Exam 15: Buss: Evolutionary Theory of Personality

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A.Surgency involves the disposition to experience positive emotional states and to engage in one's environment and to be sociable and self-confident.A surgent person is one who is driven to achieve and often tends to dominate and lead others.It is nearly synonymous with "extraversion".Surgency is also marked by a tendency to take risks and to experience positive emotion (i.e.,be happy) and initiating and maintaining friendships and relationships.People high in surgency are also driven and ambitious.
B.A second dimension of personality,agreeableness/hostility,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.Some people are warm,cooperative,and group-oriented,but others are more selfish and hostile toward others.Agreeable individuals are likely to work to smooth over group conflict and form alliances between people.Agreeable people foster group cohesion and tend to conform to group norms.They get along and go along with others.In short,agreeableness marks a person's willingness to cooperate.
C.The third adaptive personality system revolves around response to danger and threat.All animals have alarm systems that warn them of potential danger and harm.In humans and other animals this takes the form of anxiety as an emotional state and emotional stability/neuroticism as a dispositional trait.Vigilance or sensitivity to harm and threat is quite necessary and adaptive.Emotional stability involves one's ability to handle stress or not.Some people are calm under stress while others are high-strung much of the time.
D.Fourth,one's capacity and commitment to work is the core characteristic of conscientiousness.Conscientious people are careful and detail-oriented as well as focused and reliable.Less conscientious people are less reliable and dependable and tend to lack focus.Conscientiousness signals to others whom we can trust with tasks and responsibilities and whom we can depend on in times of need.
E.Finally,the evolved strategy of openness involves one's propensity for innovation and ability to solve problems.It is closely aligned with intellect and intelligence but also a willingness to try new things and a willingness to have novel experiences rather than sticking with one's routine.These people are the explorers of a group-they forge ahead where others are hesitant.In ancestral times this quality might be expressed in willingness to explore new territories for food or vegetation,but today it might be expressed in artists and scientists who are at the cutting edges of ideas and knowledge.