Competition and social and personality development: Some consequences of taking Darwin seriously

Abstract

Careful consideration of the evolutionary implications of competition and cooperation has significant repercussions for social dominance in humans across the life span. For example, two broad and phenomenologically distinct classes of resource control strategy appear to emerge in early childhood and persist through adulthood; namely, prosocial and coercive. Though these behavior classes are traditionally considered to be opposites in (non-evolutionary) psychology, they may ultimately function similarly. The present paper summarizes a novel theory of social dominance, exemplifies its utility by sketching an empirical program of research on children and adolescents, and reviews possible implications for traditional views of child behavior. Keywords: social dominance, evolution, aggression, peer relationships, personality.