Skip to main content
Log in

Darwinian Functionalism: A Cognitive Science Paradigm

  • Published:
The Psychological Record Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Darwinian functionalism integrates psychology’s past with the present to create an interdisciplinary research paradigm that promotes hypothetico-deductive theory construction which is computational in nature and constrained by a völkerpsychologie knowledge base encompassing the evolutionary history of the organism. This paper summarizes ideas abstracted from evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and paleoanthropology in an attempt to describe such a paradigm.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • AMSEL, A. (1989). Behaviorism, neobehaviorism, and cognitivism in learning theory: Historical and contemporary perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • ALEXANDER, R. (1989). The evolution of the human psyche. In P. Mellars & C. Stringer (Eds.), The human revolution (pp. 456–512). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ANDERSON, J. R. (1990). The adaptive character of thought. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • AUSUBEL, D. (1963). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Reinhart, & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • BOHR, N. (1950). On the notions of causality and complementarity. Science, 111, 51–54.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • BUSS, A. H. (1973). Psychology: Man in perspective. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • CHOMSKY, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • COSMIDES, L. (1989). The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition, 30, 187–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • COSMIDES, L., & TOOBY, J. (1987). From evolution to behavior: Evolutionary psychology as the missing link. In J. Dupre (Ed.), The latest on the best: Essays on evolution and optimality (pp. 277–306). Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • COSMIDES, L., & TOOBY, J. (1989a). Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, Part I: Theoretical considerations. Ethology and Sociobiology, 10, 29–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • COSMIDES, TOOBY, J. (1989b). Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, Part II: Theoretical considerations. Ethology and Sociobiology, 10, 29–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DAWKINS, R. (1990). The selfish gene: New edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DELL, P. F. (1985). Understanding Bateson and Maturana: Toward a biological foundation for the social sciences. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 11(1), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DENNETT, D. C. (1992). Consciousness explained. New York: Little Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • EIBL-EIBESFELDT, I. (1989). Human ethology. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • GAZZANIGA, M. S. (1985). The social brain: Discovering the networks of the mind. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • GIBSON, J. J. (1985). Conclusions from a century of research on sense perception. In S. Koch & D. E. Leary (Eds.), A century of psychology as science (pp. 783–802). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • GREGORY, R. (1983). Visual perception and illusions. In G. A. Miller (Ed.), States of mind (pp. 42–65). New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • GREEN, D. M., & SWETS, J. A. (1966). Signal detection theory and psychophysics. Los Altos, CA: Peninsula Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • HERGENHAHN, B. R. (1986). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • HILGARD, E. R. (1987). Psychology in America. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • HUMPHREY, N. K. (1976). The social function of intellect. In P. P. G. Bateson & R. A. Hinde (Eds.), Growing points in ethology (pp. 303–317). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • HUMPHREY, N. K. (1986). The inner eye. London: Faberand Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • JAMES, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • JUDSON, H. F. (1980). The search for solutions. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • KNIGHT, J. M. (1983, November). Evolutionary behaviorism: A meta-theory of variation and selection. Paper presented at the meeting of the Oklahoma Psychological Association, Tulsa, OK.

    Google Scholar 

  • KNIGHT, J. M. (1990). On beyond structuralism. The Tower Review, 7(1), 17–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • KNIGHT, J. M., FREDERICKSON, W. A., & MARTIN, S. A. (1987). Q-Methodology and the measurement of self-perception. Operant Subjectivity, 10, 114–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • KUHN, T. S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • LETTVIN, J. Y., MATURANA, H. R., MCCULLOCH, W. S., & PITTS, W. H. (1959). What the frog’s eye tells the frog’s brain. Proceedings of the IRE, 1940–1951.

    Google Scholar 

  • MACKINTOSH, N. J. (1977). Stimulus control and attentional factors. In W. K. Honig & J. E. R. Staddon (Eds.), Handbook of operant behavior (pp. 481–513). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • MARGOLIS, H. (1987). Patterns, thinking, and cognition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MARX, M. H., & CRONAN-HILLIX, W. A. (1987). Systems and theories in psychology (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • MATURANA, H. R. (1975). The organization of the living. A theory of the living organization. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 7, 313–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MINSKY, M. (1986). The society of mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • POPPER, K. (1974). The rationality of scientific revolutions. In R. Harre (Ed.), Problems of scientific revolution (pp. 73–93). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • RUMELHART, D. E. (1975). Notes on a schema for stories. In D. G. Borrow & A. Collins (Eds.), Representation and understanding. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1956). A case study in scientific method. American Psychologist, 11(5), 221–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1966). The phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior. In B. F. Skinner (Ed.), Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1974). About behaviorism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1976). The particulars of my life. New York: Alfred Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences. Science, 213, 501–504.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SKINNER, B. F. (1983). A matter of consequences. New York: Alfred Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • STEPHENSON, W. (1953). The study of behavior: Q technique and its methodology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • STEPHENSON, W. (1980). Newton’s fifth rule and Q-Methodology. American Psychologist, 35(10), 882–889.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • STEPHENSON, W. (1986). William James, Niels Bohr, and complementarity. The Psychological Record, 36, 519–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • STEPHENSON, W. (1987). Measurement of self perception: Some reflections on the article by Knight et al. Operant Subjectivity, 10, 125–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • WOODWARD, W. R. (1982). The discovery of social behaviorism and social learning theory, 1870–1980. American Psychologist, 37(4), 396–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Knight, M. Darwinian Functionalism: A Cognitive Science Paradigm. Psychol Rec 44, 271–287 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395134

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395134

Navigation