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Bruce J. Ellis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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beyond cumulative risk distinguishing Harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy
Developmental Psychology, 2012Co-Authors: Jay Belsky, Gabriel L Schlomer, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:Drawing on life history theory, Ellis and associates' (2009) recent across- and within-species analysis of ecological effects on reproductive development highlighted two fundamental dimensions of environmental variation and influence: Harshness and unpredictability. To evaluate the unique contributions of these factors, the authors of present article examined data from a national sample 1364 mothers and their children participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Harshness was operationalized as income-to-needs ratio in the first 5 years of life; unpredictability was indexed by residential changes, paternal transitions, and parental job changes during this same period. Here the proposition was tested that these factors not only uniquely predict accelerated life-history strategy, operationalized in terms of sexual behavior at age 15, but that such effects are mediated by change over the early-childhood years in maternal depression and, thereby, observed maternal sensitivity in the early-elementary-school years. Structural equation modeling provided empirical support for Ellis et al.'s (2009) theorizing, calling attention once again to the contribution of evolutionary analysis to understanding contemporary human parenting and development. Implications of the findings for intervention are discussed.
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Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
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fundamental dimensions of environmental risk the impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
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Effects of Harsh and Unpredictable Environments in Adolescence on Development of Life History Strategies
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Barbara Hagenah Brumbach, Aurelio José Figueredo, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data were used to test predictions from life history theory. We hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, economic success), (2) both environmental Harshness and unpredictability would account for unique variance in expression of adolescent and young adult life history strategies, and (3) adolescent life history traits would predict young adult life history strategy. These predictions were supported. The current findings suggest that the environmental parameters of Harshness and unpredictability have concurrent effects on life history development in adolescence, as well as longitudinal effects into young adulthood. In addition, life history traits appear to be stable across developmental time from adolescence into young adulthood.
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effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on development of life history strategies a longitudinal test of an evolutionary model
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Barbara Hagenah Brumbach, Aurelio José Figueredo, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data were used to test predictions from life history theory. We hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, economic success), (2) both environmental Harshness and unpredictability would account for unique variance in expression of adolescent and young adult life history strategies, and (3) adolescent life history traits would predict young adult life history strategy. These predictions were supported. The current findings suggest that the environmental parameters of Harshness and unpredictability have concurrent effects on life history development in adolescence, as well as longitudinal effects into young adulthood. In addition, life history traits appear to be stable across developmental time from adolescence into young adulthood.
Jay Belsky - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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interactive effects of early life income Harshness and unpredictability on children s socioemotional and academic functioning in kindergarten and adolescence
Developmental Psychology, 2018Co-Authors: Siwei Liu, Sarah Hartman, Jay BelskyAbstract:This research investigates whether and how two fundamental environmental factors-Harshness and unpredictability-interact in regulating child and adolescent development, informed by life-history theory and drawing on data from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,364). Early life Harshness was operationalized as the typical level of family income-to-needs based on six repeated measurements across the first 4.5 years of life and early life unpredictability as random variation using the same family income measurements. Results revealed that children functioned most competently in the social and academic domain as kindergarteners when exposed to low environmental Harshness and low unpredictability and least competently when they experienced high Harshness and low unpredictability. The same interaction pattern emerged in adolescence in forecasting cognitive-academic competence and sexual behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of how reliable and unreliable environmental cues shape developmental trajectories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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beyond cumulative risk distinguishing Harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy
Developmental Psychology, 2012Co-Authors: Jay Belsky, Gabriel L Schlomer, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:Drawing on life history theory, Ellis and associates' (2009) recent across- and within-species analysis of ecological effects on reproductive development highlighted two fundamental dimensions of environmental variation and influence: Harshness and unpredictability. To evaluate the unique contributions of these factors, the authors of present article examined data from a national sample 1364 mothers and their children participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Harshness was operationalized as income-to-needs ratio in the first 5 years of life; unpredictability was indexed by residential changes, paternal transitions, and parental job changes during this same period. Here the proposition was tested that these factors not only uniquely predict accelerated life-history strategy, operationalized in terms of sexual behavior at age 15, but that such effects are mediated by change over the early-childhood years in maternal depression and, thereby, observed maternal sensitivity in the early-elementary-school years. Structural equation modeling provided empirical support for Ellis et al.'s (2009) theorizing, calling attention once again to the contribution of evolutionary analysis to understanding contemporary human parenting and development. Implications of the findings for intervention are discussed.
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the development of reproductive strategy in females early maternal Harshness earlier menarche increased sexual risk taking
Developmental Psychology, 2010Co-Authors: Jay Belsky, Laurence Steinberg, Renate Houts, Bonnie HalpernfelsherAbstract:To test a proposition central to J. Belsky, L. Steinberg, and P. Draper’s (1991) evolutionary theory of socialization—that pubertal maturation plays a role in linking early rearing experience with adolescent sexual risk taking (i.e., frequency of sexual behavior) and, perhaps, other risk taking (e.g., alcohol, drugs, delinquency)—the authors subjected longitudinal data on 433 White, 62 Black, and 31 Hispanic females to path analysis. Results showed (a) that greater maternal Harshness at 54 months predicted earlier age of menarche; (b) that earlier age of menarche predicted greater sexual (but not other) risk taking; and (c) that maternal Harshness exerted a significant indirect effect, via earlier menarche, on sexual risk taking (i.e., greater Harshness 3 earlier menarche 3 greater sexual risk taking) but only a direct effect on other risk taking. Results are discussed in terms of evolutionary perspectives on human development and reproductive strategy, and future directions for research are outlined.
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human preferences for facial masculinity change with relationship type and environmental Harshness
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2007Co-Authors: Danielle L Cohen, Anthony C Little, Benedict C Jones, Jay BelskyAbstract:In humans (Homo sapiens), sexual dimorphism in face shape has been proposed to be linked to quality in both men and women. Although preferences for high-quality mates might be expected, previous work has suggested that high quality may be associated with decreased investment in partnerships. In line with a trade-off between partner quality and investment, human females have been found to prefer higher levels of masculinity when judging under conditions where the benefits of quality would be maximised and the costs of low investment would be minimised. In this study, we examined facultative preferences for masculinity/femininity under hypothetical high and low environmental Harshness in terms of resource availability in which participants were asked to imagine themselves in harsh/safe environments. We demonstrate that environmental Harshness influences preferences for sexual dimorphism differently according to whether the relationship is likely to be short or long term. Women prefer less-masculine male faces and men prefer less-feminine female faces for long-term than short-term relationships under conditions of environmental Harshness. Such findings are consistent with the idea that high-quality partners may be low investors and suggest that under harsh ecological conditions, both men and women favour a low-quality/high-investment partner for long-term relationships. For short-term relationships, where investment is not an important variable, preferences for sexual dimorphism were similar for the low and high environmental Harshness conditions. These results provide experimental evidence that human preferences may be contingent on the environment an individual finds itself inhabiting.
Aurelio José Figueredo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
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fundamental dimensions of environmental risk the impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
-
Effects of Harsh and Unpredictable Environments in Adolescence on Development of Life History Strategies
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Barbara Hagenah Brumbach, Aurelio José Figueredo, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data were used to test predictions from life history theory. We hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, economic success), (2) both environmental Harshness and unpredictability would account for unique variance in expression of adolescent and young adult life history strategies, and (3) adolescent life history traits would predict young adult life history strategy. These predictions were supported. The current findings suggest that the environmental parameters of Harshness and unpredictability have concurrent effects on life history development in adolescence, as well as longitudinal effects into young adulthood. In addition, life history traits appear to be stable across developmental time from adolescence into young adulthood.
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effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on development of life history strategies a longitudinal test of an evolutionary model
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Barbara Hagenah Brumbach, Aurelio José Figueredo, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data were used to test predictions from life history theory. We hypothesized that (1) in young adulthood an emerging life history strategy would exist as a common factor underlying many life history traits (e.g., health, relationship stability, economic success), (2) both environmental Harshness and unpredictability would account for unique variance in expression of adolescent and young adult life history strategies, and (3) adolescent life history traits would predict young adult life history strategy. These predictions were supported. The current findings suggest that the environmental parameters of Harshness and unpredictability have concurrent effects on life history development in adolescence, as well as longitudinal effects into young adulthood. In addition, life history traits appear to be stable across developmental time from adolescence into young adulthood.
Gabriel L Schlomer - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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beyond cumulative risk distinguishing Harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy
Developmental Psychology, 2012Co-Authors: Jay Belsky, Gabriel L Schlomer, Bruce J. EllisAbstract:Drawing on life history theory, Ellis and associates' (2009) recent across- and within-species analysis of ecological effects on reproductive development highlighted two fundamental dimensions of environmental variation and influence: Harshness and unpredictability. To evaluate the unique contributions of these factors, the authors of present article examined data from a national sample 1364 mothers and their children participating in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Harshness was operationalized as income-to-needs ratio in the first 5 years of life; unpredictability was indexed by residential changes, paternal transitions, and parental job changes during this same period. Here the proposition was tested that these factors not only uniquely predict accelerated life-history strategy, operationalized in terms of sexual behavior at age 15, but that such effects are mediated by change over the early-childhood years in maternal depression and, thereby, observed maternal sensitivity in the early-elementary-school years. Structural equation modeling provided empirical support for Ellis et al.'s (2009) theorizing, calling attention once again to the contribution of evolutionary analysis to understanding contemporary human parenting and development. Implications of the findings for intervention are discussed.
-
Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
-
fundamental dimensions of environmental risk the impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies
Human Nature, 2009Co-Authors: Bruce J. Ellis, Aurelio José Figueredo, Barbara H. Brumbach, Gabriel L SchlomerAbstract:The current paper synthesizes theory and data from the field of life history (LH) evolution to advance a new developmental theory of variation in human LH strategies. The theory posits that clusters of correlated LH traits (e.g., timing of puberty, age at sexual debut and first birth, parental investment strategies) lie on a slow-to-fast continuum; that Harshness (externally caused levels of morbidity-mortality) and unpredictability (spatial-temporal variation in Harshness) are the most fundamental environmental influences on the evolution and development of LH strategies; and that these influences depend on population densities and related levels of intraspecific competition and resource scarcity, on age schedules of mortality, on the sensitivity of morbidity-mortality to the organism’s resource-allocation decisions, and on the extent to which environmental fluctuations affect individuals versus populations over short versus long timescales. These interrelated factors operate at evolutionary and developmental levels and should be distinguished because they exert distinctive effects on LH traits and are hierarchically operative in terms of primacy of influence. Although converging lines of evidence support core assumptions of the theory, many questions remain unanswered. This review demonstrates the value of applying a multilevel evolutionary-developmental approach to the analysis of a central feature of human phenotypic variation: LH strategy.
Fons J R Van De Vijver - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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two dimensions of psychological country level differences conservatism liberalism and Harshness softness
Learning and Individual Differences, 2014Co-Authors: Lazar Stankov, Jihyun Lee, Fons J R Van De VijverAbstract:We examined dimensions of noncognitive functioning based on the administration of 22 measures of personality, social attitudes, values, and social norms in 35 countries (Ns ranging from 9 to 430; Total N= 1895). Four essentially identical factors were found at individual and country level: Personality/Social Attitudes; Values; Social Norms, and Conservatism. The four factors were correlated at country level, yielding a second-order Conservatism/Liberalism (combining Conservatism and Values) and a Harshness/Softness factor (combining Personality/Social Attitudes and Norms). Broad Conservatism/Liberalism is akin to Inglehart's (1997) contrast between survival and well-being; it was negatively correlated with countries' affluence, educational achievement indicators, and measures of mass communication and freedom. The Harshness/Softness factor contrasts countries that are tough and harsh/unforgiving and countries that are warm and tolerant; it is related to Gelfand et al.'s (2011) tightness/looseness dimension. Harshness/Softness factor was (negatively) correlated with death penalty, murder rate and muggings, and the proportion of Christians; it was positively correlated with Minkov's (2011) index of Industry and his index of countries' death penalty application. It is concluded that the domain of noncognitive psychological functioning has a fairly corresponding structure at individual and country levels.
