Abstract

SEIDL-DE-MOURA, Maria Lucia; DONATO OLIVA, Ângela  and  VIEIRA, Mauro Luis. Human development in an evolutionary perspective. Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2009, vol.27, n.2, pp.252-262. ISSN 1794-4724.

This article presents an evolutionary perspective to the study of human development. Some general assumptions for the study of development are discussed and the principal building blocks of evolutionary psychology are presented. One of them is that there is a universal human nature (which is modulate also by particular conditions of each context) and the cognitive architecture of human beings is the resulted of interactions between genes and environment. Based on those, and other assumptions, directions for the study of child development in an evolutionary stance are discussed, along with the considerations of context and development. Thus, it is assumed there is a relationship between phylogenies and ontogenetic development (the ontogenesis needs to be understood also as a product of evolution), considering the inseparability of biological, socio-cultural, cognitive emotional aspects that constitute this development. It has been concluded that the evolutionary developmental psychology has scientific relevance because it broadens our vision on human development.

Keywords : human development; evolutionary developmental psychology; biology and culture; phylogeny and ontogeny.

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