... 70 million years ago when we diverged from our primate ancestors. Evolutionary psychologists believe that the idea of 'survival of the fittest' (natural selection) led to specific adaptions taking place - both physically and mentally. These changes designed humans for life in an environment resembling the African savannah, in which our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived for thousands of years. Obviously our environment has changed, but the adaptions continue. The main thread through evolutionary psychology is that adaptions have no purpose or planning over time. Changes happen unconsciously. Mapping Psychology1, commentary 2, page 159 sums up the evolutionary perspective neatly as "...modern humans have brain structures and tend to exhibit behaviours and motivations that evolved a long time ago but are sustained as genetically transmitted, biology-based predispositions passed down the generations." This is re-iterated by Tooby and Cosmides (1992) who define evolutionary psychology "...by the fact that the inherited structure of the human ...

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