文档介绍：Evolution, the nve-Factor Model,
and Levels of Personality
KoWn MacDonald
Calilornia State University, Long Beach
ABSTRACT This article interprets the five-factormode l as subsuming varia-
tion in normative, species-typical systems with adaptive functions in the human
environment of evolutionary adaptedness. It is argued that the evolutionary
logic of personality systems is apparent in the patteming of mean sex differ-
ences in personality. Personality systems are conceptualized as evolved mo-
tivational systems with an affective core. The evolved motive dispositions at
the core of personality anchor a hierarchy of levels of cognitive and behav-
ioral functioning aimed at attaining or avoiding the affective states central to
these personality systems. Personality systems are seen as often in dynamic
conflict within individuals and as partmentalized in their function-
ing between settings. While variation iti personality consists of a range of
viable strategies for humans, extremes on these systems tend to be maladap-
tive, although in at least some cases individuals who approach the maladaptive
extremes of individual variation may be viewed as engagitig in high-risk evo-
lutionary strategies. Within this wide range of viable strategies, personality
variation functions as a resource environment for individuals in the sense that
personality variation is evaluated according to the interests of the evaluator.
The five-factor model (FFM) emerges from the English lexicon and can
be understood as reflecting independent dimensions of human function-
ing from the point of view of an observer (Goldberg, 1981). The pro-
posal is that the factors identified by the FFM denote variation in a set of
semantically linked subsystems which evolved in order to solve adaptive
I wish to acknowledge the very ments on previous versions of this manu-
script made by Michael Bailey, Russell Gardner, Dan McAdams, and Timothy Miller.
Address c