- Evolutionary Psychology of Life History Strategy
and Social Deviance
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Evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics of life history
strategy and social deviance in human and nonhuman animals,
including (a) the behavioral genetics and development of life
history strategies, including reproductive, altruistic, and
prosocial behaviors; (b) the impact of family environments,
including psychosocial stressors such as socioeconomic adversity,
low paternal investment, and parent-child conflict, on the timing of
pubertal development and first sexual and reproductive activity; (c)
the relation of life history strategy to mental abilities, including
multiple intelligences and executive functions; (d) the relation of
life history strategy to individual differences in personality; (e)
the behavioral ecology of individual differences in behavior; (f)
the assortative pairing of both social and sexual partners on traits
related to life history and social deviance, including the
personality and cognitive processes that underlie decisions about
investment in dating and marital relationships; (g) the relation of
moral and political decision-making to life history strategy and
social deviance; (h) the family systems of both victims and
perpetrators of domestic violence; (i) the behavior genetics and
life history strategies of both victims and perpetrators of
delinquent behaviors, including physical and sexual assault; and (j)
the behavior genetics and life history of high-risk behaviors.
Professor Figueredo is Director General of Proyecto Internacional
sobre la Estructura Familiar (PIEF), an ongoing multinational survey
on the influence of extended family structure on the prevalence and
etiology of sexual violence in different human societies. PIEF also
focuses on the adaptive significance of cognitive structures that
function as justifications for violence, including the evolutionary
psychology of systems of reciprocity, needs for justice and revenge,
and codes of honor. Professor Ellis is also a member of the faculty
in the Division of Family Studies and Human Development of the
Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, and performs
intensive assessments of preschool family environments (mother
interviews, father interviews, and behavioral observations),
anthropometric measures of growth and body composition through
middle childhood, and multi-method assessments of pubertal timing
(hormonal assays, physician examinations, self- and parent-report).
The two major goals of his research are to (1) identify intervening
mechanisms, with a specific focus on the roles of biological stress
reactivity in early childhood and fat deposition in middle childhood
as mediators of the relations between early childhood experiences
and timing of puberty; and (2) establish causation, through
genetically controlled research designs and use of randomized
prevention-intervention trials.
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- Evolutionary Neuroscience
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The neurobiological regulation of normal and abnormal behaviors, as
proximately mediated by the functioning of systems of complementary
brain mechanisms dedicated to different modes of processing, such as
“hot” and “cool” cognition. This approach includes application of
naturalistic and experimental methods, including neuropsychological
testing and assessment of stress physiology, to investigate the
neural underpinnings of: (a) self-regulation; (b)
context-specificity of rule governance;, including setting and
situational control; (c) spatial navigation; (d) psychopathology,
including Affective Disorders, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Down’s Syndrome,
traumatic brain injuries, and various forms of social deviance; (e)
life history strategies; and disruption of these forms of regulation
through factors such as (f) aging; (g) stress and stress reactivity;
and (h) the control of life history strategies.
Professor Jacobs holds faculty appointments in Psychology,
Psychiatry, and Sports medicine and is Director of the Anxiety
Research Group (ARG), which specializes in the study of anxiety,
fear, and its regulation. ARG currently maintains collaborative
research projects in Taiwan, Hungary, South Africa, Canada, Mexico,
and various parts of the United States of America. Professor Ellis
investigates the behavioral endocrinology of the stress response
system, especially in relation to development of the
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) Axis.
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Multivariate modeling of species-typical patterns of behavior and
individual differences in human and nonhuman animals, including the
observational study of: (a) the behavioral expression of emotional
states under a variety of social situations posing different
adaptive problems, including sexual display and deception; (b) the
behavioral expression of emotional states in relation to more
permanent and stable personality and life history traits; (c) the
social structure, sexual strategies, personalities, and life
histories of captive and free-ranging troops of nonhuman primates,
such as wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania; (d) the relationship
between personality, health, and mortality in zoo chimpanzees; and
(e) the evolution of personality factor structure in human and
nonhuman primates, including macaques, orangutans, chimpanzees, and
bonobos.
Dr. Landau is the Director of the Jane Goodall Institute ChimpanZoo
Project; Emeritus Professor King chairs the Scientific Advisory
Committee for that project and Professor Figueredo is also a member.
Professor Figueredo has also done extensive work on the behavioral
evolution and development of sex, aggression, and predation in
insects, birds, and primates. Various behavioral coding systems,
including the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF) and the Facial
Action Coding System (FACS), are currently being applied in ongoing
research with humans to analyze behavioral data from video
recordings of structured interviews. Professor Ellis has also
applied the Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) to in-home behavioral
observations of children.
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