Joana Bastardas | Seminar A

Critical review: Psicologa evolutiva

This Reading from Jess Palacios talks about the evolutionary psychology and
includes some definitions, explanations, theories and methods about this topic.
It has been useful to read it to know more than the few things I knew about it.
First of all, one of the things that has impressed me the most when reading it is
the quantity of theories and different opinions that there has been during years
from a lot of thinkers: as the Darwins natural selection or the contemporary
evolutionary psychology.
The fact that still nowadays there is people who is trying to understand the
psychology of the humans and have other opinions is because the evolutionary
psychology is a relevant and debated topic, and there are still things to discover
about this field.
I have observed that one of the most important debates is the heredityenvironment topic. I have found interesting that it has been studied from a lot of
perspectives or variables such as the context, the culture or the society.
I have also found interesting the way in which for being human there is a lot of
things in humans life that happen in the same way, because it is planned in our
specie, so we have like a body clock.
Even though, apart from the specie fact, we receive a lot of influences: some
received by the genetics and the influences that we receive through the
environment in which we are (culture, historic moment, people relations).
And referring to the genetics, it is also surprising that it gives us some
similarities with our parents, and at the same time some differences. For that
reasons are so important both concepts: the heredity and the environment.
Another topic that has been explained during the reading is the evolution of the
figure of the child. It is astonishing the change that has suffered: at first children
were considered as mini adults, and it was not until the Enlightenment that
was discovered the childhood, so a bit late.
There are a lot of theories related with the concept of the child. For example,
Locke said that we were born with the mind in blank and we were acquiring

Joana Bastardas | Seminar A

knowledge with the experiences we passed and the influences we had, but on
the other hand Kant and Rosseau believed that we were born with innate ideas.
All that different ideas and theories have made me hesitate and question me
about it, arriving at the point where I think the same as Kant and Rosseau.
And finally, to conclude, and relating this reading to the field of education, I think
that is very important the way in which a person is educated so that he will be
one way or another depending on it, because is one of the factors that
influences a lot the way of being, aside from the genetics and other factors.
For that reason is so important to have good teachers, that teach good contents
but also that encourages their students to learn more and be good citizens.