The findings highlight the need for Problem Gambling treatment services to undertake routine screening for alcohol, violence, IPV and traumatic life events (and routine screening for gambling problems in IPV services)... more abstractThe findings highlight the need for Problem Gambling treatment services to undertake routine screening for alcohol, violence, IPV and traumatic life events (and routine screening for gambling problems in IPV services) and to tailor treatment for clients who present with such a cluster of issues.

Gambling Studies and Life History Theory

Life history theory provides a powerful set of interlocking models for explaining a range of behaviours. Human reproductive behaviour can also be usefully understood through the LH lens. Risk-taking in sexual behaviou... more abstractLife history theory provides a powerful set of interlocking models for explaining a range of behaviours. Human reproductive behaviour can also be usefully understood through the LH lens. Risk-taking in sexual behaviour is a reasonable proxy for a generalized shorter life history strategy even with noisy data. Risky behaviours can be expected to cluster together.

Life History Theory and Sexual risk behaviour

The Venus figurines are among the most mysterious products of Upper Palaeolithic art in Europe. While pointing to aesthetic tastes in the Palaeolithic, they pose questions about their purpose and the minds of their cr... more abstractThe Venus figurines are among the most mysterious products of Upper Palaeolithic art in Europe. While pointing to aesthetic tastes in the Palaeolithic, they pose questions about their purpose and the minds of their creators. We do not know and most likely will never know with certainty whether they are depictions of real women or stylized ideals of feminine beauty or feminine virtues, whether they represent objects of desire or veneration. The present article points to some rarely noticed features of some of the figurines which suggest new interpretations of their nature and the minds of their creators.

Human Evolution, Ice Age Cave Art, and Palaeolithic venus figurines

Life History Theory and Sexual risk behaviour

Gambling Studies and Life History Theory

Recently, psychologists have started to extend evolutionary behavioral analysis to art and literature. The question of whether story telling has an adaptive function—such as aiding social information-processing in the... more abstractRecently, psychologists have started to extend evolutionary behavioral analysis to art and literature. The question of whether story telling has an adaptive function—such as aiding social information-processing in the manner of the AI frame problem—or is a pleasurable by-product is still debated. Across human cultures through time and space, both sexes share and consume stories. Given that much of the patterns of human mating show antagonistic and competitive elements it is thus unlikely that an adaptive function for story-telling is the answer—or else key tactics, stratagems, and patterns would be handed to the opposition. However, human social adaptations evolved in an adaptively relevant environment of small groups of close kin. In this ancestral environment, story-telling could have had adaptive functionality and the pleasure that we have in them now could be as a by-product of our being keyed to this system. Patterns of human expression are not random or arbitrary, and a biological understanding can illuminate eternal themes and concerns. Viewed in this way, stories were ways to make sense of past experience, integrating them into the biography of an organism that lives in a world of social meaning. In pursuit of furthering study in this area, I present a thematic analysis of specifically female characters in horror and myth. Female characters at puberty, mate selection, motherhood, and menopause show themes and concerns consistent with the critical life history decisions to be made at these stages. These patterns show signs of being both long-lived and cross-cultural. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)

Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Horror Film, Life History Evolution, and Comparative mythology

Evidence that human evolution has been recent, regional and copious raises serious challenges for all human behavioral science disciplines

Genetics, Evolutionary Psychology, Anthropology, and Intelligence

Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology

Evolution Intrasexual Competition

Venus figurines—such as the famous Willendorf Venus--provide a possible window into the reproductive preferences of ancestral humans. These figurines cover a period of about 20000 years of human history and have been ... more abstractVenus figurines—such as the famous Willendorf Venus--provide a possible window into the reproductive preferences of ancestral humans. These figurines cover a period of about 20000 years of human history and have been found across ice-age Europe. There are a number of unknowns about such figurines. For example, they may be votive offerings, idealisations, or have some as-yet, unguessed-at function. Ancient figurines typically display body types typically considered obese by modern standards of medicine and aesthetics. While some have averred that such figurines show a marked change in human body preferences over thousands of years it is possible that this has been an artefact of particular approaches to measuring such figurines. Measuring a fuller extent of the markers of fat deposition seems to support a case for arguing that male preferences have broadly tracked fertility markers over ancestral time. The waist-to-hip ratio is arguably a more important fertility marker than obesity per se—and a 0.7 ratio has been found cross-culturally and in this sample. It is likely that such preferences have been further calibrated by local ecological variations—for example as regards food supply—but these calibrations would not have a great impact on proportionality preferences. Great caution must be taken in reading too much into such a limited sample.

Publication Name: Journal of Obesity and Weight Loss Studies

Reproduction, Life history, Evolution, and Archetypes

"Recent advances in neuroscience have convinced some that conscious free choice is illusory. However, nature is not in the habit of giving out free lunches and consciousness is no exception. Consciousness is not just ... more abstract"Recent advances in neuroscience have convinced some that conscious free choice is illusory. However, nature is not in the habit of giving out free lunches and consciousness is no exception. Consciousness is not just deliberative--a global access model of consciousness is empirically demonstrable to have functional properties. For example, the artificial removal of conscious access to environmental phenomena by subliminal or hypnotic suggestion has measurable effects on choice mechanisms. Examples such as the ability to excel at Stroop confusion tests or fail at prime-ignoring tasks are explored. http://www.ucc.ie/en/philosophy/events/fullstory-456457-en.html "

Evolutionary Biology, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, and Freewill and Determinism

Time: 12 PM to 4 PM

Location: UCC

Event Date: Mar 7, 2014

Human Evolution, Sex, Fertility, and Evolution and Human Behavior

Location: 43rd PSI Conference Ireland

Event Date: Nov 6, 2013

Organization: Psychological Society of Ireland

Evolutionary Biology, Sexual and Reproductive Health, and Reproduction and human fertility

Event Date: Sep 27, 2013

Organization: University College, Limerick

Sensitive topics present special challenges in design. However, playing safe also has ethical implications. Given that the history of behavioral science has been in part the history of over-turning human self-deceptio... more abstractSensitive topics present special challenges in design. However, playing safe also has ethical implications. Given that the history of behavioral science has been in part the history of over-turning human self-deception and delusion some degree of offence is unavoidable--perhaps even desirable--when it is offence to humanity at large. However, vulnerable populations deserve protection.

Ethics and Research Methodology

Event Date: May 12, 2012

Organization: CASE

Time: 9 PM to 10 PM

Event Date: Jan 16, 2012

Conference Start Date: Mar 25, 2012

Event Date: Jun 12, 2012

Organization: EHBEA

Conference End Date: Mar 28, 2012

Conference Start Date: Mar 25, 2012

Organization: EHBEA

Conference End Date: Mar 28, 2012

Conference Start Date: Mar 25, 2012

More Info: Talk at UEL

More Info: Apparently this is how some of my students see me. The talented artist Tudor Morris sketched this. Watch out for him in the future.