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DAVID BUSS :EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITYThree types of Selection: 1. Artificial Selection – (Breeding) occurs when humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species. 2. Natural Selection – a more general form of artificial selection in which nature rather than people select trait...

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DAVID BUSS: EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITY Three types of Selection: 1. Artificial Selection – (Breeding) occurs when humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species. 2. Natural Selection – a more general form of artificial selection in which nature rather than people select traits. 3. 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. Three distinct outcomes of evolutionary process: 1. Adaptations – evolved strategies that solve important survival/reproductive problems. -Often the products of natural or sexual selection and must have a genetic or inherited bases to them. 2. By-products – Traits that happen as a result of adaptations but are not part of the functional design. - “Come along for the ride” of natural or sexual selection. e.g., scientific ability or driving skill 3. Noise – also known as “random effects”, occurs when evolution produces random changes in design that do not affect function. -tends to be produced by chance and not selected for. e.g., belly button “innie” or “outie” Principles of Evolutionary Psychology -can be identified 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? The Nature and Nurture of Personality Fundamental Situational Error - the tendency to assume that the environment alone can produce behavior void of a stable internal mechanism. *”without internal mechanisms, there can be no behavior” Fundamental Attribution error - describes our tendency to ignore situational and environmental forces when explaining the behavior of other people and instead focus on internal dispositions. *The two must be involved and interact with each other Adaptive Problems and their Solutions: Mechanisms – the process of evolution by natural selection which produced two basic problems of life. They: - Operate according to principles in different adaptive domains - Number in the dozens or hundreds (maybe even thousands) - Are complex solutions to specific adaptive problems (survival, reproduction) Two Specific classes of mechanisms: Physical Mechanisms -Physiological organs and systems that evolved to solve

Physiological Mechanisms -Internal and specific cognitive, motivational, and personality systems that solve specific survival and reproduction problems. Evolved Mechanisms -psychological mechanisms relevant to personality can be grouped into three categories: 1. Goals/Drives/Motives 2. Emotions 3. Personality Traits Motivation and Emotion as Evolved Mechanisms Two goals and motives that act as evolved mechanisms: 1. Power 2. Intimacy Forms of power: 1. Aggression 2. Dominance 3. Achievement status 4. “Negotiation of Hierarchy” Forms of Intimacy: 1. Love 2. Attachment 3. “Reciprocal Alliance” *These drives are “adaptations” because they directly affect the health and well-being of a person. Personality Traits as Evolved Mechanisms - Adaptive significance of behavioral dispositions 1. Surgency – involves the disposition to experience positive emotional states to engage in one’s environment and to be sociable and confident. “Hierarchy Proclivities” – how people negotiate and decide who is dominant and who is submissive. 2. Agreeableness/ Hostility – marked by a person’s willingness to cooperate and help the group on the one hand or to be hostile and aggressive to the other. 3. Emotional Stability/ Neuroticism Emotional Stability - involves one’s ability to handle stress or not. Some people are calm under stress while others are high strung much of the time. Neuroticism – according to Mccrae and Costa, the tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, guilt, and sadness. 4. Conscientiousness –people who are careful and detail oriented as well as focused and reliable. 5. Openness – involves one’s propensity for innovation and ability to solve problems. ORIGINS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Environmental Sources Early Experiential Calibration - Childhood experiences make some behavioral strategies more likely than the others. Alternative Niche Specialization - Different people find what makes them stand out from others in order to gain attention from parents or potential mates. Heritable/ Genetic Sources Heritability – the extent to which a trait is under genetic influence. e.g., body type, facial morphology, physical attractiveness NONADAPTIVE SOURCES -some sources of individual which do not benefit survival or reproductive success. Neutral Genetic Variations which often take the form of

problems of survival

genetic mutations....