My thesis is a journey of discovery and understanding into my management and personal practice. I use first person action research methods of living life as inquiry, writing as inquiry, autoethnography and creating stories. My inquiry consists of four parallel cycles, examining my conduct, ideas and reflection. I start by inquiring into a practice of bearing witness to what is happening to communities and the planet, through climate change, biodiversity loss, social justice and resource use, and the potential to address from local to global levels. I explore the barriers faced by communities and individuals looking to solve issues and understand a wider perspective. I locate myself within relevant literature, examining potential solutions through deeper learning and a cosmic and spiritual perspective. I inquire into my practice in wider or holistic, Gaian or cosmological paradigms, drawing on the Dream of the Earth (Berry, 1988a) and expressed by exploring dreaming and creating stories. I make connections between practice, ideas and reflection through an extended epistemology and explore how I journeyed into living between self, spirit, community, planet and cosmos.

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Despite representing an approach to psychology that places the most emphasis on the importance on the role of our ancestral past in shaping the human cognitive architecture, Evolutionary Psychology remains largely neglected in the field of archaeology. Though archaeologists have incorporated approaches into their research that adopt both cognitive and evolutionary perspectives, the lack of engagement with the concepts and methodologies of Evolutionary Psychology arguably risks the abnegation of valuable opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration that could greatly benefit both fields. This research applies the methodology of Evolutionary Psychology to the study of stone tool production, which is arguably the most abundant source of evidence from our ancestral environments regarding past cognition. The research provides an assessment of the adaptive advantages and information-processing problems of the various task domains associated with stone tool producing behaviours, together with considerations of possible test designs from the perspective of Evolutionary Psychology. The data collected relating to novices’ judgment of blow strength adopting a mixed-methods, explanatory sequential test design are also presented. The results are then evaluated to determine the extent to which a posited cognitive bias for acquiring competence in blow strength judgement is supported.

The aim of this thesis is to show the variety of information which can be obtained from sensitive analysis of data on MZ and DZ twins reared together, the most popular design in human behaviour genetics. Initial theoretical considerations suggest the range of models it is possible to fit to the data. We introduce a method of calculating power based on the non-central chisquare distribution. This allows calculation of sample sizes required to reject false hypotheses with given probability and it is shown that even in some simple situations, very large sample sizes are required for reliable rejection. Our calculations suggest that the power of the three twin studies analysed to discriminate between simple alternative models, is rather low. A twin study of examination performance is able to reject environmental models for variation in most variables and detects large heritabilities for both scholastic achievements and IQ. Significant heterogeneity of gene action is found for English and Mathematics suggesting specific genetical variation for those subjects. A larger study of sexual and social attitudes and personality finds several differences in patterns of variation between the sexes. Many genotype-environment interactions are demonstrated for certain scales of measurement but rescaling the data to remove them makes little difference to the results of genetical analysis in most cases. Evidence for the genetical effects of competition between twin sisters is found for the trait of Sexual Satisfaction and differences between males and females in the relative importance of cultural and genetic variation are found in Libido, Masculinity and Toughmindedness. There is directional, but not significant evidence of higher heritabilities for personality traits in men. Because of variation in the age at which different genotypes begin sexual activity the heritability of age of first sexual intercourse increases with age itself. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of cultural effects influencing this trait. The behaviour of twin boys interacting with their parents was recorded by ethological observation in both twins and singletons. Most of the measurements were too unreliable to hope to detect genetic variation with such small samples, the only exceptions being child speech and a measure of rudimentary conscience. However, some new evidence against arbitrary parent-initiated treatment inequalities for MZ and DZ twins provides further support for the validity of the twin method. A method for the genetical analysis of covariance structures is developed which allows simultaneous maximum likelihood estimates of general and specific variation from the various genetical and environmental sources. The method is illustrated on some twin data for cognitive abilities. Possibilities for future research arising from the results of each of these twin studies are discussed.

Evolutionary psychology suggests that predispositions toward many behaviours exist because they were adaptive in the evolutionary environment. Adaptive behaviours are often sex differentiated due to biological differences in reproduction. Men are typically more competitive than women due to their innate motivation to compete for access to a greater quantity of mates which then typically decreases as reproductive resources are acquired. However, in the ancestral environment, this reproductive strategy was not adaptive for women therefore this variation in the competitiveness of women should not be evident. Research into the effect of reproductive resources on competitiveness is in its early stages and predominantly uses niche samples of highly competitive individuals. This thesis therefore aimed to explore this phenomenon using more representative samples of men and more accessible measures of competitiveness than those used in previous research. In a novel, online, behavioural measure of competitiveness, single non-fathers were shown to be more competitive than committed fathers, consistent with the evolutionary explanation of the origins of competitiveness. Furthermore, this variation in competitiveness was not evident in women. Fluctuating levels of testosterone have previously been implicated as supporting mate acquisition behaviours in men. Although this finding was not evident in the current research, testosterone levels did predict the competitive motivation of men in committed relationships consistent with self-reported interests in pursuing mates. Female mate preferences corroborated these findings showing women prefer for men to evidence a decrease in mating effort as relationship commitment increases. Finally, there was no evidence that priming cues relevant to reproductive success influenced competitiveness. Overall, the results provide some support for the evolutionary ii account of competitiveness in men, consistent with the suggestion that it reflects mating motivations and varies adaptively to promote reproductive success.

Of all the research programmes in the evolutionary behavioural sciences, evolutionary psychology is unique in the scale and intensity of criticism it faces, from both philosophers and social scientists, forming a powerful impression that, no matter its purported benefits, evolutionary psychology is a discredited research programme, an outdated research programme, something one can legitimately dismiss. This thesis contends that those who dismiss evolutionary psychology wholesale fail to entitle themselves to that dismissal. I begin by championing a streamlined evolutionary psychology, one that navigates away from unnecessary controversy, one that better reflects the actual practice of evolutionary psychology on the ground, and one that doesn’t overshadow what’s valuable about the programme. After correcting several common misconceptions about evolutionary psychology, I arrive at the heart of what adaptationist hypothesizing can do for psychology: discovering new design features of extant psychological traits and discovering hitherto unknown psychological traits. I go through the logic of adaptationist reasoning in psychology. Inter alia, I argue that, although evolutionary psychology hypotheses might start off as ‘simple’, they can progressively become more complex, progressively mirroring the adaptations they’re targeting. Existing philosophy of science treatments of evolutionary psychology have given prominence to sceptical arguments, which means the positive presentation of evolutionary psychology has come rather short – something I seek to redress by demonstrating its potential for novel predictions across a wide spectrum of phenomena. It’s reasonable to demand greater evidence for evolutionary psychology explanations but it’s wrong to demand that evolutionary psychology alone satisfy such demands – these demands are properly allocated to the evolutionary and behavioural sciences collectively. With its legitimate and reasonable role in the evolutionary behavioural sciences correctly identified, evolutionary psychology merits serious consideration – contrary to the prevailing pessimism concerning its credibility.

Altruism and cooperation have been troubling concepts for theorists. Where altruism towards kin is well-researched, altruism towards non-kin is an evolutionary puzzle. There have been advances in evolutionary psychology where theorists have explored the evolution of altruism through the lens of sexual selection theory, hypothesising that altruism leads to increased chances of being chosen as a mate, particularly as females value altruistic tendencies in a romantic partner. As a result, it was hypothesised males would be more cooperative and altruistic towards those they were attracted to. In study 1, it was found that females placed more importance on altruism and cooperativeness in a mate, far more than males. In addition, males placed more importance on physical attractiveness in a mate, far more than females. In study 2, it was found that people were altruistic and cooperative towards attractive members of the opposite sex when viewing images in response to moral scenarios. When I aimed to replicate this finding, using a game-theoretic framework in studies 3, 4 and 5, I found that people were fair, and altruistic when allocating stakes, and attractiveness did not predict altruism. This consistent fair behaviour led me to further investigate the role of fairness in mate attraction. In studies 6 and 7, it was found that third-parties found fairness to be more attractive than altruism, particularly female participants. In study 8, I further delved into the role of fairness in mate choice, where I found that fairness could be attractive because it increases relationship maintenance in the short-term, but it is altruism that increases relationship longevity in long-term relationships. Furthermore, it was found that people perceive short-term, fair couples to have less intention to cheat than long-term altruistic couples. This thesis opens a new and exciting door in the field of evolutionary psychology, providing evidence that fairness could play a role in mate choice.

Language is arguably one of the most salient features that distinguish humans from other animal species. However, despite the existence of a large body of relevant theoretical and empirical research, there is currently no consensus as to why language emerged exclusively in the human species or how it evolved its unique communicative structure. In this thesis, I therefore take a multi-pronged approach to analysing and testing several different hypotheses for the biological function and evolution of language. In Chapter I, I review the evidence and theoretical arguments for each of these proposals and provide, in place, a synthetic perspective which integrates or eliminates each of these ostensibly competing hypotheses for the biological function of language. In Chapter II, I employ the first experimental test of the interdependence hypothesis: the unique proposal offered to explain the emergence and potential coevolution of language and cooperation in the human species. In pursuit of this experiment, I employed a cooperative social foraging task using small and large groups to determine what factors enable individuals to make sense of information from others and converge upon a group consensus. In Chapter III, I take an experimental approach to determine whether aspects of human language can be characterised in terms of honest signalling theory. In this respect, I test several different proposals predicted by the sexual selection and deception hypotheses for human language function. In Chapter IV, I divert attention away from biological function to focus more closely on language structure. More specifically, I take an experimental approach to the problem of how and indeed whether recursive syntax evolved to be a consistent feature of human language. In pursuit of this experiment, I utilized the Imposing Memory Task (IMT) and a recursive syntax measure, to determine relative performance on each of these cognitive tasks, thereby testing whether recursive syntax may have evolved in tandem with higher-order intentionality (also known as embedded mindreading). Finally, in Chapter V, I discuss the results and implications of these experiments, and possible suggestions for future studies.

Les élèves des écoles maternelles et élémentaires sont évalués. En cas de suspicion de troubles des apprentissages, ils sont adressés dans une unité d'évaluations pour une expertise médicalisée. Cette recherche porte sur la manière dont ce dispositif a pris place dans celui de l'école dans le but de traiter ces éventuels troubles des apprentissages. Car, ces enfants semblent enlisés dans des procédés d'apprentissages repérables chez des enfants de maternelle et de cours préparatoire. Les apports de la psychologie du développement nous permettent de les décrire, mais ne nous éclairent pas sur l'articulation entre les développements cognitif et affectif. C'est donc au regard des apports de la psychopathologie clinique et de la psychanalyse, en nous appuyant sur des études de cas, que nous traitons de ces problématiques interférant sur les apprentissages scolaires. À partir de là nous interrogeons la pertinence du dispositif médical pour le traitement de la difficulté scolaire. / The pupils of preschool and elementary school are estimated. In case of suspicion of possible leaming disorders they are sent in a unit of evaluation for a medical expertise. This research suggests examining how the medical device has come in that of the school to detect at thepupil's of possible leaming disorders and treat them. Yet these children seem to stay in processes of leaming which are the ones of children of preschool and first year of elementary school. The contributions theories of cognitive development allow us to describe them, but does not enlight us about the articulation between the cognitive and emotional development. lt is therefore, based on the contributions of the clinical psychopathology and the psychoanalysis, based on several case studies, that we treat problems susceptible to interfere on the school leaming. From there we question the relevance of the medical device for the treatment of the school difficulty.