Elements of Psychology

Contents: Preface. 1. Concept of psychology. 2. Psychologists study social development. 3. Careers in psychology video. 4. Special metatheoretical assumption of evolutionary psychology. 5. The future of evolutionary psychology. 6. Paternalism and psychology. 7. Positive psychology progress. 8. Can positive psychology make people lastingly happier. 9. Psychosocial function of children relations between personality. 10. An overview of research in energy psychology. 11. Writing a psychology literature review. Bibliography. Index.

"Psychological adaptations, which govern mental and behavioral processes, are referred to by evolutionary psychologists as psychological mechanisms. Evolutionary psychologists emphasize that genes do not cause behavior and cognition directly. Rather, genes provide blueprints for the construction of psychological mechanisms, which then interact with environmental factors to produce a range of behavioral and cognitive outputs. Most research in evolutionary psychology focuses on identifying evolved psychological mechanisms because it is at this level where in variances occur. Indeed, evolutionary psychologists assert that there is a core set of universal psychological mechanisms that comprise our shared human nature. The author discuss the following chapters." (jacket)