IDEP Faculty
Current EP Graduate Students
Evolutionary Psychology Resources
Individual Differences Resources
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Graphic created by Paula Duntley
The Individual Differences and Evolutionary Psychology (IDEP) Area focuses on the analysis of human psychology and behavior through the lens of modern evolutionary theory. Evolutionary psychology is a hybrid discipline that draws insights from modern evolutionary theory, biology, cognitive psychology, anthropology, economics, computer science, and paleoarchaeology. The discipline rests on a foundation of core premises:
(1) Manifest behavior depends on underlying psychological mechanisms, information processing devices housed in the brain, in conjunction with the external and internal inputs that trigger their activation;
(2) Evolution by selection is the primary causal process responsible for creating such complex functional mechanisms;
(3) Evolved psychological mechanisms are functionally specialized to solve adaptive problems that recurred for humans over deep evolutionary time;
(4) Selection designed the information processing of many evolved psychological mechanisms to be adaptively influenced by specific classes of information from the environment;
(5) Human psychology consists of a number of functionally specialized evolved mechanisms, each sensitive to particular forms of contextual input, that get combined, coordinated, and integrated with each other to produce manifest behavior.
Research conducted within the IDEP area includes: mating strategies, sexuality, attractiveness, language, speech, handedness, dynamical systems, homicide, stalking, conflict between the sexes, strategies for preventing sexual victimization, status and social reputation, jealousy, envy, love, and other social emotions.
The IDEP Area at the University of Texas offers a doctorate of psychology degree. It provides advanced training in evolutionary psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, comparative psychology, research methods, and statistics. In addition to their research with faculty members in evolutionary psychology, graduate students are encouraged to collaborate with other faculty members in the Department of Psychology, the Department of Biology, and others. The IDEP Area also offers opportunities for undergraduates to become involved in research.
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