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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2020 - present
August 2018 - January 2020
September 2016 - August 2018
Education
August 2008 - May 2014
August 2002 - May 2007
Publications
Publications (77)
This retrospective essay appraises J. Philippe Rushton’s application of life history to understanding the covariation among human traits in light of subsequent developments in the measurement and latent structure of Human Life History, covitality, and personality. We conclude that Rushton should be recognized for having initiated a theoretically an...
Epidemiologists and medical researchers often employ an allostatic load model that focuses on environmental and lifestyle factors, together with biological vulnerabilities, to explain the deterioration of human physiological systems and chronic degenerative disease. Although this perspective has informed medicine and public health, it is agnostic t...
This review focuses on the impact of parental behavior on child development, as interpreted from an evolutionary-developmental perspective. We employ psychosocial acceleration theory to reinterpret the effects of variation in parental investment and involvement on child development, arguing that these effects have been structured by natural selecti...
High-quality relationships have been shown to be beneficial for physical and mental health. This study examined overall relationship satisfaction and perceived stress as well as daily reports of partner support, partner conflict, and physical intimacy obtained over the course of one week in a sample of 129 high and low stress mothers. Telomere leng...
Copping, Campbell, and Muncer (2014) have recently published an article critical of the psychometric approach to the assessment of life history (LH) strategy. Their purported goal was testing for the convergent validation and examining the psychometric structure of the High-K Strategy Scale (HKSS). As much of the literature on the psychometrics of...
Objectives:
Animal models indicate that hepatic insulin resistance (IR) promotes cholesterol gallstone disease (GSD). We sought to determine whether hepatic and whole-body IR are associated with incident GSD.
Methods:
At baseline, 450 Southwestern Indigenous American adults without GSD were included. Participants had a 2-step hyperinsulinemic-eu...
Objective
The objective of this study was to study how acid accumulation (lower plasma bicarbonate and higher anion gap [AG] and corrected anion gap [CAG]) correlates with metabolic parameters, food intake, and 24‐h energy expenditure (EE).
Methods
Acid accumulation was measured in 286 healthy adults with estimated glomerular filtration rate > 60...
Objective
We investigated how changes in 24‐h respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and substrate oxidation during fasting versus an energy balance condition influence subsequent ad libitum food intake.
Methods
Forty‐four healthy, weight‐stable volunteers (30 male and 14 female; mean [SD], age 39.3 [11.0] years; BMI 31.7 [8.3] kg/m ² ) underwent 24‐h e...
We examined whether perceived stress, anhedonia, and food insecurity were associated with dietary adherence during a 6-week intervention. Sixty participants (23 m; 53 ± 14 y) completed psychosocial measures and were provided with full meals. Individuals with obesity were randomized to a weight-maintaining energy needs (WMENs) (n = 18; BMI 33 ± 4) o...
Objective
Adipose tissue (AT) contains a bimodal population of large and small adipocytes. Changes in fat cell size (FCS) distribution and AT caloric density (kcal/g) with weight loss are unclear. We aimed to evaluate changes in FCS and AT calories in weight loss and determine associations with anthropometrics.
Materials and methods
Healthy adults...
Objective
The existence of seasonal changes in energy metabolism is uncertain. We investigated the relationship between the seasons and spontaneous physical activity (SPA), energy expenditure (EE), and other components measured in a respiratory chamber.
Methods
Between 1985–2005, 671 healthy adults (aged 28.8 ± 7.1 years; 403 men) in Phoenix, Ariz...
Obesity rates are increasing and affecting mental health. It is important to understand how behavioral traits such as anhedonia are associated with physiologic traits that may predict weight-change in clinical and non-clinical populations. We studied whether 24-hour energy expenditure (24hEE) changes with fasting and overfeeding are associated with...
Background/Objectives: Lower birthweight has been previously identified as a risk factor for multiple chronic diseases which are also associated with poor diet. We sought to determine whether birthweight is related to objectively measured energy intake in adulthood. We hypothesized a negative association between birthweight and overall energy intak...
Objective:
This study investigated whether interindividual variance in diet-induced metabolic flexibility is explained by differences in gut hormone concentrations.
Methods:
A total of 69 healthy volunteers with normal glucose regulation underwent 24-hour assessments of respiratory quotient (RQ) in a whole-room indirect calorimeter during eucalo...
Increased interest in the study of the relationships between human and nonhuman animals over the past few decades has often focused on what factors shape people’s attitudes and treatment towards nonhuman animals. Some scholars have focused on features of the nonhuman animals (cuteness, intelligence, and utility) and how those features predict human...
Introduction:
The transition from paediatric to adult diabetes care in youth-onset diabetes (type 1 diabetes mellitus, Y-T1DM and type 2 diabetes mellitus, Y-T2DM) is associated with worsening glycaemic control, missed clinical visits, decreased medication adherence and the emergence of cardiometabolic complications. The socio-ecological challenge...
Background
Molecular stable isotope ratios are a novel type of dietary biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity for certain foods. Among these, fatty acid carbon isotope ratios (CIRs) have strong potential but have not been investigated as dietary biomarkers.
Objectives
We evaluated whether fatty acid CIRs and mass proportions were associat...
The purpose of this study was to examine how attitudes toward different nonhuman animal species (including emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, and harm avoidance) are shaped by the coevolutionary histories between the ancestors of contemporary humans and these different nonhuman animal species. We compared the explanatory power of alternative cat...
Objective
Food insecurity is known to be associated with obesity, but its association with physiological measures is unclear. Therefore, it was hypothesized that, compared with food-secure individuals, those with food insecurity would have higher 24-hour energy expenditure (EE [kilocalories per day]) and 24-hour respiratory quotient (RQ [ratio]). S...
Objective:
Negative affect and food insecurity have been proposed to impede adherence to weight loss interventions. Therefore, this study examined the role of these variables on dietary adherence using Ecological Momentary Assessment.
Methods:
A total of 50 participants (19 male participants; age = 49 [SD 14] years) participated in an outpatient...
Background
Theory posits that macronutrient intake is regulated by protein consumption and adequate intake of protein results in consumption of less carbohydrates and fat. The current study investigates the effect of protein intake on calorie and macronutrient content using an ad libitum vending machine paradigm.
Methods
Healthy volunteers (n = 28...
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are situated as the foundation of a six-tier pyramid, above which rests: (1) disrupted neurodevelopment; (2) social, emotional, and cognitive impairment; (3) adoption of health-risk behaviors; (4) disease, disability, and social problems; and (5) early death. ACEs purportedly initiate a causal sequence of negati...
Life history strategy represents individual variation in the degree to which bioenergetic resources are allocated toward growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Individual differences in life history strategies are thought to underlie many of the individual differences studied in Psychology. It was hypothesized that responses on the Sentence Complet...
The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Parenting provides a comprehensive resource for work on how our evolutionary past informs current parenting roles and practices. It features chapters from leaders in the field covering state-of-the-art research. The handbook is designed for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in p...
Traditional theories of development and evolutionary developmental psychology propose that early environmental experiences shape an individual’s developmental trajectory. According to the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM), for example, calibration of speed of life history strategy to ecological cues encountered during development contributes to beha...
The relationship between neighborhood quality and personality was explored using a large nationally representative sample of midlife adults, namely, the data from the Midlife in the United States Longitudinal Study of Health and Well-Being. A multilevel approach was used to track correlations between fluctuations in perceived neighborhood safety an...
Leukocyte telomere length, a marker of immune system function, is sensitive to exposures such as psychosocial stressors and health-maintaining behaviors. Past research has determined that stress experienced in adulthood is associated with shorter telomere length, but is limited to mostly cross-sectional reports. We test whether repeated reports of...
Knowledge of evolutionary influences on patterns of human mating, social interactions, and differential health is increasing, yet these insights have rarely been applied to historical analyses of human population dynamics. The genetic and evolutionary forces behind biases in interethnic mating and in the health of individuals of different ethnic gr...
Study Objectives
Short sleep duration is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, it is uncertain whether sleep debt, a measure of sleep deficiency during the week compared to the weekend, confers increased cardiovascular risk. Because sleep disturbances increase with age particularly in women, we examined the relations...
Financial strain is a prevalent form of psychosocial stress in the United States; however, information about the relationship between financial strain and cardiovascular health remains sparse, particularly in older women.
Methods:
The cross-sectional association between financial strain and ideal cardiovascular health were examined in the Women's...
We revisit an old theory proposed by Lynn, connecting race differences in criminality and psychopathy with r/k selection. The origin of this group-difference is attributed to cold-selection in the Pleistocene. We contend that newer models of Life History Theory provide a better rubric within which to evaluate Lynn's arguments as a) they better acco...
A considerable number of publications have examined the effect of various geographical, life history, social, economic and political factors on homicide. However, few studies were interested in examining the effect of these forces in an integrated social biogeography of homicide. This study collected data for 172 nation-states from various publicat...
Since the debut of major histocompatibility complex- (MHC) dependent mate preferences in mice in 1976 (Yamazaki et al.), a number of studies have been conducted to determine the role of MHC across species, identify mechanisms of MHC identification, and distinguish among hypotheses about the adaptive significance of having this ability. Three main h...
Purpose of Review
The American Heart Association (AHA) created the cardiovascular health (CVH) index to measure and monitor population-level reduction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, with a goal of 20% reduction in CVD morbidity and mortality by 2020. Few U.S. adults meet all seven ideal CVH metrics (non-smoking behavior, healthy diet and bod...
The covariance among a large cache of biopsychosocial individual differences (e.g., identity) has
been explained by differences in life history (LH) strategies. The current investigation was
premised on the proposition that the LH nomological network may extend to individual
differences on projective tests. In order to test this hypothesis, respons...
Purpose of Review
Pregnancy and employment are critical life events that can affect chronic disease risk in women. Hence, we examined the relationship between parity and cardiovascular risk, and whether job stress affected this association.
Recent Findings
Cox proportional hazard models examined the association of parity with cardiovascular diseas...
Nothing is presently known about the relationship between individual differences in fertility and life history (LH) speed, as measured by the K-Factor. To examine this relationship, the correlation between LH speed and the number of children was examined in two, large samples (MIDUS II and the Swedish STAGE dataset). Their association was positive...
Transcending reviewed proximate theories, Van Lange et al.'s CLASH model attempts to ultimately explain the poleward declension of aggression and violence. Seasonal cold is causal, but, we contend, principally as an ecologically relevant evolutionary pressure. We further argue that futurity and restraint are life history variables, and that Life Hi...
In his target article, Lynn compiles and reviews various convergent strands of evidence supportive of potential race differences in psychopathic personality. The origin of this group-difference is attributed to cold-selection in the Pleistocene. We contend that Life History Theory provides a better theoretical rubric within which to evaluate Lynn's...
This sequential canonical cascade model of social biogeography is an extension of an integrated model of human cognitive ecology (Cabeza de Baca & Figueredo, 2014) that predicted state-level life history and cognitive abilities in Mexico. We integrate such population-level factors by utilizing a sample of sixty-six recognized national polities for...
We summarize and integrate the results of the sequential canonical cascade model that explores the structural relations among the various latent constructs we have operationalized, including climate, parasite burden, population density, life history strategy, social stratification, sexual differentiation, strategic and cognitive differentiation eff...
Theoretical and empirical work in the study of life history evolution has largely shifted away from density-dependent models since the 1980s, focusing on alternative causative processes such as the prominence of extrinsic morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, recent evidence suggests that density dependent models are integral, even if clearly not...
The psychometric trait approach to human life history, based on common factor modeling, has recently come under some criticism for neglecting to inquire into the developmental progression that orients and executes human life history trajectories (Copping, Campbell, & Muncer, 2014). It was asserted that the psychometric approach wholly focuses on cr...
The psychometric trait approach to human life history, based on common factor modeling, has recently come under some criticism for neglecting to inquire into the developmental progression that orients and executes human life history trajectories (Copping, Campbell, Muncer, 2014). It was asserted that the psychometric approach wholly focuses on crea...
Our commentary articulates some of the commonalities between Baumeister et al.'s theory of socially differentiated roles and Strategic Differentiation-Integration Effort. We expand upon the target article's position by arguing that differentiating social roles is contextual and driven by varying ecological pressures, producing character displacemen...
Three large and nationally representative datasets (NCDS, N = 5225, NLSY′79, N = 7598 and Project Talent, N = 76,150) are here examined in order to determine if models incorporating negative quadratic effects of IQ on fertility (which would indicate the presence of stabilizing phenotypic selection) improve model fit, relative to ones that only cons...
Guided by life history theory, the present study (a) developed and provided preliminary validation data for a self-report measure of a childhood unpredictability schema (i.e., a worldview where children perceive other people and future outcomes as unreliable and unpredictable) and (b) tested for the effects of maternal life history strategy and its...
Life history (LH) strategies refer to the pattern of allocations of bioenergetic and material resources into different domains of fitness. While LH is known to have moderate to high population-level heritability in humans, both at the level of the high-order factor (Super-K) and the lower-order factors (K, Covitality, and the General Factor of Pers...
Background: Evolutionary theory suggests that greater parental investment will be associated with better long-term health and survival. While much attention has focused on maternal investment (exemplified by maternal warmth), we focus on the influence of paternal warmth among an African American sample on cardiovascular disease risk and vascular re...
Background Children and parents often rely on the support provided by non-parental adults such as extended family members. Expanding conceptualizations of social support beyond traditional nuclear family paradigms to include non-parental adults may be particularly relevant to identifying family strengths among economically disadvantaged and Latino...
We present empirical tests of the stability of individual differences over the lifespan using a novel methodological technique to combine behavior-genetic data from twin dyads with longitudinal measures of life history-related traits (including health and personality) from non-twin samples. Using data from The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) L...
We present empirical tests of the stability of individual differences over the lifespan using a novel methodological technique to combine behavior-genetic data from twin dyads with longitudinal measures of life history-related traits (including health and personality) from non-twin samples. Using data from The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) L...
Life history as applied to human psychology has progressed on different levels of analysis including between racial groups (Differential-K) and between individuals (Life History Theory). While the approaches at each level have garnered significant research support, some findings at the level of individ-ual differences are inconsistent with findings...
Childrearing behaviors are often shaped by familial and cultural principles that function as guides for socialization goals and effective childrearing practices. For an increasing number of Latino families, the extended kin often acts as a source of childcare support. Due to a scarcity of research on the familial support configurations of Latin Ame...
The process of mediation is of critical importance to the social and behavioral sciences and to evolutionary social psychology in particular. As with the concept of evolutionary adaptation, however, one can argue that causal mediation is in need of explicit theoretical justification and empirical support. Mainstream evolutionary social psychology p...
Previous developmental research has found that children from households with high shared parenting, childrearing agreement, and equitable division of parental labor experience positive developmental and social outcomes; a major limitation of these studies is that shared parenting measures do not assess the amount of total parental effort the child...
Despite widespread acceptance of natural selection in biology and the life sciences, social and developmental scientists have resisted incorporating evolutionary frameworks into research and teaching curricula. Charlesworth (1992) has argued that developmentalists avoid evolution because they perceive it as running contrary to meliorist attitudes t...
Utilizing an evolutionary framework can elucidate the causes of variation in parental effort and guide measurement of relevant parenting constructs. The current article presents an evolutionary analysis of the determinants of parental effort and suggests that evolutionarily informed measures are needed to test evolutionary hypotheses. Towards this...
The theory of natural selection has been vital in unifying the biological sciences and their research with a single testable
metatheory. Despite a plethora of research supporting natural selection, teaching the theory of evolution remains controversial
in high schools and higher education (Wilson et al. 2009; Scott 1997). In this article, we sample...