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Frankenhuis WE, de Vries SA, Bianchi J, Ellis BJ. Hidden talents in harsh conditions? A preregistered study of memory and reasoning about social dominance. Dev Sci 2020; 23:e12835. [PMID: 30985945 PMCID: PMC7379268 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2018] [Revised: 01/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Although growing up in stressful conditions can undermine mental abilities, people in harsh environments may develop intact, or even enhanced, social and cognitive abilities for solving problems in high-adversity contexts (i.e. 'hidden talents'). We examine whether childhood and current exposure to violence are associated with memory (number of learning rounds needed to memorize relations between items) and reasoning performance (accuracy in deducing a novel relation) on transitive inference tasks involving both violence-relevant and violence-neutral social information (social dominance vs. chronological age). We hypothesized that individuals who had more exposure to violence would perform better than individuals with less exposure on the social dominance task. We tested this hypothesis in a preregistered study in 100 Dutch college students and 99 Dutch community participants. We found that more exposure to violence was associated with lower overall memory performance, but not with reasoning performance. However, the main effects of current (but not childhood) exposure to violence on memory were qualified by significant interaction effects. More current exposure to neighborhood violence was associated with worse memory for age relations, but not with memory for dominance relations. By contrast, more current personal involvement in violence was associated with better memory for dominance relations, but not with memory for age relations. These results suggest incomplete transfer of learning and memory abilities across contents. This pattern of results, which supports a combination of deficits and 'hidden talents,' is striking in relation to the broader developmental literature, which has nearly exclusively reported deficits in people from harsh conditions. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/e4ePmSzZsuc.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah A. de Vries
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
- Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary AnthropologyUniversity of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | | | - Bruce J. Ellis
- Departments of Psychology and AnthropologyUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUtah
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Richardson GB, Placek C, Srinivas V, Jayakrishna P, Quinlan R, Madhivanan P. Environmental stress and human life history strategy development in rural and peri-urban South India. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Richardson GB, Hanson-Cook BS, Figueredo AJ. Bioecological Counseling. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s40806-019-00201-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Hentges RF, Galla BM, Wang M. Economic disadvantage and math achievement: The significance of perceived cost from an evolutionary perspective. BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018; 89:343-358. [DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2018] [Revised: 07/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Richardson GB, La Guardia AC, Klay PM. Determining the roles of father absence and age at menarche in female psychosocial acceleration. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Ellis BJ, Bianchi J, Griskevicius V, Frankenhuis WE. Beyond Risk and Protective Factors: An Adaptation-Based Approach to Resilience. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017; 12:561-587. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691617693054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 198] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
How does repeated or chronic childhood adversity shape social and cognitive abilities? According to the prevailing deficit model, children from high-stress backgrounds are at risk for impairments in learning and behavior, and the intervention goal is to prevent, reduce, or repair the damage. Missing from this deficit approach is an attempt to leverage the unique strengths and abilities that develop in response to high-stress environments. Evolutionary-developmental models emphasize the coherent, functional changes that occur in response to stress over the life course. Research in birds, rodents, and humans suggests that developmental exposures to stress can improve forms of attention, perception, learning, memory, and problem solving that are ecologically relevant in harsh-unpredictable environments (as per the specialization hypothesis). Many of these skills and abilities, moreover, are primarily manifest in currently stressful contexts where they would provide the greatest fitness-relevant advantages (as per the sensitization hypothesis). This perspective supports an alternative adaptation-based approach to resilience that converges on a central question: “What are the attention, learning, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making strategies that are enhanced through exposures to childhood adversity?” At an applied level, this approach focuses on how we can work with, rather than against, these strengths to promote success in education, employment, and civic life.
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Hentges RF, Wang MT. Gender Differences in the Developmental Cascade From Harsh Parenting to Educational Attainment: An Evolutionary Perspective. Child Dev 2017; 89:397-413. [PMID: 28176329 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
This study utilized life history theory to test a developmental cascade model linking harsh parenting to low educational attainment. Multigroup models were examined to test for potential gender differences. The sample consisted of 1,482 adolescents followed up for 9 years starting in seventh grade (Mage = 12.74). Results supported indirect links between harsh parenting and low educational attainment through the development of extreme peer orientations, early sexual behavior, and delinquency. Among male adolescents, harsh parenting was related to the development of an extreme peer orientation, which further led to increased delinquency, and subsequently lower educational attainment. Among female adolescents, harsh parenting predicted extreme peer orientations, which increased both delinquency and early sexual behavior. Early sexual behavior further predicted lower educational attainment in female adolescents.
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Richardson GB, Sanning BK, Lai MHC, Copping LT, Hardesty PH, Kruger DJ. On the Psychometric Study of Human Life History Strategies. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2017; 15:1474704916666840. [PMID: 28152627 PMCID: PMC10457209 DOI: 10.1177/1474704916666840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2016] [Accepted: 08/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This article attends to recent discussions of validity in psychometric research on human life history strategy (LHS), provides a constructive critique of the extant literature, and describes strategies for improving construct validity. To place the psychometric study of human LHS on more solid ground, our review indicates that researchers should (a) use approaches to psychometric modeling that are consistent with their philosophies of measurement, (b) confirm the dimensionality of life history indicators, and (c) establish measurement invariance for at least a subset of indicators. Because we see confirming the dimensionality of life history indicators as the next step toward placing the psychometrics of human LHS on more solid ground, we use nationally representative data and structural equation modeling to test the structure of middle adult life history indicators. We found statistically independent mating competition and Super-K dimensions and the effects of parental harshness and childhood unpredictability on Super-K were consistent with past research. However, childhood socioeconomic status had a moderate positive effect on mating competition and no effect on Super-K, while unpredictability did not predict mating competition. We conclude that human LHS is more complex than previously suggested-there does not seem to be a single dimension of human LHS among Western adults and the effects of environmental components seem to vary between mating competition and Super-K.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Blair K. Sanning
- School of Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Mark H. C. Lai
- School of Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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Richardson GB, Dariotis JK, Lai MHC. From Environment to Mating Competition and Super-K in a Predominantly Urban Sample of Young Adults. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2017; 15:1474704916670165. [PMID: 28152622 PMCID: PMC6349591 DOI: 10.1177/1474704916670165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2016] [Accepted: 08/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research suggests human life history strategy (LHS) may be subsumed by multiple dimensions, including mating competition and Super-K, rather than one. In this study, we test whether a two-dimensional structure best fit data from a predominantly urban sample of young adults ages 18-24. We also test whether latent life history dimensions are associated with environmental harshness and unpredictability as predicted by life history theory. Results provide evidence that a two-dimensional model best fit the data. Furthermore, a moderate inverse residual correlation between mating competition and Super-K was found, consistent with a life history trade-off. Our findings suggest that parental socioeconomic status may enhance investment in mating competition, that harshness might persist into young adulthood as an important correlate of LHS, and that unpredictability may not have significant effects in young adulthood. These findings further support the contention that human LHS is multidimensional and environmental effects on LHS are more complex than previously suggested. The model presented provides a parsimonious explanation of an array of human behaviors and traits and can be used to inform public health initiatives, particularly with respect to the potential impact of environmental interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- George B. Richardson
- School of Human Services, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Jacinda K. Dariotis
- School of Education, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, Evaluation Services Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Mark H. C. Lai
- School of Education, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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