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19th Century (1801 – 1900)

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin spend his final years on the study of animal emotions and psychology. His findings were published in the books; The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1871 and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex talked about The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex talked about [how certain traits were not directly used for survival but still useful and sometimes essential to fitness in animals.The Expression of the Emotions in the Man and Animals offered an early form of explanation for characteristics in reaction to interactions. It included common facial expression in animals and the interpretations of them.

These findings contradicted with Darwin’s initial thoughts on natural selection and survival of the fittest. He originally argued the individual was striving to be the fittest due natural selection favoring the fittest. However, when humans and animals perform acts of generosity, he believed it to be a decrease of individual fitness. Darwin concluded that these acts of generosity were contributing towards the fitness of a whole group and not just an individual. This hints towards the first signs of evidence of emotions in animals. He also discussed how certain features of animals were present even though they were unrelated to survival. This brought up the idea of sexual selection, in which certain features were not being passed along for survival but through attraction. One example stated is the peacock’s tail.

20th Century (1901 – 2000)

Psychologists expanded on Darwin’s findings and begin building a stronger connection between the emotion of animals and their actions. There is no single contributor that made the foundation of evolutionary psychology but rather a continuous building of blocks. William James is one example as his intentions were not to build upon evolutionary psychology but to expand off Darwin. Subsequently, his work is credited for taking some of the first steps in the field of evolutionary psychology.

William James is often called the “Father of American Psychology.” He was a psychologist and philosopher and being the first to teach a psychology course in the United States. His functionalist theory was composed of instincts. He argued humans had more instincts than some animals. These instincts were in constant struggle or interaction with each other. This helped open a pocket for evolutionary psychology as the idea of instincts could be replaced and improved with the idea of emotions.

Psychologist were not the only ones to contribute as Anarchist Peter Kropotkin had ideas that helped build a foundation. Kropotkin believed human instinct for cooperation and mutual aid could be seen as stemming from evolutionary adaption.

In 1919, William McDougall writes An Introduction to Social Psychology which references evolutionary psychology. He states “ It is only a comparative and evolutionary psychology that can provide the needed basis and this could not be created before the work of Darwin had convinced men of the continuity of human with animal evolution as regards all bodily characters, and had prepared the way for the quickly following recognition of the similar continuity of man’s mental evolution with that of the animal world." Although not taken with the definition of the term we know today, it still shows the traction gained in the world of psychology at the time.

Although these early works showed promise, they were not exactly seen as worthwhile by the scientific community at large. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until after War War II, Darwin and his ideas on evolution was starting to be taken seriously. This led to the quiet development of evolutionary psychology until the 60s and 70s. This is where Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen developed the field of ethology. Ethology focused on the study of animal behavior, with emphasis under natural conditions. Although it was not evolutionary psychology, many consider this the framework for the field as it helped understand the fundamental behavior of animals their natural habitats. It also looked at behaviors affected through evolution and their relation towards survival.

Another attempt to explain behavior under the lenses of evolution was The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. The book claimed human behavior was just like animal behavior and could be understood by its evolution. It is important to note that the book was shrouded in controversy as it contained information that made it appear facile which discredited it as a scientific journal. The most notorious claims of humans having the largest set of genitals for body size of all primates and that division of labor based on sex caused the need to keep sexual loyalty of a partner.

In 1975, E.O. Wilson continued the work of Lorenz and Tinbergen in his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, which argued evolutionary psychology was essentially human sociobiology. Sociobiology is the tying of concepts in biology to explain social behaviors as it relates to evolution. His publication served as a milestone for evolutionary concepts in the field of psychology as it now had a notable presence.

During the 70s, universities began to title their books with evolutionary biology. Michael Ghiselin used the term evolutionary psychology in his 1973 article Darwin and Evolutionary Psychology in Science. The term reached mainstream when The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation of Culture by Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby. Although more scientists were gathering around the field, it was still seen as a fringe theory of psychology.

The current work on evolutionary psychology has allowed an increase of popularity in academia. In 2005, Edgar H. Hagen expanded on ideas listed in Sociobiology: The New Synthesis by incorporating behavioral ecology in The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. However, was controversial for applying the research to humans. Research as shifted towards non-humans and substituting sociobiology for behavioral ecology.

Another notable piece was the Evolutionary Psychology Primer written by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby. It serves as an introduction to evolutionary psychology with history, arguments for the term and support for the field.