Research Article
Curtis S. Dunkel, Steven C. Hertler, Eugene W. Mathes & Tomas Cabeza de Baca
Human Ethology Bulletin, Volume 33, No 1, 3-14, published March 25, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22330/heb/331/003-014
ABSTRACT
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, responses on a projective test of identity (the Twenty Statements Test), using three separate data sets (each from a different decade and spanning a period of 45 years), were scored using the LH Rating Form and in turn those scores were correlated with psychometric and biodemographic indices of LH strategy. The pattern of results was consistent with the hypothesis. The TST responses of slow LH strategy participants appeared more likely to include references to religion and family, while the TST responses of fast LH participants’ seemed to refer to sex and drugs more often. These qualitative interpretations were consistent with the quantitative analyses, which were, in general, supportive of the predicted linear association between scored TST responses and the psychometric and biodemographic measures of LH strategy. In light of the findings, the relationship between LH strategy and identity is discussed. Further investigation on the association between LH strategy and projective tests appears warranted.
Keywords: Life history theory, twenty statements test, projective, k-factor.
ISSN: 2224-4476
