Psychology and Evolution: The Origins of Mind

Psychology and Evolution: The Origins of Mind introduces students to the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Bruce Bridgeman applies concepts of evolutionary theory to basic psychological functions to derive new insights into the roots of human behavior and how that behavior may be viewed as adaptation to life′s significant challenges. Examining courtship, reproduction, child rearing, family relations, social interaction, and language development, Bridgeman uses evolutionary theory to help in the search to elucidate the foundations of human perceptions, experiences, and behaviors.

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"Bridgeman's Psychology and Evolution is a superb textbook in evolutionary psychology ... I see it as a landmark in the emergence of evolutionary psychology as no longer a controversial minority current but as a central aspect of the mainstream. The book reflects the state of the art in current work in evolutionary psychology ... the reader is brought up-to-date about evolutionary theory, modern genetics, human prehistory, and relevant issues in modern linguistics."

-- M. Brewster Smith

"This is an important book. Readers partial to evolutionary psychology, as well as those who remain skeptical, will benefit from a careful reading of this reader-friendly book ... The author endorses the core assumptions of evolutionary psychology ... but, refreshingly, he includes, often with a new slant, relevant material usually overlooked by both believers and skeptics."

-- Andrew Neher ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruce Bridgeman is a professor of Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a position he has held since 1973. He received a Ph.D. in physiological psychology from Stanford University in 1971, working in the laboratory of Karl Pribram, and then held post-doctoral fellowships in Berlin, Germany, at the physiological institute of the Free University of Berlin, and in Berkeley, California, at the UC Berkeley School of Optometry. He is author or coauthor of more than 100 published scientific papers and has authored or coedited five books along with 25 chapters in edited volumes. Aside from evolutionary psychology, which he has taught since the early 1980s, he has taught behavioral neuroscience, introductory psychology and psychobiology, and graduate seminars in perception. His research interests include visual perception, eye movements, computer simulation of cognitive processes, spatial orientation, and of course evolutionary psychology. A fellow of the American Psychological Society and the Psychonomic Society, he has received research grants and fellowships from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, The Max-Planck Society, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. As a lifelong choral singer, he has participated in international concert tours with the Cornell University Glee Club, the Berliner Konzert-chor, and the Santa Cruz Chorale.

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