Saturday, August 4, 2012

More thoughts on Evo Psych

Ok, lots of stuff.  This one's not ready for the public, but I'm putting it out there anyway.  Thoughts and comments would be very much appreciated here.  I'm thinking about how EP is FUNDAMENTALLY not the same as other evolutionary sciences.  We are not talking about discrete variable or even things that can be tracked on a simple linear continuum (pigmentation or whatever).  Personality and behavior are SO intrinsically multifaceted that it's hard enough just to pin down what you are even looking at.  Should a discipline be penalized for trying to study something that is simply really, really hard to fully grasp?  Everything I said last time still stands- I'm not saying there's not a long way to go and that proponents of EP don't need to step up their game, maybe, but the field is really just starting out. Statistically significant results are usually worth looking at in a larger context.  They might not always (or even often...who knows) meant precisely what EP authors suggest that that mean, but I think it's worth finding out 1. What they DO really and truly suggest from a scientific standpoint and 2. what we can do to further contextualize those findings and build something more convincing from them.