Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology and Genetics

Much of human behaviour, including violence and those activities thought to be characteristic of each sex, has been attributed to the heritage of human evolution. These ideas have stimulated much discussion but have been criticized for playing down the interplay between the developing individual and the environment. In modern times, their clearest expression has been in the writings of the sociobiologists and the evolutionary psychologists.

Keywords: sociobiology; selfish gene; altruism; behavioural ecology; cooperation; evolutionary biology

 References
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 Further Reading
    book Barker DJP (1998) Mothers, Babies and Health in Later Life. Edinburgh, UK: Churchill Livingstone. [Summary of the evidence for the effects of the fetal environment on the human babies developmental trajectory.]
    Bateson P (2004) The origins of human differences. Daedulus 133: 36–46. [A succinct discussion of the origins of human behavior.]
    book Krebs JR and Davies NB (eds) (1997) Behavioral Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 4th edn. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. [A collection of essays on modern approaches to behavioral ecology.]
    book Noble D (2006) The Music of Life: Biology beyond the Genome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [A delightful account of how to re-assemble the organism after the successes of moleculat biology.]
    book Oyama S, Griffiths P and Gray R (eds) (2001) Cycles of Contingency. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [A collection of essays on developmental systems theory, bringing together developmental and evolutionary approaches to behavior.]
    book Pagel M (2002) Encyclopedia of Evolution, 2 vols. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [Excellent collection of articles on all aspects of evolution.]
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Bateson, Patrick(Mar 2008) Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology and Genetics. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005855.pub2]