进化发展心理学：发展中的人类本性

Evolutionary Developmental Psychology: Developing Human Nature

进化发展心理学研究社会能力与认知能力发展背后的基因与环境机制，以及基因与环境机制在特定社会文化中的表现。进化发展心理学探讨的主要问题与设计到的主要概念包括：（1）自然选择在毕生发展的早期阶段发挥作用；（2）进化发展心理学特别重视适应在婴儿期及儿童期发展中的作用；（3）儿童期的延长有助于儿童学习人类社会的复杂性；（4）发展背景的方法可以用来理解成人外显行为的进化起源；（5）基因与环境因素相互影响约束个体发展；（6）认知能力与行为活动敏感于早期环境，但二者发展也具有可塑性。

Evolutionary developmental psychology involves the study of the genetic and environmental mechanisms that underlie the universal development of social and cognitive competencies and how these processes adapt to local conditions. We present some of the central issues and concepts of evolutionary developmental psychology: (1) natural selection operates at all stages of the lifespan， but especially early in life; (2) adaptations can be functional at any time in development， but evolutionary developmental psychology is particularly concerned with adaptations associated with infancy and childhood; (3) an extended childhood is needed in which to learn the complexities of human social communities; (4) the application of a developmental contextual (epigenetic) approach to explain how evolved and inherited dispositions become expressed as adaptive behaviors in the phenotypes of adults; (5) development is constrained by both genetic and environmental factors; and (6) children show substantial plasticity of cognition and behavior， and adaptive sensitivity to context early in life.