Mark Prokosch, Ph.D.

I teach several undergraduate courses offered by the department including Foundations of Psychology, Seminar in Social Psychology, Seminar in Biological Psychology, and a course called Inquiries in Psychological Science.

I also teach the Honors Foundations course offered through the University Honors Program.

TEACHING & RESEARCH INTERESTS:

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES —

genetic & epigenetic regulation of neural development

attachment & social influences on neuroplasticity

moral sentiments

motivation & vitality

varieties of religious experience

biases & attributions

memory encoding & retrieval

substance use disorders

psychometric intelligence

mate preferences

NEUROSCIENCE —

evolutionary

social cognitive

behavioral

neuroendocrinology

complex adaptive systems & emergent phenomena

HOMININ EVOLUTION & PSYCHOLOGY —

Tinbergen's explanations of behavior (ultimate & proximate)

life history theory

comparative primate social cognition

language & theory of mind ontogeny

bounded rationality

social complexity theory

reciprocity, reputation, & games

brain evolution & uniqueness in the human genome

MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS —

Buddhist psychology (vipassana tradition)

contemplative neuroscience

default mode & automaticity

affect & executive attention

mindfulness based cognitive therapy

My research background is primarily in evolutionary psychology. I am most interested in the integration of ultimate and proximate explanations of human social cognition. My specific work focuses on human mate preferences for conspicuous behavioral displays such as intelligence.