Copping Lee T, Campbell Anne, Muncer Steven
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Programme in Clinical Psychology, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK.
Evol Psychol. 2014 Sep 29;12(4):829-47. doi: 10.1177/147470491401200411.
Life-history theory (LHT) has drawn upon the concept of "time preference" as a psychological mechanism for the development of fast and slow strategies. However, the conceptual and empirical nature of this mechanism is ill-defined. This study compared four traits commonly used as measures of "time preference" (impulsivity, sensation seeking, future orientation and delay discounting) and evaluated their relationship to variables associated with life-history strategies (aggressive behavior and mating attitudes, biological sex, pubertal timing, victimization, and exposure to aggression in the environment). Results indicated that only sensation seeking consistently showed all the predicted associations, although impulsivity, future orientation, and delay discounting showed some significant associations. A unidimensional higher-order factor of "time preference" did not adequately fit the data and lacked structural invariance across age and sex, suggesting that personality traits associated with LHT do not represent a global trait. We discuss the use of personality traits as measures in LHT and suggest that greater caution and clarity is required when conceptualizing this construct in future work.
生命史理论（LHT）借鉴了“时间偏好”的概念，将其作为快速和慢速策略发展的一种心理机制。然而，这种机制的概念和实证性质尚不明确。本研究比较了通常用作“时间偏好”衡量指标的四个特征（冲动性、感觉寻求、未来取向和延迟折扣），并评估了它们与与生命史策略相关的变量（攻击行为和交配态度、生物性别、青春期时间、受害情况以及环境中的攻击暴露）之间的关系。结果表明，只有感觉寻求始终显示出所有预测的关联，尽管冲动性、未来取向和延迟折扣也显示出一些显著的关联。“时间偏好”的单维高阶因素不能很好地拟合数据，并且在年龄和性别上缺乏结构不变性，这表明与生命史理论相关的人格特质并不代表一种全局特质。我们讨论了在生命史理论中使用人格特质作为衡量指标的情况，并建议在未来的工作中对这一结构进行概念化时需要更加谨慎和明确。
