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Beyond the justification hypothesis: A broader theory of the evolution of self‐consciousness
Author(s) -
Vazire Simine,
Robins Richard W.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20072
Subject(s) - psychology , consciousness , psychoanalysis , epistemology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , philosophy , neuroscience
We evaluate Henriques' Justification Hypothesis (JH; this issue) and argue that his explanation for the evolution of self‐consciousness is overly narrow and the evolutionary sequence of events is backwards. Instead, we propose a broader theory of the evolution of self‐consciousness, with four categories of adaptive functions: (a) self‐regulation, (b) selective information processing, (c) understanding others, and (d) identity formation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol.