Life history strategy and intelligence: Commonality and personality profile differences

Abstract

Previous work on individual and group differences in life history (LH) strategy posited a central role for intelligence. Yet, empirical results failed to support the hypothesized positive association between a slow LH strategy and intelligence. The current investigation (N = 102) represents an attempt to not only re-examine the LH/intelligence hypothesis, but also to conduct an in-depth examination on how LH strategy and intelligence are expressed in personality profiles. The California Adult Q-sort measure of slow LH strategy exhibited a significant positive correlation with performance (r = 0.32), verbal (r = 0.34), and full (r = 0.38) IQ test scores. Additional findings suggest that a slow LH strategy and intelligence both include personality characteristics reflecting ambition and, possibly, social perceptiveness. Alternatively, intelligence is more closely aligned with a personality profile including intellectual ability, independence, and creativity while LH strategy was uniquely associated with interpersonal warmth, conformity, and reticence.