Jon A. Sefcek

Evolutionary Personality Psychology

Multiple selective pressures maintain and increase heritable behavioral variability among individuals across both developmental and evolutionary time: (1) directional social selection favors convergent traits, promoting mutually beneficial cooperative interactions; (2) disruptive social selection favors divergent traits, providing release from within-species competition; (3) genetic diversification responds adaptively to the stochastic (random) characteristics of environmental hazards such as uncontrollable morbidity (disease) and mortality (death); (4) developmental plasticity epigenetically directs development adaptively along different alternative pathways, modifying permanent and stable behavioral dispositions to suit long-term contingencies of survival and reproduction; and (5) behavioral flexibility deploys rapid and reversible short-term adaptive behavioral responses to transient situations.

The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Mate Choice: How Ecology, Genes, Fertility, and Fashion Influence Mating Strategies

Abstract The recent incorporation of sexual selection theories into the rubric of evolutionary psychology has produced an important framework from which to examine human mating behavior. Here we review the extant empirical and theoretical work regarding heterosexual human mating preferences and reproductive strategies. Initially, we review contemporary evolutionary psychologys adaptationism, including the incorporation of modern theories of sexual selection, adaptive genetic variation, and mate choice. Next, we examine womens and mens mating preferences, focusing on the adaptive significance of material, genetic and fertility benefits, and their relationship to environmental characteristics. Following this, we consider human mate choice in relation to non-adaptive preferences. This discussion ends with a look at context effects for individual differences in mate-preferences and reproductive strategies.

A life-history model of human fitness indicators.

Recent adaptationist accounts of human mental and physical health have reinvigorated the debate over the evolution of human intelligence. In the tradition of strong inference the current study was developed to determine whether either Millers (1998, 2000a) Fitness Indicator Theory or Rushtons (1985, 2000) Differential-K Theory better accounts for general intelligence (“g”) in an undergraduate university population (N = 192). Owing to the lengthy administration time of the test materials, a newly developed 18-item short form of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM-18; Sefcek, Miller, and Figueredo 2007) was used. A significant, positive relationship between K and F (r = .31, p < .001) emerged. Contrary to predictions, no significant relationships were found between “g” and either K or F (r = –.09, p ≥ .05 and r = .11, p ≥ .05, respectively). Though generally contrary to both hypotheses, these results may be explained in relation to antagonistic pleiotropy and a potential failure to derive correct predictions for within-species comparisons directly from the results of between-species comparisons.

Eriksonian Lifespan Theory and Life History Theory: An Integration Using the Example of Identity Formation

Furthering the cause of consilience in the social sciences a model is proposed in which Eriksonian life span theory and life history theory are integrated. The model explains individual differences in the Eriksonian developmental stages as a function of the individual differences in developmental trajectories of life history theory as conceptualized by Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991). Eriksons fifth stage of identity formation is used to examine the model, with the results of three studies presented to illustrate the viability of the model. Future research should examine other aspects of the model and the relationship between the developmental trajectories in life history theory and the Eriksonian stages in greater detail.

Development and Validation of an 18-Item Medium Form of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices

The Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) is a widely used measure of general intelligence (g), both across settings and cultures. Due to its lengthy 40-min administration time, several researchers have developed short-form scales, yet these forms typically yield a significantly lower reliability. This article describes the creation of an 18-item short form (APM-18) and its validation in three samples of Southwestern U.S. university students (total N = 633). The APM-18 shows similar psychometric properties to both the previously published 36-item long form and 12-item short form, but retains a reliability estimate closer to the original APM. This, plus the shorter administration time (25 min) relative to the complete APM (40-60 min), makes it useful for time-constrained or mass-testing situations.

Evolutionary Perspectives of Personality

Evolutionary psychology is an important meta-theoretical paradigm for understanding universal and sex-differentiated adaptations. Despite this, it remains somewhat ignored within the mainstream study of individual differences. We outline some of the evolutionary approaches that lend to a fuller understanding of individual differences related to personality psychology. This chapter is presented in four main sections: (1) a brief summary of trait-based approaches that have been used to understand human personality, (2) an introduction to some of the evolutionary principles important to understanding behavior, (3) an explication of the function of individual differences within populations and the evolutionary mechanisms that produce such variation, and (4) a review of contemporary evolutionary models of individual differences with particular focus on personality traits.

Human Sexual Dimorphism, Fitness Display, and Ovulatory Cycle Effects

Social roles theorists claim that differences between the sexes are of limited consequence. Such misperceptions lead to misunderstanding the important role of sexual selection in explaining phenotypic differences both between species and within humans. Countering these claims, we explain how sexual dimorphism in humans affect expressions of artistic display and patterns of male and female aggression across the ovulatory cycle.

Attachment and life history strategy

Del Giudice addresses a complex and pertinent theoretical issue: the evolutionary adaptiveness of sex differences in attachment styles in relation to life history strategy. Although we applaud Del Giudice for calling attention to the problem, we regret that he does not sufficiently specify how attachment styles serve as an integral part of a coordinate life history strategy for either sex.