Evolutionary Psychology and Origins

One thing that evolutionary psychology at its best can possibly explain is the origin of certain behavior.

I present to you an EP explanation of Attention Deficit Disorder I read years ago in a magazine - maybe the Atlnatic Monthly. Humans have brief attention spans because our cognition is geared for walking in the jungle. When walking in the jungle, it is necessary to notice new phenomenon quickly such as a panther or snake lurking in a tree. Our eyes must be attracted to the continuously novel in order to remain alert.

Now this explanation attempts to explain the origin of brief attention spans (although the long wait of hunting seems to me to be the complete opposite of ADD's channel surfing through life). We can get a sense of how a particular behavior may have been useful (although potentially any behavior could be construed and manipulated to be seen as useful in our ancestral past). But, explanations like this tell us little of the modern phenomenon of ADD.

This is a problem because psychology needs many levels of explanation of behavior (origins, value in current social context, historical viewpoints of it, etc, etc) as well as normative judements and solutions in determing whether it is a problem and how to fix it.