Evolutionary psychology and Positive psychology: Possible convergences

Evolutionary psychology and positive psychology are among the two recent trends of greater impact and influence in modern psychology. The first one is based on the principles of natural selection and sexual selection developed just over a century and a half ago by the British naturalist Charles Darwin and assumes that typical human behavior are cognitive adaptations to environments already nonexistent but that were present in the species' phylogenetic history, contributing to its survival. Positive psychology asserts that psychological science, over a period of more than a century of academic history, has been focused almost exclusively on the pathological problems and unhealthy behavior, neglected too many constructive aspects such as happiness, virtue, love and positive emotions. Although they come from divergent and seemingly incompatible traditions in many aspects, both present a series of complementary aspects that could lead to an eventual integration of the two models. The main objective of this paper is to propose some ideas that could serve as elements in order to develop integration both at the level of theory and research. This purpose, at the same time, could contribute to the achievement of a higher conceptual homogeneity in the dispersed field of psychology. The article is theoretical, with a review of the relevant sources for the discussion of the raised problems.