Definition
Various theories and models of evolutionary psychology posit that personality traits are part of adaptive strategies regulating behavioral adaptation to various environmental (ecological and/or social) conditions encountered during childhood. Life history theory provides the most comprehensive framework to understand how circumstances experienced in early life might influence personality. It proposes that personality traits develop into a certain profile depending on different conditional factors. Actual circumstances define resource allocation, that is, how the individual utilizes available resources (e.g., food, parental support, etc.) in order to maximize survival and/or reproduction. The most dominant environmental components to affect allocation strategies are level of mortality, level of stability or...
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Birkas, B. (2019). Early Environmental Effects on Personality and Individual Differences. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1624-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1624-1
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