Looking forward evolution and motivation Evolutionary approach to

Looking forward (evolution and motivation) Evolutionary approach to human motivation. One perspective on motives that matter: Kenrick’s pyramid. - Underlying logic and related research. - Kenrick’s pyramid as a useful organizing structure.

Evolutionary approach to human motivation. Based on logical principles of evolutionary psychology… motives conceptualized as: Coordinated sets of psychological mechanisms that are functionally-specialized to regulate behavioral responses to specific kinds of things within an individual’s environment, and that evolved in response to specific “problems” within EEA. Specific kinds of environmental inputs Functionally specific emotional responses Functionally specific cognitive responses Specific kinds of “useful” behavioral outputs

What motivates human behavior? What motives define human nature? “Rather than framing the what question in terms of individuals' subjective outcomes…an evolutionary approach must instead frame that question in terms of evolutionary processes operating over vast amounts of time: “What behavior regulatory systems are likely to have evolved in response to the fitness‐relevant perils and prospects that characterized humans' ancestral ecologies? ” (Schaller, Kenrick, Neel, & Neuberg, 2017)

Kenrick’s pyramid: Categories of behavior regulatory systems that are likely to have evolved in response to fitness‐relevant “problems” within ancestral ecologies (Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg, & Schaller, 2010)

Kenrick’s pyramid: Categories of behavior regulatory systems that are likely to have evolved in response to fitness‐relevant “problems” within ancestral ecologies Connections to subjective needs and goals and values? One criticism of Kenrick’s pyramid: What happened to self-actualization! One response: Another response: Research on how these fundamental motives relate to subjective experience of self-actualization.

Fundamental motives and subjective experience of self-actualization: (Krems, Kenrick, & Neel, 2017) Methods: • Open-ended description: “If you were self-actualizing (i. e. , realizing fully your own potential) right now, what would you be doing? ” • Ratings: To what extent is [each motive in Kenrick’s pyramid] reflected in these self-reported self-actualizing behaviors.

Fundamental motives and subjective experience of self-actualization: (Krems, Kenrick, & Neel, 2017) Some results: • Motive most strongly linked to self-actualizing behavior (in general): Status-seeking. (Second-most-strongly-linked motive: Affiliation). • Status-seeking is most strongly linked to self-actualizing behavior among men, young adults, and people without children. • Among men and women with children, the motive most strongly linked to self-actualizing behavior is: parenting.

The subjective importance of fundamental motives: (Ko et al. , in press) Methods: • Over 7000 participants in 27 countries. • Participants completed self-report measure of fundamental social motives. • Participants rated importance of each motive within their life right now. Results: • The two most subjectively important motives: • Parenting (and kin-care more generally). • Mate retention (maintaining long-term romantic relationships).

A useful organizing structure for where we’re going…