Personality and Social Psychology Review · 1997 · 316 citations · 62 references
Social SciencesEvolutionary BiologySocial PsychologyEvolutionary PsychologyHuman EvolutionSocial CognitionBehavioral EvolutionCognitive EvolutionComparative CognitionEvolutionary AnthropologyGroup LivingIdentity FormationConfiguration ModelEvolution Of Social BehaviorHuman Behavioral EcologyHuman Cognitive EvolutionHuman Evolutionary EcologyNature Versus Nurture DebateNature-culture DualismSocial Cognition Evolution
The vocabulary bridges evolutionary perspectives by replacing nature‑nurture dualism with repeated assembly. The article introduces a vocabulary for evolutionary analyses in human cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences. The core configuration model, grounded in human morphology and ecology, defines face‑to‑face groups as the selective context for uniquely human mental systems and is illustrated through its relevance to self and social identity, distributed cognition, shared reality, and comparative tasks of scientists and foragers. The model shows that face‑to‑face groups are the selective context for uniquely human mental systems, leading to the conclusion that human cognition is truly social and specialized for group living.
This article introduces a vocabulary suitable for evolutionary analyses in the human cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences. The vocabulary carves a middle way between advocates and critics of evolutionary perspectives by substituting the concept of repeated assembly for nature-nurture dualism. A model of core configurations-based on human morphology and ecology in human evolutionary history-is presented, and I argue that these configurations offace-to-face groups are the selective context for uniquely human mental systems. Hence, human cognition is “truly social,” specialized for group living. The relevance of the core configuration model is illustrated with respect to two areas of interest to social psychologists: the self and social identity, and distributed cognition and shared reality. A final section illustrates the integrative power of the core configuration model with a brief comparison of the social and cognitive tasks faced by scientists and foragers.
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