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Approaches to an Evolutionary Personality Psychology: the Case of Sociosexuality

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Approaches to an Evolutionary Personality Psychology: the Case of Sociosexuality D i s s e r t a t i o n Approaches to an Evolutionary Personality Psychology: The Case of Sociosexuality zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.) im Fach Psychologie an der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät II der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin eingereicht von Dipl.-Psych. Lars Penke geb. am 02. September 1978 in Detmold Dekan: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Coy Präsident der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Christoph Markschies Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Jens B. Asendorpf 2. Prof. Dr. Steven W. Gangestad 3. Prof. Dr. Peter Borkenau eingereicht: 10. Mai 2007 Datum der Promotion: 17. Juli 2007 This thesis is dedicated to my son Richard. Table of Contents Abstract (English) Abstract (German) Introduction Part I: The Evolutionary Genetic Approach to Personality The Evolutionary Genetics of Personality Lars Penke, Jaap J. A. Denissen and Geoffrey F. Miller 22 Open Peer Commentaries by Timothy C. Bates, Anne Campbell, Niels J. Dingemanse, Harald Euler, Aurelio José Figueredo & Paul Gladden, David C. Funder, Steven W. Gangestad, Kerry L. Jang, Wendy Johnson, Matthew C. Keller, James J. Lee, W. John Livesley, Gerald Matthews, Robert R. McCrae, Denis Réale, Irene Rebollo & Dorret I. Boomsma, Gad Saad, Andrew Sih & Alison M. Bell, Susan C. South & Robert F. Krueger, Alexander Strobel, Alfonso Troisi, and Kees van Oers Author’s Response: Genes, Evolution, and Interdisciplinary Personality Research Lars Penke, Jaap J. A. Denissen and Geoffrey F. Miller Part II: The Life History Approach to Personality Single Attribute Implicit Association Tests (SA-IAT) for the Assessment of Unipolar Constructs: The Case of Sociosexuality Lars Penke, Jan Eichstaedt and Jens B. Asendorpf Beyond Global Sociosexual Orientations: A More Differentiated Look at Sociosexuality and its Effects on Courtship and Romantic Relationships Lars Penke and Jens B. Asendorpf) Abstract Evolutionary approaches have not been as successful in personality psychology as they were in other areas of psychology, arguably because of the misfit between modern evolutionary psychology’s strong focus on universal adaptations and the study of (mostly heritable) individual differences in personality psychology. In this thesis, two alternative evolutionary approaches, which appear more suitable for personality psychology, are discussed and applied. The evolutionary genetic approach asks why genetic variance in personality differences exists. In the first part of this thesis, three evolutionary genetic mechanisms that could explain genetic variance in personality differences are assessed: selective neutrality, mutation-selection balance, and balancing selection. Based on evolutionary genetic theory and empirical results from behavior genetics and personality psychology, it is concluded that selective neutrality is largely irrelevant, that mutation- selection balance seems best at explaining genetic variance in intelligence, and that balancing selection by environmental heterogeneity seems best at explaining genetic variance in personality traits. A general model of heritable personality differences is presented, which conceptualizes intelligence as a fitness component and personality traits as individual reaction norms of genotypes across environments, with different fitness consequences in different environmental niches. Complementary to the evolutionary genetic approach, the life history approach starts with how people allocate their resources to evolutionarily relevant life tasks. It asks how individual differences in these allocation decisions emerge from the interplay of various developmental components, including personality differences. In the second part of this thesis, differences in the allocation to long- term versus short-term mating tactics (as reflected in the construct of sociosexuality) are used as a case to exemplify this approach. Two new measures for the assessment of sociosexuality components are presented. While the revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) is a questionnaire that assesses the facets Behavior, Attitude and Desire, the sociosexuality Single-Attribute Implicit Association Test (SA-IAT) is a new methodic development aimed to assess implicit sociosexuality indirectly. Both measures showed concurrent validity in online studies, but only the SOI-R facets were predictive of mating tactics, including observed flirting behavior, as well as for the number of sexual partners and changes in romantic relationship status over the following 12 months. Furthermore, distinct sex differences, developmental trends, degrees of assortative mating, and effects on a romantic partner were found for the three SOI-R facets, indicating their unique roles in the development of mating tactics. Zusammenfassung Evolutionäre Herangehensweisen hatten in der Persönlichkeitspsychologie nicht den gleichen Erfolg wie in anderen Bereichen der Psychologie, vermutlich wegen der Fehl- passung des starken Fokus auf universelle Adaptationen in der modernen Evolutionspsychologie mit der Untersuchung (größtenteils erblicher) individueller Unterschiede in der Persönlichkeitspsychologie. In dieser Dissertationsschrift werden zwei alternative evolutionäre Herangehensweisen diskutiert und angewendet, welche passender für die Persönlichkeitspsychologie erscheinen. Die evolutionsgenetische Herangehensweise fragt, warum genetische Varianz in Persönlichkeitsunterschieden existiert. Im ersten Teil dieser Dissertationsschrift werden verschiedene evolutionsgenetische Mechanismen, die genetische Varianz erklären können, verglichen. Auf Grundlage evolutionsgenetischer Theorie und empirischen Befunden aus der Verhaltensgenetik und Persönlichkeitspsychologie wird geschlussfolgert, dass ein Mutations-Selektions- Gleichgewicht genetische Varianz in Intelligenzunterschieden gut erklären kann, während ausgleichende Selektion durch Umweltheterogenität die plausibelste Erklärung für genetische Unterschiede in Persönlichkeitseigenschaften ist. Es wird ein allgemeines Modell vorgeschlagen, welches Intelligenz als Fitnesskomponente konzeptualisiert und Persönlichkeitseigenschaften als individuelle Reaktionsnormen von Genotypen auffasst, welche unterschiedliche Fitnesskonsequenzen in unterschiedlichen Umweltnischen haben. Komplementär zur evolutionsgenetischen Herangehensweise beginnt die „Life History“- Herangehensweise damit, wie Menschen ihre Ressourcen in evolutionär relevante Lebensbereiche investieren. Sie fragt, wie Unterschiede in diesen Investitions- entscheidungen aus dem Zusammenspiel verschiedener Entwicklungsomponenten entstehen, einschließlich Persönlichkeitsunterschiede. Im zweiten Teil der Dissertations- schrift wird diese Herangehensweise am Beispiel von Investitionsunterschieden in Langzeit- versus Kurzzeit-Paarungstaktiken (wie im Konstrukt der Soziosexualität abgebildet) erläutert. Zwei neue Maße zur Erfassung von Soziosexualitätskomponenten werden vorgestellt. Während das revidierte Soziosexuelle Orientierungsinventar (SOI-R) ein Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Facetten „bisheriges Verhalten“, „Einstellung“ und „Begehren“ ist, wurde mit dem „Single-Attribute“ Impliziten Assoziationstest (SA-IAT) eine neue Methode zur indirekten Erfassung impliziter Soziosexualität entwickelt. Beide Maße zeigten konkurrente Validität in Onlinestudien, aber nur die SOI-R-Facetten erwiesen sich als prädiktiv für Paarungstaktiken, einschließlich beobachtetem Flirtverhalten sowie der Zahl der Sexualpartner und Veränderungen im Beziehungsstatus innerhalb der nächsten 12 Monate. Weiterhin wurden für die SOI-R-Facetten distinkte Geschlechtsunterschiede, Entwicklungsverläufe, Grade selektiver Partnerwahl, und Effekte auf den Beziehungspartner gefunden, was ihre spezifischen Rollen in der Entwicklung von Paarungstaktiken unterstreicht. 8 Introduction Over the last two decades, evolutionary approaches had a great deal of success in various branches of psychology (e.g. Buss, 2005; Dunbar & Barrett, 2007). However, personality psychology apparently withstands this general trend. While some notable theoretical attempts toward an evolutionary personality psychology have been made as early as 1990 (Buss, 1990; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990), not much has happened since then, and the current state must be regarded as unsatisfactory (Miller, 2000; Nettle, 2006). An evolutionary account for personality differences is generally acknowledged as a valuable goal for personality psychology in the long run (e.g. McAdams & Pals, 2006), but evolutionary approaches have clearly not pervaded mainstream personality research. The overarching goal of this thesis is to provide and exemplify evolutionary approaches that are suitable for personality research. One of the main reasons for the low impact that evolutionary psychology had on personality research is likely that modern evolutionary psychology has focused very much on adaptations. Adaptationistic evolutionary psychology studies domain-specific solutions to reoccurring adaptive problems in the universal design of the human species. A defining characteristic of these adaptations is that they have been fixed in the human genome, which means that they show no genetic variation. They are inherited, but not heritable (Tooby & Cosmides, 1990, 2005). This severely limits the value of the adaptationistic approach to personality research: while it can be used to explain sex differences (Mealey, 2000) and some individual differences resulting from conditional developmental reactions to environmental factors (e.g. attachment styles, e.g. Buss & Greiling,
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