LINKS OF INTEREST

Li Lab

Schmitt Lab

Buss Lab

NMSU Aikido Club

COURSES

PSY 321: Personality

Intro to Psych

STUDIES

Online STD Project

Helping study

Gift-giving

Booty call 2

Dark Triad Study for MEN ONLY

Dark Triad Study for WOMEN ONLY

SOME MEDIA MENTIONS

The Forum (p. 3)

Tierney Labs

PGSO

Psychology Today (p. 4)

New Scientist

ABC News

Education:

B.A., Political Science and Communication Sciences, 2000, UConn

Advisor: Dr. Ross Buck

M.A., Communication Sciences: Nonverbal Focus, Minor: Psychology, 2003, UConn
Advisor: Dr. Ross Buck

Thesis: A cultivation analysis of physical attractiveness 

 

Ph.D. (ABD), Experimental Social Psychology, Minor: Biological Anthroplolgy, Expected 2009, New Mexico State University

Advisors: Dr. Laura Madson and Dr. Michael Marks

Mentors: Dr. Norman Li, Dr. David Schmitt, and Dr. Gregory Webster

Research Interests:

Adaptive individual differences: Traditionally, evolutionary psychology has focused on species-typical adaptations. Personality psychology, in contrast, has focused on individual differences. When these two are combined they are called evolutionary personality psychology. This type of evolutionary approach is considered to be the most challenging. In this case, instead, of traits being by-products or neutral, personality traits are reflections of underlying social strategies. My research in this area focuses mainly on the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, & Machiavellianism). I have already established that the Dark Triad facilitates short-term mating in men. I am pursuing the nature of this personality cluster beyond mating to general life strategies like risk-taking and credit card debt as well as to topics such mate-poaching and mate-guarding. While these personality traits are often thought of as maladaptive, in the colloquial sense, they appear to also be adaptive in the evolutionary sense. Clearly they cannot be all bad. Perhaps the best example of the cluster is James Bond, a male icon, a "dark hero.".

 

Conditional mating strategies: Mick Jagger may have said it best: "you can't always get what you want." When individuals are confronted with the reality of an inability to date the most intelligent or the most attractive person they tend to make compromises in their mate preferences. These compromises come with costs, such as if an individual decides to lower the strength in their preference for physical attractiveness, they are confronted with the fact that those they are dating are not as attractive as they really want. However, little research addresses what strategies individuals take to trade the costs and benefits of these compromises in newly forming relationships. Moreover, little research formally tests the trade-off hypothesis with tangible estimators of the trade-off (e.g., how many mate-dollars would you invest or how many miles would you travel for a new romantic relationship).

 

Relationships as negotiations: Researchers have predominantly focused their across-relationship analyses to one-night stands and monogamously married or dating dyads. However, there are other relationship types (e.g., "friends with benefits" and swingers) that exist in the dating ecology that may yield reformulations of this polarized perspective, a greater understanding of what really comprises a relationship, and what individual differences are associated with certain types of relationship choices. One could call these other relationships "hybrids" because they have features of both long-term and short-term relationship patterns in a more equal quantity than those relationship types under typical investigation. While more descriptive work is needed, these relatively untouched areas of sexual and romantic relationship research are open for not only exploration but are likely to yield interesting findings in dating dynamics, partner preferences, and the battle of the sexes.

 

Additional Interests. Comparative Psychology, Primatology, Evolutionary Biology, Human Evolution, Religiousness.

Publications:

2008

 

Jonason, P. K. (in press). The value of physical attractiveness: Modeling biological and social variables. Journal of Social Psychology.

 

Jonason, P. K., & Fisher, T. D. (in press). The power of prestige: Why young men report having more sex partners than young women. Sex Roles.

 

Jonason, P. K., Li, N. P., & Cason, M. J. (in press). The "booty call": A compromise between men and women’s ideal mating strategies. The Journal of Sex Research.

 

Jonason, P. K.. Li, N. P., Webster, G. W., & Schmitt, D. P. (in press). The Dark Triad: Facilitating short-term mating in men. European Journal of Personality. New scientist article ABC News

 

Jonason, P. K. & Marks, M. J. (in press). Common vs. uncommon sexual acts: Evidence for the sexual double standard. Sex Roles.

 

2007

 

Jonason, P. K. (2007). A mediation hypothesis to account for the sex difference in reported number of sexual partners: An intrasexual competition approach. International Journal of Sexual Health, 19, 41-49.

 

Jonason, P. K. (2007). Further tests of validity for the one-dimensional scale of Hong’s Psychological Reactance Scale. Psychological Reports, 101, 871-874.

 

Jonason, P. K. (2007). An evolutionary perspective on sex differences in exercise behaviors and motivations. Journal of Social Psychology, 147, 5-14.

 

Jonason, P. K., Izzo, P. L., & Webster, G. D. (2007). Helping others to find long-term and short-term mates: Tests of inclusive fitness, reciprocal altruism, and parental investment theories. Evolutionary Psychology, 5, 716-732.

 

2006

 

Jonason, P. K. & Knowles, H. M. (2006). A unidimensional measure of Hong's Psychological Reactance Scale. Psychological Reports, 98, 569-579.

Invited resubissions:

Submitted for publication:

Jonason, P. K. (under review). A brief multi-item scale to assess religiousness.

 

Jonason, P. K., & Cetrulo, J. F (under review). Meaningful associations between the Big Five and short-term mating.

 

Jonason, P. K., Cetrulo, J. F., Madrid, J. M., & Morrison, C. (under review). Sex differences and similarities in gift-giving in romantic and sexual relationships.

 

Jonason, P. K. & Knowles, H. M. (under review). Communication styles associated with psychological reactance.

 

Jonason, P. K., Knowles, H. M., & Herrera, J. (under review). Assessing the nomological network surrounding psychological reactance with authoritarianism and religiousness.

 

Jonason, P. K., Krcmar, M., & Sohn, S., (under review). Male body image: The role of exposure, social comparison, and body mass index in body satisfaction.

 

Jonason, P. K. & Marks, M. (under review). The role of sociosexuality and religiousness in the evaluation of sexually active targets.

 

Jonason, P. K., & Ortiz, J. (under review). The correlation between self-esteem and number of lifetime sex partners: An adaptive sociometer approach.

 

Jonason, P. K., Webster, G. D., & Lindsey. A. E. (under review). Solutions to the problem of diminished social interaction.

Courses Taught:

Personality, Social Psychology, Interpersonal Communication, Inferential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Research Methods & Statistical Analysis, Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Media, Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication Sciences, Media & Society, Persuasion & Debate