Evolutionary personality psychology

Abstract

The field of psychology historically has been split between those who focus on human nature or species-typical characteristics and those who focus on the major ways in which individuals differ. This split is reflected within personality psychology, within evolutionary psychology, and within the broader field of psychology writ large. Evolutionary personality psychology provides a unifying framework within which both important approaches—individual differences and species-typical characteristics—can be integrated successfully. We argue that evolutionary psychology cannot ignore important individual differences because they are omnipresent, somewhat stable over time, show moderate heritability, and have known empirical links to components of functioning that recurrently contribute to reproductive fitness. At the same time, the field of personality psychology cannot afford to ignore evolutionary psychology: It provides the only cogent metatheory for the broader field of psychology and provides a powerful set of conceptual tools, such as life-history theory and evolutionary genetics, for transforming personality psychology into an explanatory rather than merely descriptive science.