Is EP Growing?

• Mission Statement by James Brody, 12/30/96
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    • More on clinical aspects of EP by Judith Kraybill, Ph.D., 2/3/97
      
      

I don't know if EP is growing but I think it is. It's like one of those jungle movies where you know something is out there but you can't be sure. There are unparalleled opportunities to paraphrase every human behavior problem, psychological theory and concept but in EP/SB language. It's a grand chance for an overpopulated discipline to nibble some extra territory for teaching jobs, research, and publications. (It's also a heck of a lot of fun!) For example, there's a book of case studies, edited by Kalman Glantz, under development. Time and Newsweek regularly have articles that are EP relevant. John Pearce, who's instructing the course with me this August, describes Sulloway's book on birth order as a Darwinian creation. The Evolution of Desire (David Buss, Basic Books, $14, paper) is easily translated into marriage manuals and various dating guides for singles. (I'd love to develop a high school course using Buss and some related information about familial incidence of various disorders. I think the adolescents could use some information about what hounds they may be adopting when they pair off.) Yes, this is a fertile time for SB/EP.

The "evolution meme" (same as gene but applies to concepts that are passed forward in time, just as genes are) is in many places but its expression varies greatly. Journals include "Brain, behavior, and evolution" and "Advances in evolutionary psychology." I searched the Net several months ago and found 500 references to and listings for EP. The University of CA @ Santa Barbara, Stanford, the University of Michigan, York Univ. (Canada), and Oxford have departments of 3 or more psychology faculty in EP. These are probably underestimates by now. There's even a Human Behavior and Evolution Society and a dozen home pages, in varying states of maintenance, devoted to EP.

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