Browsing by Subject "Individual differences"

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Open Access
Evolved individual differences: advancing a condition-dependent model of personality
(Elsevier, 2015-10) Lewis, D. M. G.
The field of personality psychology offers a wealth of robust empirical research and a successful descriptive taxonomy, but neither explains the origins of the structure of human personality nor elaborates a generative framework for predicting the specific conditions that evoke the development of distinct personality traits. Exploration of traditional personality constructs within an evolutionary adaptive individual differences framework may help fill this explanatory gap. Personality traits exhibit functional features and patterns of variation expected from psychological adaptations designed to solve survival- and reproduction-related challenges recurrently faced during our species’ evolutionary history. Conditiondependent evolutionary models of personality have been proposed for decades, but only recently have begun to see empirical investigation. These models posit that species-typical psychological mechanisms take as input cues from the individual’s phenotype that would have been ancestrally linked to differential cost–benefit tradeoffs of alternative personality strategies, and produce as output personality trait levels with the greatest probabilistic net benefit for the individual. This paper elaborates a more nuanced conceptual framework that builds on earlier conceptualizations of condition-dependent traits to yield new and untested hypotheses about personality trait variation and covariation. It then describes clear future research directions for empirically investigating these readily testable hypotheses.
Open Access
Explicit and implicit measurement of mind perception in social robots through individual differences modulation
(2022-06) Saltık, İmge
The attribution of mental states to the object or subject that an individual interacts with according to its appearance or behavior is called mind perception (Gray et al., 2007). Recent research on human-robot interaction has shown that robots can create mind perceptions like other agents under certain conditions. In addition, while the two dimensions of mind perception (Agency and Experience) are mostly controlled using explicit measurement methods in the literature, the use of implicit measurement methods in the measurement of mind perception is still almost nonexistent. In addition to this fundamental gap, studies examining mind perception in robots have investigated how appearance affects mind perception, while the effect of action perception almost again has never been observed. In this context, we investigated how robots affect mind perception by manipulating differences in action and appearance. Methodologically, we conducted our study using both the explicit measurement method and the implicit measurement method due to the gap in the literature. In this study, individual difference measurement was also used to observe the causes of different attributions in mind perception to robots. In the first study, participants (N=102) evaluated how the robots' performing different actions (biological, verbal and nonverbal communicative and neutral) and appearance (humanoid and mechanical) affect mind perception; in the second study, participants (N=185) evaluated the effect of robots' actions and appearances on mind perception in terms of implicit and explicit measurement methods. In addition, 11 individual difference measures were used to observe individual differences that modulate mind perception. Looking at the results, it has been observed in both studies that the action of robots affects mind perception. In the explicit measurement method, neutral behavior was found to create less mind perception than communicative and biological action. In the implicit measurement method, differences in reaction time were observed between communicative actions and biological \& neutral actions. Individual differences that modulate the perception of the explicit and implicit mind have been observed. According to this, intentionality of behavior, theory of mind, and perception of loneliness are core modulates for explicit mind perception, while negative mood primarily modulates implicit mind perception. Looking at the results, it was observed that the perception of action had an effect on the mind perception, the implicit and the explicit mind perception showed different patterns from each other, and the individual differences predicted the pattern of implicit and explicit mind perception.
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(1997) Aktunç, Hulki
Open Access
Integrating molecular genetics and evolutionary psychology: Sexual jealousy and the androgen receptor (AR) gene
(Elsevier, 2018) Lewis, D. M. G.; Al-Shawaf, L.; Janiak, M. C.; Akunebu, S. P.
Integrating evolutionary psychological and molecular genetic research may increase our knowledge of the psychological correlates of specific genes, as well as enhance evolutionary psychology's ability to explain individual differences. We tested the hypothesis that men's sexual jealousy mechanisms functionally calibrate their psychological output according to genetic variation at the androgen receptor locus. Mated men (N = 103) provided buccal cell samples for genotype fragment analysis and completed inventories assessing their sexually jealous cognitions and emotions. Results indicated that men with longer sequences of CAG codon repeats at the androgen receptor locus were more likely to perceive ambiguous social and environmental cues as indicative of their mates’ infidelity, and experienced greater emotional upset in response to these cues. These results contribute to a growing body of research linking polymorphism at the AR locus to individual differences in psychology, and, to our knowledge, provide the first evidence pointing toward the heritability of sexual jealousy. Our discussion centers on whether the heritability of psychological differences implies direct genetic influences on the neurobiological substrate, or reflects functionally calibrated output from sex-typical and species-typical mechanisms. We conclude by describing how future research can more clearly differentiate between these alternative genetic models.
Open Access
The openness-calibration hypothesis
(Elsevier Ltd, 2015) Lewis, D. M. G.; Al-Shawaf, L.; Yilmaz, C.
The current study tested the hypotheses that (1) psychological adaptations calibrate Openness to Experience to facilitate or deter pursuit of short-term mating, and (2) this calibration varies as a function of mating strategy, physical attractiveness, and sex—individual differences that shift the costs and benefits of alternative personality strategies. Participants completed a personality inventory before and after reading vignettes describing mating opportunities of different durations (short- and long-term) with individuals of differing levels of attractiveness. Among study findings, participants presented with short-term mating opportunities with individuals of average attractiveness exhibited down-regulated Openness relative to those presented with highly attractive mates. Moreover, these effects varied as a function of the interaction between participants’ sex, mating strategy, and attractiveness. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that evolved psychological mechanisms adaptively calibrate Openness levels in response to short-term mating opportunities. More broadly, they highlight the heuristic value of an evolutionary framework for the study of personality and individual differences.
Open Access
The origins of individual differences in romantic attachment: evolutionary psychological insights
(2016-05) Yılmaz, Cansu
The current thesis investigated the hypothesis that evolved psychological mechanisms producing adult attachment strategies are sensitive to personal and contextual inputs linked to costs and benefits of alternative attachment strategies. Three studies were designed to 1) identify the link between the inputs “early parental environment, speed of life, and mate value” and attachment strategies; 2) examine temporary activation of adult attachment mechanisms in response to a blind date opportunity with individuals varying in physical attractiveness; and 3) test the relationship between physical attractiveness and secure base use behavior in couples experimentally manipulating physical attractiveness. Study 1 results showed adult attachment mechanisms up-regulated both men’s and women’s attachment anxiety in response to low mate value and low quality early parental environment; men’s attachment avoidance in response to fast life speed and low quality early parental environment; women’s attachment avoidance in response to fast life speed and low mate value. Study 2 results showed both men and women exhibited an anxious attachment strategy in response to a blind date opportunity with an individual of high physical attractiveness whereas only women exhibited an avoidant strategy in response to a blind date opportunity with an individual of average physical attractiveness. Study 3 results revealed a positive correlation between women’s ratings of facial attractiveness and secure base use scores; between individuals’ physical attractiveness and their secure base scores specifically among individuals who compared themselves to attractive others. These results enhance the understanding of the origins of individual differences in adult romantic attachment.
Open Access
Who peeks: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, socialization, and child correlates of preschoolers’ resistance to temptation
(Taylor & Francis, 2020) Allen, Jedediah W. P.; Lewis, M.
Research over several decades has demonstrated that children’s ability to wait and delay immediate gratification in preschool is related to a multitude of developmental outcomes throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. However, less research has focused on concurrent abilities, characteristics, and contexts related to the waiting behaviour itself. This study seeks to explore some of the cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and socialization correlates of an at-risk (poor inner city) group of preschoolers’ ability to wait. The study used a resistance to temptation paradigm in which children were instructed not to peek at a ‘forbidden toy’ while left alone. As predicted, 4-year-olds’ (M = 4.5; SD = 1.2 months) general IQ and emotion knowledge were related to their delay in peeking, with longer delays related to higher scores. Results also indicated an effect of gender such that girls waited longer than boys. Contrary to expectations, there were no effects related to harsh parenting practices or to general environmental risk. Of all the variables investigated, emotion knowledge seemed to be the most important.