Buss: Evolutionary Theory of Personality

Question 1

Occurs when humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species.

Answer 1

Artificial selection

Question 2

Occurs when traits become either more or less common in a species over long periods of time because they do not lead to greater survivability.

Answer 2

Natural selection

Question 3

Operates when members of the opposite sex find certain traits more appealing and attractive than others and thereby produce offspring with those traits.

Answer 3

Sexual selection

Question 4

Evolved strategies that solve important survival/or reproductive problems.

Answer 4

Adaptations

Question 5

Traits that happen as a result of adaptations but are not part of the functional design.

Answer 5

By-products

Question 6

Also knows as random effects; occurs when evolution produces random changes in design that do not affect funtion.

Answer 6

Noise

Question 7

The specific study of human thought and behaviour from an evolutionary perspective and focuses on four big questions.

Answer 7

Evolutionary psychology

Question 8

The tendency to assume that the environment alone can produce behaviour void of a stable internal mechanism.

Answer 8

Fundamental situational error

Question 9

Tendency to ignore situational and environmental forces when explaining the behaviour of other people and instead focus on internal dispositions.

Answer 9

Fundamental attribution error

Question 10

Operate according to principles in different adaptive domains; are complex solutions to specific adaptive problems.

Answer 10

Mechanisms

Question 11

Are physiological organs and systems that evolved to solve problems of survival.

Answer 11

Physical mechanisms

Question 12

Are internal and specific cognitive, motivational, and personality systems that solve specific survival and reproduction problems.

Answer 12

Psychological mechanisms

Question 13

Dimension of personality that involves the disposition to experience positive emotional states and to engage in one’s environment and to be sociable and self-confident.

Answer 13

Surgency

Question 14

5 dimension of personality.

Answer 14

Surgency
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional stability
Openness

Question 15

Dimension of personality that is marked by a person’s willingness and capacity to cooperate and help the group on the one hand or to be hostile and aggressive on the other.

Answer 15

Aggreeableness/Hostility

Question 16

Dimension of personality that revolves around response to danger and threat.

Answer 16

Emotional stability/Neuroticism

Question 17

Dimension of personality which is one’s capacity and commitment to work.

Answer 17

Conscientiousness

Question 18

Dimension of personality which involves one’s propensity for innovation and ability to solve problems.

Answer 18

Openness

Question 19

Means that childhood experiences make some behavioural strategies more likely than others.

Answer 19

Early experiential calibration

Question 20

Means that different people find what makes them stand out from others in order to gain attention from parents or potential mates.

Answer 20

Alternative niche specialization

Question 21

Sources of individual differences that do not benefit survival or reproductive success.

Answer 21

Nonadaptive sources

Question 22

Those that actively harm one’s chance for survival or decrease one’s sexual attractiveness.

Answer 22

Maladaptive sources

Question 23

Change in gene function that does not involve changes in DNA.

Answer 23

Epigenetics