A perspective on Darwinian psychology: The importance of domain-general mechanisms, plasticity, and individual differences. Ethology and Sociobiology

This paper develops a theory of Darwinian psychological adaptations as motive dispositions with an affective core, and argues that 1.) there is significant plasticity in these mechanisms; 2.) In addition to domain-specific evolved motive dispositions, there are a variety of domain-general cognitive and emotional mechanisms; 3.) humans are capable of developing motive dispositions which are not adaptations; 4.) the relationship between evolved motive dispositions and behavior is very tenuous so that the explanatory power of Darwinian psychology is very weak; 5) individual differences in human psychological characteristics are evolutionarily meaningful and are linked to mechanisms which assess the resource value of intraspecific genetic and phenotypic diversity