ABSTRACT
I n about the past two decades, psychology has been blessed by the develop-ment of two new subelds, evolutionary and cultural psychology. Each has provided an important perspective and corrective to what has come before. Evolutionary psychology brings to bear on the phenomena of psychology one of the greatest scientic theories of all time. It introduces the important idea of domain specicity into a psychology previously dominated by general process theories, enriches psychological understanding with evolutionary and adaptive explanations, and places human behavior and mind in their natural context. Cultural psychology calls the attention of psychology to one of the most powerful forces, perhaps the most powerful force, that shapes human beings, challenges universal principles of psychology from a direction different from evolutionary psychology, and also emphasizes that humans must be studied in context. Both bring important new questions to the forefront of psychology. We should celebrate these accomplishments and recognize that the two together can do much more than either alone, not just because each can add to our understanding but because there is an interaction effect: They can each improve the other.
