DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Trying to Fix the Development in Evolutionary Developmental Psychology

The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
By David F. Bjorklund and Anthony D. Pellegrini. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2002. xi + 444 pp. Cloth, $39.95.

If we agree for the moment that there is such a thing as human nature, we immediately encounter an extraordinarily thorny question: Where does our nature come from? This question drives David Bjorklund and Anthony Pellegrini's new book, The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology. The question is so challenging, in part, because human nature reflects at least two conceptually distinct processes: evolution and development. The former, which operates across generations, allows the continued existence of characteristics that permitted survival and reproduction in our ancestors; the latter, which operates during a person's lifetime, contributes to the appearance of all of our characteristics. The problem facing students of human nature is how to understand the relationship between these processes and how they contribute to the appearance of our traits.