Theory of Mind
I have just been reading a discussion about the quality of the research in evolutionary psychology, and about the misrepresentation of results. Sometimes research is presented on the web or by the media in a way, that does not enable the readers to evaluate, if it is flawed or based upon careful procedures and highly significant statistics.
In my own stance, evolutionary psychology is the foundation of my theory of mind.
I have just been reading a discussion about the quality of the research in evolutionary psychology, and about the misrepresentation of results. Sometimes research is presented on the web or by the media in a way, that does not enable the readers to evaluate, if it is flawed or based upon careful procedures and highly significant statistics.
In my own stance, evolutionary psychology is the foundation of my theory of mind.
"Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind
The better people's theory of mind, the better they can understand and predict other people's behavior, and the better they can protect themselves.
About 15 years ago, I started to learn about evolutionary psychology, and the result was a drastic change of my theory of mind.
Before then, I thought that most men were good and decent. I projected, that they would also want a monogamous relationship, getting automatically bonded by entering a physically intimate relationship. I considered promiscuous men as an unpleasant minority of animals, whom I perceived as sick. I had the wrong impression, that the majority of men were decent and monogamous, but hidden somewhere, while I experienced it as my personal misfortune, when I was too often targeted as prey by disgusting predators hoping to gain access to my body. (Stories in entries 318 and 119 are examples.) My flawed theory of mind caused me to feel puzzled, why I was not honored by men with the intellectually valuable communication, that I craved for.
About 15 years ago, I started to learn about evolutionary psychology, and the result was a drastic change of my theory of mind.
Before then, I thought that most men were good and decent. I projected, that they would also want a monogamous relationship, getting automatically bonded by entering a physically intimate relationship. I considered promiscuous men as an unpleasant minority of animals, whom I perceived as sick. I had the wrong impression, that the majority of men were decent and monogamous, but hidden somewhere, while I experienced it as my personal misfortune, when I was too often targeted as prey by disgusting predators hoping to gain access to my body. (Stories in entries 318 and 119 are examples.) My flawed theory of mind caused me to feel puzzled, why I was not honored by men with the intellectually valuable communication, that I craved for.
Since my learning about evolutionary psychology, I have developed a much more realistic theory of mind, which I have been elaborating in this blog. I know by now, that the majority of men are driven to some more or less detrimental extent by the same instincts as animals. Only a minority of men have the rare talent of being able to treat a woman as an equal, of being fully aware of her having a personality and of being able to communicate with her intellectually. Only a minority of men have the rare quality of not being blurred by the instinctive trigger of a woman's body. My quest is finding one of them as a mindmate.
Evolutionary psychology supplied me with the paradigm for my new theory of mind. I have been reading a lot about this subject, I have attempted to attribute some probability to whatever seems plausible. Where I have not yet found better information, I have even been speculating. I make no claims about scientific truth of any kind.
A relationship cannot be better than the theory of mind, upon which it is based, and this implies, that both partners need to share the same theory of mind.
