Definition
An evolutionary perspective of personality and individual differences proposes that our personalities and individual differences have evolved, in part, to provide us with some form of adaptive advantage in the context of survival and reproduction. This perspective is an evolutionary psychology perspective, which in itself is based on biological evolutionary theory. Evolutionary psychology integrates psychological theory with evolutionary biology, in an effort to understand traits, cognition, and behaviors, and how individuals may differ across these in light of achieving their evolutionary goals.
Introduction
Evolutionary perspectives of personality and individual differences are attempts at explaining our human traits and characteristics at a species level, group level (e.g., male and female differences, differences in specific personality traits), and at an individual level (i.e., how each of us are...
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Kahl, B.L., Kavanagh, P.S. (2020). Evolutionary Perspective. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1632
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