#182 David Bjorklund: Evolution, Child Development, And Modern Environments
Dr. David F. Bjorklund is a Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in developmental and evolutionary psychology. He served as Associate Editor of Child Development (1997-2001) and is currently serving as Editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. His books include The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (with Anthony Pellegrini), Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development (edited with Bruce Ellis), Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development, Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrative Approach (with Carlos Hernández Blasi), and Children’s Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences, now in its fifth edition. His current research interests include children’s cognitive development and evolutionary developmental psychology.
In this episode, we talk about evolutionary developmental psychology. We discuss the role that development plays in biology; the importance of the field of evolutionary psychology; the current state of the art of human epigenetics; behavioral genetics and the nature-nurture debate; what is “innate” in human psychology; behavioral plasticity; our long period of development as a species and what we acquire through it; some species-typical mental abilities, like imitation, theory of mind and culture; the importance of play; and implicit knowledge. We wrap up the interview by talking about evolutionary mismatch and how we are not adapted to certain aspects of our modern environment, and the problems that might bring; and also how we can apply this knowledge to develop better education systems.
Time Links:
Biology, development, and evolutionary psychology
We have to be careful about epigenetics
Extreme environmentalism, Freud, Skinner, Piaget
Behavioral genetics and the interactionist approach
What is “innate” behavior?
Behavioral plasticity in humans
The effects of the environment are biologically-mediated
Development need inputs from the environment
The importance of our long periods of development
Imitation, theory of mind, play
The importance of culture
Implicit knowledge (and core knowledge)
Evolutionary mismatch, and problems in modern environments
Applying this knowledge to Educational Psychology
Follow Dr. Bjorklund’s work!
Follow Dr. Bjorklund’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2UeCwMs
Academia.edu profile: https://bit.ly/2D0sdBg
Articles on Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2IIHBYk
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2TWi1PB
Books:
The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology: https://amzn.to/2G2It6J
Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development: https://amzn.to/2YR4PPG
Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development: https://amzn.to/2K9sY0T
Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrative Approach: https://amzn.to/2UwTt4f
Children’s Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences: https://amzn.to/2SzQweb