Evolutionary Psychology Theory - Term Paper Example

? Evolutionary Psychology Theory A person who does not understand the uniqueness of individuals is unable to understand the working of natural selection; therefore, it seems logical to state that one’s personality is created and it keeps changing along life’s path. Through evolutionary psychology theory, an attempt has been made to explain certain characteristics in human beings such as how they survive through adaptation, how they keep their generations from extinction through sexual strategies, how they protect their loved ones and those close to them, how they work together and much more. Evolutionary biology states that certain behaviors and characteristics are eliminated over time through natural selection to give way to those that aid in survival and are advantageous to the to the species in question. Hence, personalities and how they have arisen have over time has been explained as random happenings to defend the species against nature’s elimination process. According to the theory, there are 5 major personality types in humans, these can be summarized as: extraversion, a personality that has increased status, access to resources and a high number of sexual partners. Moreover, it is ambitious, competitive, assertive and social, sexually motivated and has tendencies to explore, the disadvantages of this personality are that it is prone to accidents, diseases and has social conflicts (McCrae and Costa, 2001). There is the neuroticism personality which is vigilant to dangers and threats i.e. physical and social threat, but vulnerable to diseases, and can be hostile and it is also has an affinity to stress related illnesses. Then there is the conscientiousness personality which is very industrious and orderly, it plans and takes a lot of care in its premeditated tasks though it can be rigid and has a lot of difficulty in adapting to any changes. The agreeableness personality is cooperative, harmonious, follows the norm and processes of the theory of mind, its main shortcomings are that it fails to maximize personal returns and is it always victim to cheaters. Lastly is the openness personality which is very creative, intellectual and imaginative though it tends to have psychotic thinking tendencies (Buss, 2011) Therefore, it is certain to state that personality traits in an individual and the other members that they inhabit the same social environment with correspond to how they adapt to problems and the solutions to those problems. For each of the following social relationships, that is, enemies, friendships, kinships, mateships, coalitions and hierarchical relationships there is a link between personality and problem, as a result of this, humans have adopted mechanisms to detect problems and how to solve them, each personality trait therefore has its own way of adapting socially. Therefore, being able to assess others’ personality traits helps in problem solving due to the fact that individuals can be either dominant or submissive and this can be inferred by the amount of submissive or dominant acts an individual performs. Individuals who are dominant will for example tend to take charge in groups, set goals for other people that they are working with, resolve conflicts, and insist that one runs errands for them. While in the case of submissive individuals, they will not raise their voice when someone acts unfairly to them, will always apologize profusely for the simplest mistakes and will most likely agree to the decisions and plans made for them by others. Assessing personality traits has even come in handy in the work place whereby an individual can tell who is most likely to give out helpful information when they need it, who is a threat and who will most easily climb the corporate ladder. By using personality traits, one can be able to differentiate the people with whom to create friendships and associate themselves with and those that they should keep away from. Sigmund Freud said that the personality is as a result of the battle of control between the identity, ego and superego. Personality develops over time, evolves when need be, is usually stable and is determined by biological, social, family, cultural and situational factors; and it influences an individual’s career choices, leadership, performance, stress and job satisfaction (Hiriyappa, 2012). Therefore, evolutionary psychology just like evolutionary biology tries to explain that just like parts of the body evolved to ensure that mankind survives in its environment so did the personality traits and behavior of human beings. This theory is best suited to explain the human personality tendencies because it is quite visible that different people in different parts of the world have different personality traits that are special to them and if they were to be relocated to other parts of the world, they would have a hard time surviving in their new environment unless they adapt by changing their behaviors and personality. Culture shock as experienced by most of the people who migrate to other areas serve to help them change their personality to one that is more suited to where they are and those that resist this change are not favored by the environment (Ryckman, 2007). In certain parts of Africa, distinct personality types are visible that help them survive; for example, the nomads, they view their animals as their source of income, survival and also prestige. Most of them have an extraversion personality which is very crucial to their survival and it came about due to the fact that in their numerous journeys, they would encounter hostile communities, environment and dangerous animals. For those who were weak hearted they could not survive this conditions and nature favored those who could survive due to their strong personalities. Therefore over time a breed of nomads came up, physically strong individuals who are very competitive for resources even if it means fighting other communities for them, they tend to have more than one wife, in the case of men, and a lot of children. Cases of raids and war are common among them as they seek to further grow their families’ wealth. Through this example, it is evident that evolutionary theory is best suited to explain how our personalities came to being. A man who can change and adapt to any environment is advantaged as compared to one that resists the change and through psychological evolution, man has been able to survive in the world for millions of years while a number of animals have become extinct. The characteristics which make me unique as an individual and those that are not so unique are as a result of years of evolving in how I think, do things and generally adapt to situation and circumstances. References McCrae, R and Costa, P.T (2001). A five factor theory of personality. In L.A. Pervin and O.P. John (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, 2nd edition (pp. 139-153). New York: Guilford Press. Buss, D.M and Hawley, P.H. (2011), The Evolution of Personality and Individual Differences. New York: Oxford University Press Hiriyappa, B. (2012), Development of Personality and Its Theories, Bloomington: Booktango Ryckman, R.M. (2007). Theories of Personality, 9th Edition, Stamford: Cengage Learning Read More