Toward a Biologically Informed Psychology of Personality

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Abstract
This article describes nine ways in which biological approaches can lnforni issues of central and long-standing concern to personality psy- chologists These include (a) developing an adequate description of human nature, (b) providing several solutions to the puzzle of within-species genetic variability, (c) identifying the most important ways m which individuals differ, (d) giving precision to the concepts of adaptation and adjustment, (e) identi- fying the ongms of personality dispositions, (/) providing insight into person- ahty development and the life course, (g) providing conceptual and evidential standards for invoking personality types as opjwsed to personality dimensions, (/i) addressing the psychophysiology of personahty, and (i) focusing attention on psychological mechanisms as evolved dispositional strategies Biologists define biology as the study of life In that broad sense, all of psychology is subsumed by biology Within the field of psychology, however, biological approaches represent particular modes of analyz- ing psychological and behavioral phenomena Three such modes are highlighted m this special issue evolutionary approaches, behavioral genetic approaches, and psychophysiological approaches In the past decade, advances in knowledge, theoretical sophistication, and meth- odological precision have occurred in each of these subfields This issue brings together and elucidates some of the most important of these advances