Human Evolution and Small Groups

人类进化和小群体

• 批准号: 9321461
• 负责人: Linnda Caporael
• 金额: $ 6.5万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-06-01 至 1995-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9321461&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Human; Evolution; Small; Groups

9321461 Caporael Most behavioral, social and biological science theories use individuals as the basic unit of analysis and assume these units to be more or less rationally self-interested. The objective of Dr. Caporael in this research is to challenge the adequacy of that focus and assumption. She is developing an hypothesis that humans are adapted for small group living, resulting in adaptive specializations for sociality that can be and have been extended for constructing, identifying and solving problems in novel domains. These domains include those associated with large-scale social organization and nonsocial objects. This perspective predicts a tension between social construction of knowledge, which facilitates coordination within groups, and the negotiation of the habitat, which requires some correspondence with reality. In this research, Dr. Caporael is synthesizing theory and data in evolutionary biology, psychology, and anthropology to develop a general theory of sociality drawing on evidence for correspondences between group configuration and psychological functioning. Sociality theory provides a plausible reinterpretation of traditional topics in human evolution, as well as a plausible interpretation for folk psychology and evolutionary folk psychology. Dr. Caporael is also applying the theory to familiar topics (the Turing test, technological innovation, and scientific organization) in Science, Technology and Society (STS) research. The results of this study should be of great interest to psychologists, evolutionary scientists and STS researchers. ***

大多数行为、社会和生物科学理论都将个体作为分析的基本单位，并假设这些单位或多或少是理性的利己主义者。 Caporael博士在这项研究中的目标是挑战这种关注和假设的充分性。 她正在发展一种假设，即人类适应小群体生活，从而导致社会性的适应性专业化，这种适应性专业化可以并且已经扩展到构建，识别和解决新领域的问题。 这些领域包括与大规模社会组织和非社会对象相关的领域。 这一观点预测了知识的社会建构（有利于群体内的协调）与生境谈判（需要与现实保持一定的一致性）之间的紧张关系。 在这项研究中，Caporael博士综合了进化生物学、心理学和人类学的理论和数据，利用群体结构和心理功能之间的对应关系的证据，建立了一个社会性的一般理论。 社会性理论为人类进化的传统主题提供了合理的重新解释，也为民间心理学和进化民间心理学提供了合理的解释。 Caporael博士还将该理论应用于科学，技术和社会（STS）研究中的熟悉主题（图灵测试，技术创新和科学组织）。 这项研究的结果应该引起心理学家，进化科学家和STS研究人员的极大兴趣。 ***