Abstract
This chapter reviews several major current evolutionary psychological theories of personality. Evolutionary psychology helps to clarify the role of personality by separating evolved mechanisms from actual behavior. The chapter covers empirical evidence for these theories in human and nonhuman animal personality research. A chronic omission of evolutionary-based models of human personality from nonhuman personality theory limits the ability to test evolutionary theories of personality. The chapter explains the empirical evidence supporting evolutionary theories of personality in humans with specific emphasis on evidence for natural, sexual, and frequency dependent selection of personality traits. It also reviews the methodological merits and limitations of the research with a focus on methodological approaches that might best test evolutionary theories of personality explicitly. The chapter offers a template of a systematic approach needed to bring theory and data in evolutionary personality psychology together.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology |
| Publisher | John Wiley and Sons Ltd |
| Pages | 851-877 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780470939376 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0471264032, 9780471264033 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 8 2015 |
Keywords
- Empirical evidence
- Evolutionary personality psychology
- Human personality research
- Nonhuman personality research
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology