| David J. Schneider | Rick K. Wilson | |
| Psychology SH 482 | Political Science BH 226 | |
| Office Hours: T 8:30-9:15, 11-12, W 1-2, TH 11-12 | Office Hours: M 11-12, T 11-12 (or by appointment) | |
| email: sch@rice.edu | email: rkw@rice.edu |
| This is a seminar on Evolutionary Psychology. It is being team taught by faculty in Psychology and Political Science. The topic has been proposed as a challenge to the standard social science model and it has been derided as a collection of 'just-so' stories. In the seminar we will read a wide variety of the growing literature in the field. | |||
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Grading: One-third of your grade will involve participation in the seminar. One-third of your grade will be based on weekly written work. These will be short papers (approximately one-page). One-third of your grade will be a research design turned in at the end of class. The research design will ask a question of your own, will detail the appropriate literature and will propose an experiment or other form research to test the question. |
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Readings: The readings each week are noted below. The management reserves the right to change the readings, so be certain to check the syllabus. There are two books that should be purchased. The first is by David Buss Evolutionary Psychology. The second is a book of readings by Douglas Kenrick and Carol Luce, The Functional Mind. Other articles are available from the library. You can go to the journal collection on the web and download them. |
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| Assignments | |||
| Week | Buss | Kenrick | Other Readings |
| 1/25 | Chapter 1,2 | Buss (Evolution of happiness) |
Ketelaar, Timothy, and Bruce J. Ellis. 2000. "Are Evolutionary Explainations Unfalsifiable? Evolutionary Psychology
and the Lakatosian Philosophy of Science." Psychological Inquiry 11(1): 1-21. Buller, David J. 2005. "Evolutionary Psychology: The Emperor's New Paradigm." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9(6): 277-83. Caporael, Linnda R. 2001. "Evolutionary Psychology: Toward a Unifying Theory and a Hybrid Science." Annual Review of Psychology 52: 607-28. de Waal, Frans B. M. 2002. "Evolutionary Psychology: The Wheat and the Chaff." Current Directions in Psychological Science 11(6): 187-91. Toby and Cosmides (Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology) |
| 2/1 | Chapter 3 | Pinel (Hunger, eating and ill health) Seligman (Biological boundaries) Wilcoxon (Illness-induced aversions) |
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| 2/8 | Rosch (Natural categories) Eals (Hunter-gather theory) Sugiyama (Cross-cultural evidence) Haselton (Error management theory) Ekman (Constants across cultures) Pinker (Language as an adaptation) |
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| 2/15 | Chapter 4 | Moore (Nonverbal courtship) Simpson (Sociosexuality) Buss (Sex differences in jealousy) |
Low, Bobbi S. 2005. "Women's Lives There, Here, Then, Now: A Review of Women's Ecological and Demographic Constraints Cross-Culturally." Evolution and Human Behavior 26(1): 64. |
| 2/22 | Chapter 5 |
Apicella, Coren L., and Frank W. Marlowe. 2004. "Perceived Mate Fidelity and Paternal Resemblance Predict Men's
Investment in Children." Evolution and Human Behavior 25(6): 371 |
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| 3/1 | Chapter 6 | Kenrick (Evolution and social cognition) |
Faurie, Charlotte, Dominique Pontier, and Michel Raymond. 2004. "Student Athletes Claim to Have More Sexual
Partners Than Other Students." Evolution and Human Behavior 25(1): 1. Hughes, Susan M., Franco Dispenza, and Jr Gordon G. Gallup. 2004. "Ratings of Voice Attractiveness Predict Sexual Behavior and Body Configuration." Evolution and Human Behavior 25(5): 295. Kurzban, Robert, and Jason Weeden. 2005. "Hurrydate: Mate Preferences in Action." Evolution and Human Behavior 26(3): 227. |
| 3/8 | Chapter 7 | Kenrick (Evolution, traits) Fairbanks (What is a good mother?) |
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| 3/22 | Chapter 8 | Shepher (Mate selection) Salmon (Importance of kin relations) |
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| 3/29 | Chapter 9 | Sherman (Nepotism and evolution of alarm cells) |
Fehr, Ernst, and Urs Fischbacher. 2004. "Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms."
Evolution and Human Behavior 25(2): 63. Haley, Kevin J., and Daniel M. T. Fessler. 2005. "Nobody's Watching? Subtle Cues Affect Generosity in an Anonymous Economic Game." Evolution and Human Behavior 26(3): 245. |
| 4/5 | Chapter 10 | Wilson amd Daly (Competitiveness, risk-taking) Campbell (A few good men) |
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| 4/12 | Chapter 11 | Geary (Evolution and developmental sex differences) |
McBurney, Donald H., Daniel J. Zapp, and Sybil A. Streeter. 2005. "Preferred Number of Sexual Partners: Tails of Distributions and Tales of Mating Systems." Evolution and Human Behavior 26(3): 271 |
| 4/19 | Chapter 12, 13 | De Waal (Primates a natural heritage) |
Huberman, Bernardo A., Christoph H. Loch, and Ayse . 2004. "Status as a Valued Resource." Social Psychology Quarterly 67(1): 103-14. |
| 4/26 | Class Presentations | |
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