and practice-tests for their textbook. Only Cram101 is Textbook Specific, not generic. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 828 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Prelude to social sanity.(maturation psychology analysis)
Author: Paul Neumarkt
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 26Issue: 1-2Page: 29(2)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1831 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Reflections on life with my dog Lindsay.
Author: Howard W. Bischoff
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 26Issue: 1-2Page: 108(3)

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* Mp3 CD Format *. In this lively and provocative look at how evolution shapes our behavior and our lives, Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa reexamine some of the most popular and controversial topics of modern life and shed a whole new light on why we do the things we do. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Good sound-bite nonfiction
A good example of what I've come to term "sound bite nonfiction", this book was a quick read with several "hmmmm" moments.The premise of evolutionary psychology - that the evolution of human minds has not kept up with the changes in our environment, and that the unconscious reason for everything we dois based on sex and the desire to reproduce - is discussed in short sections with titles such as "Why do men like blonde bombshells (and why do women want to look like them)?", "Why might handsome men make bad husbands?", "What do Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals?"For the first three-quarters of this book, I had few problems with the author's conclusions, and enough "yeah, that makes sense" moments to keep me interested.However, in the last couple chapters, they stretch the concepts of evolutionary psychology to try to explain suicide bombers, why single women travel more than men, and several other questions that I just don't quite buy.But there's enough in the beginning of the book to make it worth picking up.

Explains a Lot
This book is clearly written and a quick, easy read. Many of the main arguments are backed by solid research and logic. Some of the theoriesseem to be a stretch, which is to be expected in a new, rapidly expanding body of knowledge. This book provides some of the best explanations of human behavior I have come across. The world seems a little less confusing to me after reading this book.

Intriguing ideas but fast and loose with facts
While Mr. Kanazawa* offers many fascinating explanations for the "why" behind our actions, he also jumps to far too many specious conclusions and plays a little loose with the facts.

Why, after having just given birth are daughters typically visited by their mothers while their while mothers-in-law might be inclined to stay away?We could jump to the conclusion presented in the book that mothers-in-law act on the unconscious realization that the baby might not be their genetic grandchild.Or we could stick with Occam's Razor here:most women prefer their mothers to their mothers-in-law and control with whom they spend those first few weeks of recovery.(In fact, there's a good evolutionary psychology reason as to why we like our own.)As Mr. Kanazawa says, some stereotypes are true--in this case, about how eager we are to spend time with our mothers-in-law.

Mr. Kanazawa also tends to make absolutist statements, such as the one in which he states that "The sex gap in earnings and the so-called glass ceiling are caused not by employer discrimination or any other external factors, but by the sex differences in internal preferences, values, desires, dispositions and temperaments."Does his analysis adequately explain 70 or 80% of the differential?Perhaps.It's certainly a logical hypothesis that resonates both with biological and anecdotal evidence.But does it explain 100% of the reason?There are simply far too many clearly documented instances of bias to let society off the hook so quickly or to scrap the EEOC quite yet.

I'm also amused by his explanation for why women become nurses and school teachers when one doesn't have to look too far back in our history before we see those professions dominated almost exclusively by men.(In fact, men didn't begin to flee those professions until women began entering them, just as originally-male names stop being given to boys once girls are given them and it is socially unacceptable for men to wear dresses.)One senses that had Mr. Kanazawa taken his snapshot in the 1800s instead of the 2000s that he would have jumped to the same conclusion but modified the evidence to fit the explanation, ie that men become teachers or nurses because those professions require physical discipline or an analytical understanding of chemistry.If the explanation stays the same while the evidence around it changes, one has to wonder about the validity of the claim.

He plays equally fast and loose with other "facts."His conclusion about body image among Iranian women would be convincing... if one didn't know that, by some reliable reports, close to 1/3 of Iranians likely have access to satellite television and may be almost as inundated with Western culture as we are.

His subchapter heading "Why are most suicide bombers Muslim?" is similarly disingenuous.From 1980 to 2003, the largest number of suicide bombings was conducted by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), a Marxist-Leninist group in Sri Lanka largely comprised of non-religious Hindus. (Robert Pape, Dying to Win--Pape also points out that before 1980, suicide terrorist attacks as we know them were "practically unknown" and that while suicide missions did occur they were far less common than today.)

Unless Islamic society has only become polygynous or begun promising virgins upon martyrdom in the last four years (or 27 years), we have to look to a far more convincing explanation for the large uptick in the last few years in Islamic suicide bombers.

The very first explanation certainly has to be where the #1 disparate-force conflict in the world right now is occurring.If the United States had gone to war in the Philippines--just as it did in the late 1800s--would we be surprised to discover that the insurgency was led by Catholics?--just as it was in the late 1800s, Mr. Kanazawa's ridiculous assertion that insurgencies are not a normal response to invasion aside.

Above and beyond the "where," Robert Cialdini (in Influence: Science and Practice, 2001) offers a very good "why" explanation based on "social proof" and the viral nature of human action that has nothing to do with sex at all: we look to similar others for evidence of how we should act.Which is why, following a well-publicized suicide, there is a sharp increase in suicides only among those people who are similar to the original suicide victim.

Mr. Kanazawa's explanation, while seeming elegant at first blush, relies on generalizations that don't hold up under scrutiny.If access to sex is the primary motivator, what explains the increasing use of female suicide terrorists (estimates suggest as many 1/6 of total suicide operatives for organizations like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad) or the large number of married men?Or the large number of high-status men who, under Mr. Kanazawa's framework, would not need to resort to high-risk behavior to find mates?

Mr. Kanazawa is quick to criticize social scientists--I began wishing he would simply abbreviate the phrase "Standard Social Science Model" since it appeared on almost every other page--for ignoring evidence that doesn't fit their pet theories and yet he himself so frequently falls victim to the same temptation.The ideas presented in the book are intriguing, and many of them will, I have no doubt, be vindicated by further testing.But readers should read this book with a critical eye, and pause to consider each claim before being swept along by dubious evidence.Evolutionary psychology is not as well-served by this book as an armchair enthusiast for the study like myself would have hoped.

*As the preface states, Mr. Kanazawa is the primary author of the book as Mr. Miller died shortly following the first rough draft.

the swan song for a field scrambling for acceptance?
This is the absolute worst kind of "science book" published for a general audience.It is full of psuedo-facts and poorly reasoned arguments.If an explanation sounds good, then that's the answer.It was unclear when the authors were making a statement if it was generally held to be true within the discipline or it was a theory.Their own work was all presented established fact, rather than their opinions.My thirteen year old saw through the yawning gaps in logic.I could not finish reading the book, and I never don't finish a book.

Evolutionary psychology has been around for 20 years or so, and has some very valuable contributionstowards understanding human behavior.By their nature, the theories are hard to prove, although with good science, we can at least believe that an idea is plausible.The leaders of this field are already heavily criticized because the results aren't always politically correct and because humans are very resistant to the idea that their behavior is not entirely conscious and of their own free will.This book has dealt the field a serious and perhaps fatal blow.

The most fun I've had with non-fiction in some time
Although some of the theories are still in fledgling stages and research is thin, they are none the less compelling and exciting to read about. Then again, many of the other theories have been well researched, peer-reviewed and tested. The author(s) do a good job of pointing out the evidence, validity, and assumptions regarding each. The format is simple and intuitive, very well put together. This book is basically a primer for people interested in evolutionary psychology with some fascinating insight and entertaining bits of information thrown in. It's excellent and I seriously couldn't put it down. I read the book from cover to cover in less then three days.

Warning: This book is not PC. The author(s) make a well argued case for this up front.Some of the material can be offensive to some people but the true message is the evidence of science, not our emotional reactions to it. If you can let go of your emotional attachments to a few social paradigms and review the evidence logically, you'll be OK. If not, this may not be the book for you. By the way, it does not confirm any particular racial biases or abilities, etc. Quite the opposite. It exposes that the cultural kit and the abilities we share are universal across all of humanity. So no, this is no eugenics revival or anything sad and unscientific like that.

The other issue I've noticed with certain readers is that they apply a very egotistical view to the theories. For example, I don't personally like blonds any more than brunettes. I am a statistical anomaly, just like many other people are. Simply because I don't share the majority view point of subjects tested the world over, does not mean that the results of the testing are invalid or that a trend significant enough to warrant some explaining does not exist. I keep hearing things like 'Hey, I don't like blonds! This is wrong!' Anyway, you can see the fallacy in that.

Take theories and hypotheses presented in this book for what they are based upon the research and evidence presented, not your gut reaction to the outcomes. Of course further rational explanations will evolve as further studies are taken and new evidence is uncovered. That's the nature of the scientific process!

Anyway, very fun read. I really enjoyed it. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Skeptical Inquirer, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 3756 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Why we read fiction: two areas of research in cognitive evolutionary psychology and anthropology offer tentative but nevertheless exciting insights into cravings that are satisfied--and intensified--by reading fiction.(SCIENCE + ART)
Author: Lisa Zunshine
Publication: Skeptical Inquirer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 30Issue: 6Page: 29(5)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 487 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: At the edge of contemplation.(Editorial)
Author: Paul Neumarkt
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 24Issue: 3-4Page: 108(1)

Article Type: Editorial

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 4295 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The murder of Judge Pyncheon: confusion and suggestion in The House of the Seven Gables.(Critical Essay)
Author: Paul J. Emmett
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 24Issue: 3-4Page: 189(8)

Article Type: Critical Essay

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1112 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dangerous signs of political contradiction.
Author: Paul Neumarkt
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 25Issue: 3-4Page: 131(3)

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Book Description
Challenging existing claims concerning the functions of Rapid Eye Movement sleep and the purported meaninglessness of dreams, this text offers a complete and up to date survey on the anatomy, physiology, ontogeny, and phylogeny of REM sleep as well as the cognitive neuroscience of dream phenomonolgy and dream content. The text underlines the importance of looking at how REM interacts physiologically with NREM sleep, in order to understand the potential functions of REM. The findings support and extend clams that the functions of REM involve memory consolidation and regulation of emotional conflicts and expression. Analyses of evolutionary relationships include sleep in reptiles, birds, marsupials, and mammals. Chapters explore interactions of REM and NREM and effects of these interactions on anabolic hormone release as well as the effects on dream content, the effects of genes and genomic imprinting on sleep, and theories of dream formation and content. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Psychology and Theology, published by Rosemead School of Psychology on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 7853 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Evolutionary explanation and consciousness.
Author: Steven Horst
Publication: Journal of Psychology and Theology (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: Rosemead School of Psychology
Volume: 30Issue: 1Page: 41(10)

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Book Description
Philosophers and therapists have long theorized about how psychological mechanisms for love, jealousy, anxiety, depression, and many other human characteristics may have evolved over millions of years.In the dawn of the new insights on evolution, provided by Darwin's theories of natural selection, Freud, Jung, and Klein sought to identify and understand human motives, emotions, and information processing as functions deeply-rooted in our evolved history.Despite this promising start and major developments in modern evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and sociobiology, the last fifty years have seen little in the way of therapies derived from an evolutionary understanding of human psychology.the contributors to this timely book illuminate how an evolution-focused approach to psychopathology can offer new insights for different schools of therapy and provide a rationale for therapeutic integration.

Genes on the Couch brings together respected clinicians who have integrated evolutionary insights into their case conceptualization and therapeutic interventions.Various psychotherapy schools are represented, and each author provides illustrative examples of the interventions used.Specific topics addressed include the nature of evolved mental mechanisms, regulation/dysregulation of internal processes attachment and kinship in therapy, the importance of internalizing warmth as a therapeutic goal, kin selection and incest avoidance, co-operation and deception in social relations, difficulties in working with certain male clients, gender differences in therapy, and the roles of shame and guilt in treatment. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on March 1, 2002. The length of the article is 2634 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: I'm Nobody! Who are you?": horror through anonymity in American Psycho.(Critical Essay)
Author: Alison M. Kelly
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2002
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Page: 28(6)

Article Type: Critical Essay

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Book Description
Evolutionary psychology has been dominated by one particular method for studying the mind and behavior. This is the first book to both question that monopoly and suggest a broad range of particular alternatives. Psychologists, philosophers, biologists, anthropologists, and others offer different methods for combining psychology and evolution. They recommend specific changes to evolutionary psychology using a wide variety of theoretical assumptions. In addition, some essays analyze the underpinnings of the dominant method, relate it to the context of evolutionary and psychological theory and to general philosophy of science, and discuss how to test approaches to evolutionary psychology. The aim of this collection is not to reject evolutionary psychology but to open up new vistas which students and researchers can use to ensure that evolutionary psychology continues to thrive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent Collection of High Quality Papers
The human brain is the result of a long and complex evolutionary trajectory. Evolutionary psychology attempts to use this fact to understand the human brain's particular capacities and limitations. Evolutionary psychology has provided many key insights into human behavior. First, since the human brain is extremely costly to nurture and maintain, its general contribution to human fitness must be high, and hence the brain must be an adaptation to the particular conditions under which our species evolved. Therefore, understanding these conditions may shed strong light on human psychology. Second, the human brain's information processing capacities are likely to be closely associated with the particular adaptive needs of our species, rather than being a simple, general purpose information processor. Thus, rather than being infinitely malleable, humans are predisposed to behave in certain ways in the sense that under a very broad range of environmental conditions some behaviors will be virtually universally exhibited and others will be extremely rare, while behaviors to which we are not predisposed will be exhibited either not at all, or only in a very restricted set of environmental circumstances. In short, evolutionary psychology holds that a consideration of our evolutionary history is extremely powerful in generating plausible hypotheses concerning human psychology that can be tested using the standard tools of experimental research.

Those who reject evolutionary psychology in the general form stated above are generally either ill-informed or have a political or religious agenda that clouds their scientific judgment. Creationists, for instance, cannot accept evolutionary psychology. Nor can Marxists or extreme cultural determinists, for whom human nature either does not exist, or takes the form of infinite cultural malleability.

Evolutionary psychology, then, is simply one more tool (albeit an unusually powerful tool) in the behavioral scientist's repertoire. However, a small but highly creative and extremely influential group of evolutionary psychologists, including D. Buss, J. Tooby, L. Cosmides, D. Symons, S. Pinker have constructed a version of evolutionary psychology that includes key assertions that are highly contentious and many believe are incorrect. These thinkers appear to many scientists (myself included) to form a sort of scientific cult: they always agree with each other, they reject any outside criticism, their message never changes, and they recruit by directly training new members rather than having their ideas accepted by the general scientific community. To distinguish this group from evolutionary psychology in general, I will call their doctrine EvPsych (the book under review calls them "narrow" evolutionary psychologists, a particularly poor choice of words, since they are anything but narrow, and Kluwer, the bureaucratic and infinitely stuffy publisher, true to form, insists on an identically worded disclaimer at the head of each chapter of book, saying that by "narrow" they do not mean "narrow.")

EvPsychers believe that (a) human culture is an effect of human genetics, and culture explains nothing important concerning human behavior; (b) human behavior in general is an adaptation to the specific conditions of the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA) in which our species emerged from other hominid species; (c) the human brain is a highly modular organ, each module having emerged to solve a particular evolutionary problem; (d) for this reason, the human brain lacks all the characteristics of a general information processor, and cannot solve any problems other than those that challenged our existence in our dim evolutionary past. In particular, we are doomed to apply old, generally ineffective, methods to the solution of new problems. This is the tragedy of the human condition.

EvPsych is wrong in each of the above assertions, and everyone knows this except the EvPsychers themselves. Moreover, they have hindered the general integration of evolutionary psychology into the repertoire of behavioral science with their tendentious and outlandish claims. The book under review is an important contribution towards restoring evolutionary psychology to its rightful place in the behavioral sciences. It's main attraction is that the editors, Steven Scher and Fredrick Rauscher, recognize that the best critique is a cogent alternative, and this is exactly what the various chapter of the book provide for us. I do not have the space to comment on each of the thirteen chapters, but a few prominent themes emerge.

First, several authors challenge the coarse-grained modularity assumption of EvPsych, using our contemporary neuroscientific and developmental knowledge of the structure of the brain. This includes especially stunning contributions of Steven Quarts, William Bechtel, and Jennifer Mundale. These authors present the state of the art understanding of the neurological development of the human brain from embryo to adult form, and argue for a "developmental evolutionary psychology" in which the brain has a fine-grained modularity that results from the dynamic interaction between organism and environment during growth and maturation of the individual.

Second, several authors challenge the "gene-centered" view of evolution, which the EvPsychers borrowed from Dawkins, Hamilton, Wilson and other biologists who dominated evolutionary theory in the 1960's and 1970's. Thus Linnda Caporeal argues for "repeated assembly," which is a form of what is commonly known as gene-culture coevolution, and David Sloan Wilson points out the errors in reasoning that lead gene-centered theorists to reject truly altruistic (other-regarding) behavior in humans. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy exposes the sexual stereotypes of the gene-centered approach by reviewing the evidence on female mate choice.

Several chapters are philosophically-motivated critiques of EvPsych. I do not believe that philosophers ever contribute by criticizing scientific theories, and I think my view is confirmed by this book.

I quite recommend this book to those who are new to the field. There is some excellent material here. A major drawback is the publisher, Kluwer. The book is grossly overpriced, there is no index or general bibliography, and the typeface is cramped and low resolution.
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1911 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Video games: technology and social issues.
Author: Russell Eisenman
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 25Issue: 3-4Page: 170(5)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Psychology and Theology, published by Rosemead School of Psychology on June 22, 2002. The length of the article is 1646 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Response to Van Leeuwen's essay on evolutionary psychology.
Author: Robert L. Saucy
Publication: Journal of Psychology and Theology (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2002
Publisher: Rosemead School of Psychology
Volume: 30Issue: 2Page: 117(3)

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Customer Reviews (4)

Very Interesting
Although I have read other theories with which I agree more (evolutionary theories elaborated upon by Atran and Boyer), the Attachment Theory perspective is a very interesting point of view on how people form and maintain relationships with supernatural beings. The book as a whole makes some pretty persuasive arguments for the Attachment Theory and does it with humor and facts combined. For a subject that has great potential to be dry and boring, Kirkpatrick leads the reader through the points in a very fluid and entertaining way. Again, I really enjoyed this book, both as a Psych major and as a Philosophy & Religion major.

An eminently readable and balanced approach to the psychology of religion
I began reading this book in the library of the college where I teach psychology, and after finishing Kirpatrick's introduction I knew I had to purchase the book for myself.

Kirpatrick provides a rigorously scientific approach to the psychology of religion.Couching religious belief, or at least parts of our religious belief, in the context of attachment theory is both intuitively appealing and empirically supported.Wrapping the whole in the metatheoretical framework of evolutionary psychology is the final piece that puts everything together, and Kirkpatrick does just that, in an eminently readable way.

Certainly there is much more research to be done in this area before we can even begin to provide potential answers to all questions about religious belief, but Kirkpatrick does an excellent job summarizing the state of the research at present, and drawing reasonable--and interesting--interpretations.

Finally, I was impressed by the intellectually balanced approach Kirkpatrick provides.There is no hint of an agenda or an axe to grind; theist and atheist alike can read this book and learn from it without having their sensibilities offended.I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it.

an intelligent look at religion
Kirkpatrick has given us a scholarly, comprehensive and comprehendable discussion of an extremly important part of human experience.This work is well and carefully documented for the scholar and clearly written for the casual (but curious) reader.It's too bad Dennett didn't read this before he wrote "Breaking the Spell."He could have saved hinself a couple of years and sent us to read "Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion."

a marginal contribution, at best, to religious studies
My excitement upon purchasing this book did not last long.Kirkpatrick argues that a person's "attachment" style, shaped at an early age by his relationship with his primary caregiver, plays a role in his subsequent relationships with peers, lovers, spouses, and even God.I find the theory and evidence marshalled in support of this argument unpersuasive.

Suppose a mother is cold and avoidant in her relationship with her infant.According to Kirkpatrick, this environmental stimulus leads the infant to form an internal model of social interaction in which ALL agents are seen as cold and avoidant.Having learned not to trust or depend on others, the infant grows up to become a cold and avoidant himself.He doesn't hug his parents, he doesn't buy his wife flowers, he doesn't warm to the idea of a benevolent God.

I don't buy it.Some of the studies Kirkpatrick describes in support of his thesis are interesting, but most are so profoundly confounded with hereditary factors that they cannot possibly support the conclusions that Kirkpatrick forces upon them.The evidence from behavioral genetics shows that, typically, fifty percent of the variance in stable behavioral treats is caused by genetic variation in the population.Moreover, many behavioral geneticists now accept that NONE of the variance is attributable the environment that siblings in a household share (which assuredly includes parental childrearing style).With this data in hand, we see that the dogma of attachment theory dissolves.Yes, nurturant parents produce children who grow up to become nurturant adults.Yes, mean parents produce children who grow up to become mean adults.Yes, clingy parents produce children who grow up to become clingy adults.But this is all because children inherit the genes for these traits from their parents.Adopted children, who are objects of the same parental "attachment style" as the other children in their household, grow up to become as different from their adoptive siblings as can be.The theoretical arguments against attachment theory, based on evolutionary grounds, are also powerful; but in this case data suffices to cast it thoroughly in doubt.

What is left of Kirkpatrick's book?The last hundred pages are useful in overviewing the theory of religion as spandrel that has been developed in recent years, but they fail to redeem the whole.The same ground has been already covered by Pascal Boyer and Scott Atran in much greater detail.In any case, Kirkpatrick is not a particularly compelling writer.

Individual differences in religiosity is a gold mine waiting to be tapped, but Kirkpatrick's approach is a dead end in my view.Save your money and pass on this one.

Recommended instead:THE NURTURE ASSUMPTION by Judith Rich Harris, RELIGION EXPLAINED by Pascal Boyer, THE BLANK SLATE by Steven Pinker, IN GODS WE TRUST by Scott Atran ... Read more

Book Description
In this volume, David Geary provides a comprehensive theory that brings children's education into the 21st century, and provides directions for the development of a new discipline, evolutionary educational psychology. Geary presents the case that a scientifically grounded approach to children's schooling and, to a lesser degree, their later occupational interests can be informed by recent advances in the application of evolutionary theory to the understanding of the human brain, mind, and its development. He develops a taxonomy of evolved cognitive abilities and describes how, from an evolutionary perspective, these abilities are modified and refined during childhood. From there, he lays the framework for understanding the relation between evolved abilities, such as language, and the non-evolved competencies that are built from them with schooling, such as reading. Geary describes the mechanisms, such as working memory, that enable humans to transform evolved cognitive abilities into culturally important, school taught competencies. These are integrated with discussion of human intellectual history and cultural evolution, and the sources of children's motivation to learn inside and outside of the classroom. In all, this may well be the most revolutionary theory of children's schooling since Rousseau. ... Read more