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Evolutionary Psychology and Explanation in Personality Psychology

How Do We Know Which Module to Invoke?

University of Illinois at Chicago

Personality psychology explores personal determinants of social behavior, that is, psychological systems that causally contribute to the coherent patterns of experience and action that distinguish individuals from one another. This article explores two obstacles faced by evolutionary accounts of personality functioning. The first is the problem of act identification. Explaining social behavior by reference to an evolved mental module requires that one determine which module to invoke. This generally requires identifying the meaning of complex, culturally and socially embedded actions. Evolutionary psychology provides no tools for unambiguously making these identifications. The second obstacle derives from the fact that, in evolutionary psychology, behavior may reflect the joint action of multiple mental modules. Prediction and explanation would require assessment of the relative strengths of activation of the multiple modules. This commonly is not possible. Alternative accounts of personality structure and functioning, including that of social-cognitive theories of personality, are considered.

American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 43, No. 6, 1001-1014 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/00027640021955720


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