Evolutionary Psychology #365
April 15, 2016
Image from Neil Conway
This week, we're looking at the field of Evolutionary Psychology: what is it, how the research is done, what types of questions it might be good at answering, and times its ideas may have led us astray.
We are joined by a panel of four: Maeve O'Donovan, Associate Professor and chair of Philosophy at Notre Dame of Maryland University; Kirk Honda, Chair of the Couple and Family Therapy Program at Antioch University Seattle, practicing psychotherapist, and host of the Psychology in Seattle podcast; Catherine Salmon, Professor of Psychology at the University of Redlands in Southern California and co-editor of the books "Evolutionary Psychology: Public Policy and Personal Decisions", and "Family Psychology: An Evolutionary Perspective"; and Glenn Geher, Professor and Chair of Psychology and Founding Director of Evolutionary Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and co-author of the book "Mating Intelligence Unleashed".
Guests:
- Catherine Salmon
- Kirk Honda
- Maeve O'Donovan
- Glenn Geher
Guest Bios
Catherine Salmon
Catherine Salmon is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Redlands in Southern California. She is a co-author of the books "Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution and Female Sexuality", "Evolutionary Psychology: Public Policy and Personal Decisions", "Family Psychology: An Evolutionary Perspective", and the "Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Family Psychology". Her most recent book is "The Secret Power of Middle Children" (co-authored with Katrin Schumann). Her primary research interests include birth order and the family, reproductive suppression and dieting behaviour, and female sexuality, particularly with regard to prostitution and pornography.
Kirk Honda
Kirk Honda is Chair of the Couple and Family Therapy Program at Antioch University Seattle and he has been practicing as a psychotherapist in Seattle since 1996. He is also the host of the Psychology In Seattle Podcast, a weekly show about psychology and psychotherapy. He has given community presentations on various psychological topics including marital therapy, teen drug abuse, and therapists' experience of difficult clinical moments.
Maeve O'Donovan
Maeve O'Donovan is Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Notre Dame of Maryland University, in Baltimore, MD. Her research combines work in philosophy of mind, feminist philosophy, epistemology, and disability studies to examine ways that both knowledge and ignorance of disability and disabled persons are created and maintained. She is currently writing a book on misunderstandings and misuses of evolutionary biology in evolutionary psychology and philosophy of mind. She argues for an intersectional analysis and critique of evolutionary psychology and its role in generating and reinforcing harmful conceptions of gender, race, disability, sexuality, violence, and other social phenomena. Her previous book, "Why Race and Gender Still Matter: An Intersectional Approach", was published in 2014.
Glenn Geher
Glenn Geher is Professor and Chair of Psychology, the Founding Director of Evolutionary Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He also directs the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology lab. He is the author of "Evolutionary Psychology 101" and co-author of "Mating Intelligence Unleashed". His research focuses on the interface of human mating and cognitive processes and the state of Evolutionary Psychology within the landscape of academia.
