Evolutionary Theory of Personality by David Buss, Lecture notes of Psychology

Download Evolutionary Theory of Personality by David Buss and more Lecture notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! DAVID BUSS - Biological/ evolutionary paradigm - Evolutionary theory of personality BACKGROUND  He is a high school dropout, and when he was 17 he was arrested two times due to drug charges.  He works night shift at a truck stop, there he had quite a lot of unpleasant experience. He has work mates who threatened him that they’ll cut his hair and picks a fight with him for no apparent reason.  He became exhausted and wants to change his life, so he enrolled in a night school to finish his high school. He eventually graduated and achieve a high school diploma.  He won a random lottery to enter in a university of Texas in Austin, his intellectual curiosity stimulated when he enters college. He wanted to become a scientist of human mind.  He became professor at Harvard University.  One of the motivation in learning and understanding about human mind, thought, and behavior was the field of evolution. Specifically, his interest focus in sex and all that comes along with it, such as attraction, lust, jealousy, cheating, flirting and gossip. OVERVIEW OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY  Charles Darwin (1859) laid foundation for the modern theory of evolution, even though the theory itself has been around since the ancient Greeks.  Artificial selection (otherwise known as “breeding”) occurs when humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species. - It means, there is an intervention of humans, we specifically choose characteristics that we want to see in a certain species, like a Great Dane dog, that dog is big because we selected that characteristic for them to have.  Natural selection is simply a more general form of artificial selection in which nature rather than people select the traits. - It occurs when traits become either more or less common in species over long periods of time, because they do or do not lead to greater survivability. - Nature selects our characteristics that contributes for us to survive or live longer.  Sexual selection operates when members of the opposite sex find certain traits more appealing and attractive than others and thereby produce offspring with those traits. - Species or animals have standards before they let other male animals mate with them. Like for example, who is the strongest, colorful, etc. - Mark fitness – good characteristics that’ll passed onto the offspring, for the children to have greater survivability compare to others.  Adaptions are evolved strategies that solve important survival and/ or reproductive problems. - Often the product of natural or sexual selection and must have a genetic and inherited bases to them. - Example, our sweat glands, they are the forms of adaptations because they solve our thermal regulation problem. Another example, our taste preference when it comes to sexual selection, is also example of adaptation. The reason why we prefer sweet and fatty food, because that is very adaptive on our body, because they are good sources of energy in earlier evolutionary times were relatively scarce. - Glucose – the only compound that is being accepted by our blood brain barrier in large amounts.  By-products are traits that happen as a result of adaptions but are not part of the functional design. - Example, our ability to drive is by- product of adaptation. Because of human intelligence we are learning different skills, such as for us to have the ability to scientifically think.  Noise, also known as “random effects” occurs when evolution produces random changes in design that do not affect function. - Noise is only produce by chance. And is not selected for. - Example, the shape of our belly button if it is in-ny or out-ty is produce by noise or chance. (It also produced of by- product of an adaptation, which is cause by our umbilical cord.) PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY  Evolutionary psychology can be defined as the scientific study of human thought and behavior from an evolutionary perspective and focuses on four big questions: 1. Why is the human mind designed the way it is, and how did it come to take its current form? 2. How is the human mind designed; that is, what are its parts and current structure? 3. What function do the parts of the mind have, and what is it designed to do? 4. How do the evolved mind and current environment interact to shape human behavior? EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITY Evolutionary theory is one of the few recent theories of personality that attempts once again to explain the grand view of human personality- its ultimate origins as well as its overall function and structure.  Here we will learn the evolutionary perspective of, how our behaviors, thoughts and even our personality traits come to be. And we can see that our ancestors have also manifested such types of personality traits, behaviors and thoughts. Evolution also starts with the assumption that individual members of any species differ from one another.  We can see here that this concept favors the “uniqueness” of the individual. The essence of Buss’s theory of personality revolves around adaptive problems and their solutions or mechanisms. The Nature and Nurture of Personality  Behavior and personality are caused by either internal qualities or external- environmental ones.  Fundamental situational error, or the tendency to assume that the environment alone can produce behavior void of a stable internal mechanism.  It emphasizes that our internal mechanism or biological aspect doesn’t have role on our personality development. But without internal mechanisms, there can be no behavior, just like if we don’t have brain we won’t have thought patterns or emotions and behavior.  Fundamental attribution error to describe our tendency to ignore the respond of our emotion is anger. And if an event occurs as beneficial to a person’s well-being, then they’ll feel positive emotion such as when we experience the feeling of pride because we feel that sense of pride when we achieve something or when we become successful in executing a specific situation.  Motivation and emotion are directly linked with stable personality traits. - Example, when an individual is driven to achieve and win in a competition. And they’re status oriented, that person label as dominant or power oriented. A person who regularly acts in ways to bring people together (very cooperative with others/ agreeable), likewise, if a specific individual experiences sadness, shame, guilt, or anxiety when other people do not, so we can say that, that person is anxious, or in the language of Eysenck and McCrae & Costa, these individuals are neurotic or their neuroticism is high. - Motivation is also part of our personality. Personality Traits as Evolved Mechanisms  Buss starts with the assumption that motivation, emotion, and personality are adaptive in that they solve problems of survival and reproduction.  Buss conceptualizes individual differences and personality as strategies for solving adaptive problems. David Buss design a model of personality that resembled the big five trait approach of McCrae & Costa, but added or put evolutionary taste on it. EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITY Buss’s model of personality very closely resembles the Big Five trait approach of McCrae and Costa but it is not identical in structure:  Surgency involves the disposition to experience positive emotional states and to engage in one’s environment and to be sociable and self-confident. - This is equivalent/ synonymous to extroversion. A surgent person is driven to achieve and are very dominant, they also lead others. In ancestral times, these individuals were high in status, attractive, and desirable mates. - In language of evolution, Surgency involves the concept called as, “hierarchy of proclivities”. This how people negotiate or decide who is dominant and who is submissive. - In animal kingdom they’re also doing this. Most of the time they do it in a very aggressive manner. But people demonstrate it through verbal and through accumulation of wealth & resources. - Surgent people tended to have more children. And marked by a tendency to take risks, and to experience positive emotion and initiating and maintaining friendships and relationships.  Agreeableness/ hostility, is marked by a person’s willingness and capacity to cooperate and help the group on the one hand or to be hostile and aggressive on the other. - The opposite of agreeableness in the language of Buss is hostility. - There are people who are cooperative, group oriented, and warm, while others are selfish, more hostile towards others. - Agreeable trait is more likely to work smoothly with others, and tend to form alliances with people. - Connected to our ancestor, when they hunt in groups.  Emotional stability/ neuroticism revolves around response to danger and threat. - Fear and anxiety are adaptive emotions. And it actually helps us to survive.  Conscientiousness is one’s capacity and commitment to work. - People who are very careful, mindful and detailed when working, at the same time, they’re focus and reliable. - If an individual is seen as less conscientious, therefore, they are less reliable, less dependable, and tend to lack focus. - Very adaptive for survival.  Openness involves one’s propensity for innovation and ability to solve problems. - Openness is closely aligned with intellect and intelligence. But willingness to try new things, and willingness to have novel experiences rather than sticking with one’s routine. - Explorer people, they forge ahead while others are hesitant. Just like with our ancestors, they didn’t hunt in the same territory coz there might be a scarce in resources. So they must have openness to venture new territories. Origins of Individual Differences Environmental Sources One environmental source of personality differences is what Buss termed early experiential calibration, by which he meant that childhood experiences make some behavioral strategies more likely than others.  Example of calibration, if people grow up without a father. They are more likely to become sexually active at a young age. And have more sex partners during adolescents and adulthood.  People in this situation cultivate in more promiscuous sexual strategy, because parental attention is not reliable and they view adult relationship as transient.  That’s why we see someone who can easily jump into one relationship to another. A second origin of environment induced individual differences is alternative niche specialization, which means that different people find what makes them stand out from others in order to gain attention from parents or potential mates.  Example of this, is Adler’s theory, which is the ordinal position. Wherein children of different birth orders gravitate toward different personalities, interest, and activities, coz that is the only way for them to gain attention from their parents.  Example, first born find their niche from their parents and authority figures, the 2nd or latter born find their niche by being focus on overthrowing those empower. Heritable/ genetic sources body type, facial morphology, and degree of physical attractiveness acts as heritable sources of individual differences.  Example, when it comes to our physical differences. Like muscular men with masculine dominant looks will garner more female attention which will lead to more opportunities for sexual activity, coz it is viewed as “marked fitness” for us individuals.  In evolutionary speaking, the ideal characteristics that we see in a certain individual is brought about by their genetics, or that something they inherent from their parents, those are something that contribute to their survival and potential to reproduce or pass those ideal characteristics to their children that’ll make their children have a greater survival as well. Non-adaptive sources the most common non- adaptive source of individual differences is neutral genetic variations, which most often take the form of genetic mutations.  Common non-adaptive source of individual differences. There are some genetic mutations that are neutral, they are neither harmful nor beneficial to individual. They don’t have effects despite mutation or even evident benefit to us.  For example, our earlobes, it is just a neutral mutation, wherein our ears could be attach or free earlobe.  Example, our eye color doesn’t harm nor benefit an individual. Maladaptive sources Maladaptive traits are those that actively harm one’s chance for survival or decrease one sexual attractiveness.  Individual with genetic deficits.  Example, there is something different in them when they are born  According to evolutionary theory, if a person has this characteristics, their chance for survival and reproduction decreases. NEO-BUSSIAN EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES OF PERSONALITY MacDonald, similar to Buss, also tied personality dimensions to evolved strategies for solving adaptive problems. MacDonald further argued that it is adaptive for a species to produce individuals that vary along a continuum in their responses to important problems because changing environments require different responses.  Example, when MacDonald studied guppy fish. Guppy fish doesn’t have much natural predators. Meaning to say it affects the personality trait of a guppy fish. Wherein these guppy fish are quite bold.  Matatapang sila dahil wala silang masyadong predator in the ocean.  MacDonald said that if you present a predator to the guppy fish, of course their personality of being bold will vanished and their new personality could be passed to the new generation or onto their offspring’s. Coz changing environment requires different responses. Nettle recently expanded on evolutionary theories of personality and argued that Tooby and Cosmides’s argument that personality could not be an adaption failed to appreciate how environmental change and variability would ultimately select for individual differences in behavior within a given species. Nettle hypothesized there have been fitness costs and benefits of each of the Big Five dimensions of personality during ancestral periods of evolutions.  Nettle studied female chickadee birds. Female chickadee birds have different personality, some of them are explorative and bold, and some are