Consistent with adaptive calibration models, the current study provides evidence that levels of unpredictability in childhood (assessed via disruptive changes in maternal employment, residence, and cohabitation) are associated with autism spectrum traits and borderline personality traits in adulthood. Although both sets of traits reflect vulnerabilities that, in the extreme range, underlie forms of psychopathology, borderline personality traits were associated with higher levels of childhood unpredictability (partial r = .28, p < .001), whereas autism spectrum traits were associated with lower levels of childhood unpredictability (partial r = -.12, p < .01). Findings highlight the fact that not all potentially dysfunctional psychological traits are associated with high levels of child adversity or "fast" life history trajectories. Even developmental trajectories that reflect long-term investment in psychosocial resources can prove dysfunctional in the extreme range. Perceptions of childhood unpredictability statistically mediated associations with both sets of adult traits, suggesting that subjective perceptions of the environment may play a crucial role in translating childhood experiences into long-term developmental outcomes. Models of adaptive calibration provide a valuable theoretical framework for understanding potential developmental roots of adult mental dysfunction.

ObjectiveSpiteful behaviors are those aimed at inflicting harm on another person while also incurring a cost to the self. Although spite sometimes reflects destructive and socially undesirable behaviors including aggression, the current work sought to examine a potentially socially beneficial aspect of spite: engagement in costly punishment for selfish behavior.MethodFour studies used a costly third-party punishment task and measured individual differences in spite, narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and motivations for engaging in punishment.ResultsTrait spite was positively associated with costly punishment of selfish behavior. That association was independent of other dark personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) and was statistically mediated by a desire for retribution. One of the studies also provided evidence that trait spite was associated with costly punishment of even generous behavior; however, rather than a desire for retribution, that association was mediated by a desire to threaten the person being punished.ConclusionPunishing selfishness and other forms of wrongdoing plays an essential role in cooperative group living. The current work provides new insight into the role spiteful motivations might play in this crucial social behavior.

Models of adaptive calibration provide an overarching theoretical framework for understanding the developmental roots of psychological and behavioral outcomes in adulthood. An adaptive calibration framework was used to examine an important dimension of motivation: goal timing. Across two studies, we saw mixed support for the hypothesis that unpredictability experienced in childhood would be negatively associated with the time horizons people use to set their goals, such that people who reported experiencing more unpredictability in their childhood tended to set goals on relatively shorter time horizons. The association was observed based on independent ratings of goal timing, but not based on participants' self-reported ratings of goal timing, and was statistically mediated by people's tendency to consider the short- versus long-term future consequences of their actions. These studies isolate a key component of childhood adversity-unpredictability-potentially underlying the time horizons people use to set, prioritize, and pursue their goals.

Dominance and prestige are two strategies people use to regulate their social rank within group hierarchies. Despite a growing literature on dominance- and prestige-oriented leaders, little is known about how those strategies operate among people lower in social rank. Four studies tested the hypothesis that, among subordinates, dominance and prestige are associated with high levels of malicious and benign envy, respectively. Individual differences in prestige were positively and independently associated with benign envy, and negatively associated with malicious envy. Individual differences in dominance were positively and independently associated with both malicious and benign envy. Two experiments demonstrated that activating a prestige-oriented mindset (relative to a dominance-oriented mindset) caused people to display higher levels of benign envy. No experimental effects on malicious envy were observed. Theories of prestige and dominance provide a useful framework for understanding ways in which subordinate group members strive for high social rank.

Guided by principles from life-history theory, theories of adaptive calibration provide an overarching theoretical framework for understanding the developmental roots of impulsivity and externalizing psychopathology. The current research provides evidence for robust associations between perceptions of childhood unpredictability, delay discounting (Studies 1a and 1b), and adult externalizing traits and behaviors (Study 2). Both associations were observed while controlling for perceptions of the harshness of childhood environments, as well as a range of demographic characteristics. The association with externalizing traits and behavior was observed over and above current mood and depressive symptoms. Study 2 also replicated a previously documented association between changes in maternal employment, residence, and cohabitation during childhood and externalizing behavior and, furthermore, suggested that this association was mediated by perceptions of unpredictability. These studies provided no evidence for links between perceived childhood unpredictability and basic forms of risk-taking (Studies 1a and 1c). This research adds to a growing body of work leveraging principles from life-history theory to demonstrate links between childhood experiences, impulsivity, and potentially debilitating forms of mental illness. This work also highlights the value of assessing people's perceptions of their childhood environments.

Objective A burgeoning literature inspired by life history theory suggests that psychological and behavioral processes become adaptively calibrated to the levels of harshness and unpredictability encountered in early developmental environments. The current research develops and validates brief scales intended to measure perceptions of childhood harshness (resource scarcity) and unpredictability. Methods Data were collected from adults in the U.S. (total N= 3252). Study 1 was used to design the measures and confirm reliability. Study 2 provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 assessed associations between the perceived harshness and unpredictability scales and indicators of life history strategies. Results The scales showed good convergent validity (e.g., moderate-to-strong associations with adverse childhood experiences, impulsivity, and a lack of self-control) and discriminant validity (e.g., null-to-low associations with social desirability, sex, and age), as well as associations with biometric (e.g., age of menarche and sexual debut), behavioral (e.g., number of sexual partners, age of first offspring, number of offspring), and psychometric (e.g., scores on the K-SF-42 and Mini-K) indicators of life history strategies. Conclusions These scales provide easy-to-administer retrospective measures of perceived childhood harshness and unpredictability and facilitate research testing hypotheses related to adaptive calibration.

This research differentiated childhood unpredictability (i.e., perceptions of uncertainty or instability due to turbulent environmental changes) from other related constructs to identify its role in adult health. Study 1 (N = 441) showed that, beyond other childhood adversity variables (poverty and adverse childhood experiences or ACEs) and demographic characteristics, perceptions of unpredictability were associated with greater functional disability and worse health-related quality of life (assessed via the CDC's HRQOL Healthy Days measure and the RAND SF-36). Study 2 (N = 564) replicated those findings in a more racially diverse sample and showed that associations with childhood unpredictability held while also controlling for the Big 5 personality traits. Findings suggest that effects of unpredictability were especially pronounced among Hispanic (in Study 1), and Black/African American and low-income participants (in Study 2). Experiencing childhood environments that are perceived to be uncertain, unstable, or uncontrollable may put children on a path toward poor health outcomes in adulthood. Findings advance theories of child adversity and health and identify childhood unpredictability as a potentially valuable target for intervention.

The present studies examined the associations that narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism, and spitefulness had with the competitive and dangerous social worldviews as well as the possibility that these worldviews may explain, at least in part, the associations that these dark personality features had with the ideological attitudes of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Across three studies (N = 2,103), we found the dark personality features to be positively associated with the competitive social worldview in Studies 1 and 3 but these associations were much weaker in Study 2. Narcissism, psychopathy, and spitefulness had indirect associations with the dominance and anti-egalitarianism aspects of SDO through the competitive social worldview in Study 3 but not in Study 2. In contrast, the dark personality features had, at best, weak associations with the dangerous social worldview as well as divergent associations with aspects of RWA. More specifically, narcissism and spitefulness were positively associated with aspects of RWA but psychopathy was negatively associated with RWA. Discussion focuses on the role that social worldviews - especially perceptions of the world as being a highly competitive environment - may play in the connections that dark personality features have with various outcomes including ideological attitudes.