While I agree in principle that evo psych has a place in our study of human behavior, I have never seen a published work that didn't indulge in some seriously weak gender confirmation bias. They're not all as obvious as this piece of trash (http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-People-Have-More-Daughters/dp/0399533656), but EP does seem to be a refuge for lazy researchers whose bread is buttered more by controversy and media attention than the traditional avenues of scholarship and peer review.
I don't think all human behavior is cultural, but I do think that our enormous range of cultural variation suggests that our biological imperatives are highly adaptable to cultural veneers. Evolution is driven by reproduction, and any "good enough" solution stands a fair chance of being passed on. Any attempt to reverse-engineer our preferences by looking at "optimal" caveman strategies is risky at best (http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2008/12/fallacies-of-evolutionary-psychology.html) and ridiculous at worst, like Aristotle and Hobbes trying to divine the best system of government through a state of nature argument.
When social scientists made racial claims based on phrenology or native climate, they were often received by an audience grateful to have its prejudices validated. I think I see a little of that happening with evo psych, at least as it's represented by its most vocal proponents. If you know of a good work of evo psych with strong and defensible academic foundations, I would love to read it and have my opinions refined.
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I don't think all human behavior is cultural, but I do think that our enormous range of cultural variation suggests that our biological imperatives are highly adaptable to cultural veneers. Evolution is driven by reproduction, and any "good enough" solution stands a fair chance of being passed on. Any attempt to reverse-engineer our preferences by looking at "optimal" caveman strategies is risky at best (http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2008/12/fallacies-of-evolutionary-psychology.html) and ridiculous at worst, like Aristotle and Hobbes trying to divine the best system of government through a state of nature argument.
When social scientists made racial claims based on phrenology or native climate, they were often received by an audience grateful to have its prejudices validated. I think I see a little of that happening with evo psych, at least as it's represented by its most vocal proponents. If you know of a good work of evo psych with strong and defensible academic foundations, I would love to read it and have my opinions refined.