Artiklen undersøger, hvordan følelser relaterer sig til interne reguleringsvariabler og evolutionær psykologi. Den argumenterer for, at følelser har udviklet sig som adaptive responser, der hjælper med at regulere adfærd i sociale og miljømæssige sammenhænge. Forfatterne understreger vigtigheden af at forstå disse følelser i en evolutionær kontekst for at få indsigt i menneskelig adfærd og psykologiske mekanismer.
Titel på undersøgelse:
The Evolutionary Psychology of the Emotions and Their Relationship to Internal Regulatory Variables.
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Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
The paper explores emotions through an evolutionary psychology lens, proposing they evolved as adaptive mechanisms to regulate internal variables critical for survival and reproduction. Cosmides and Tooby argue that emotions are not random but coordinated responses—integrating perception, cognition, and physiology—to address ancestral challenges like mating, predation, or social cooperation. They link emotions to internal regulatory variables (e.g., fear modulating heart rate or anger adjusting resource allocation), suggesting these states fine-tune behavior and bodily systems to match environmental demands. The authors emphasize that each emotion reflects a specialized “program” shaped by natural selection, activating when specific cues signal adaptive problems. For instance, disgust protects against pathogens, while love fosters pair-bonding. This framework ties emotional diversity to evolutionary pressures, positing that understanding their design requires analyzing how they manage trade-offs in energy, attention, and risk. The study calls for integrating physiological and psychological data to map these regulatory roles, advancing a theory of emotions as evolved solutions to recurring fitness challenges.