Pumping the Brakes on Psychosocial Acceleration Theory: Revisiting its Underlying Assumptions

Abstract

Psychosocial Acceleration Theory (PAT) is a popular evolutionary psychology theory that applies the biological concept of life history theory to understanding individual differences in human behavior and development. PAT argues that during a critical period in early childhood, exposure to harsh and/or unpredictable conditions leads individuals to accelerate their pubertal maturation and engage in more mating effort alongside less parental (and potentially somatic) investment (and vice versa in response to benign or predictable cues.) A large body of literature has found small, but significant, empirical effects in support of these patterns. However, a separate body of research has increasingly revealed a number of significant challenges to the underlying assumptions of PAT. The goal of my paper was to therefore review PAT’s assumptions and any challenges to those assumptions. My review shows that all of PAT’s underlying assumptions have at least modest challenges to their validity, with the majority of those assumptions facing more severe challenges to their validity. I therefore suggest that future research on PAT should focus on addressing these potential challenges to the theory so as to offer a stronger theoretical framework with which to explain current empirical data about human life histories.