The term ‘life-history theory’ (LHT) is increasingly often invoked in psychology, as a framework for integrating understanding of psychological traits into a broader evolutionary context. Although LHT as presented in psychology papers (LHT-P) is typically described as a straightforward extension of the theoretical principles from evolutionary biology that bear the same name (LHT-E), the two bodies of work are not well integrated. Here, through a close reading of recent papers, we argue that LHT-E and LHT-P are different research programmes in the Lakatosian sense. The core of LHT-E is built around ultimate evolutionary explanation, via explicit mathematical modelling, of how selection can drive divergent evolution of populations or species living under different demographies or ecologies. The core of LHT-P concerns measurement of covariation, across individuals, of multiple psychological traits; the proximate goals these serve; and their relation to childhood experience. Some of the links between LHT-E and LHT-P are false friends. For example, elements that are marginal in LHT-E are core commitments of LHT-P, and where explanatory principles are transferred from one to the other, nuance can be lost in transmission. The methodological rules for what grounds a prediction in theory are different in the two cases. Though there are major differences between LHT-E and LHT-P at present, there is much potential for greater integration in the future, through both theoretical modelling and further empirical research. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

中文翻译：

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心理学和进化生物学中的生命史理论：一个或两个研究项目？

“生活史理论”（LHT）一词在心理学中越来越多地被引用，作为将对心理特征的理解融入到更广泛的进化背景中的框架。尽管心理学论文 (LHT-P) 中提出的 LHT 通常被描述为同名进化生物学理论原理 (LHT-E) 的直接扩展，但这两项工作并没有很好地整合。在这里，通过仔细阅读最近的论文，我们认为LHT-E和LHT-P是拉卡托斯意义上的不同研究项目。LHT-E 的核心是围绕终极进化解释，通过明确的数学模型，解释选择如何驱动生活在不同人口统计或生态下的种群或物种的发散进化。LHT-P 的核心涉及测量个体之间多种心理特征的协变；这些服务的近期目标；以及它们与童年经历的关系。LHT-E 和 LHT-P 之间的一些链接是虚假好友。例如，LHT-E 中的边缘元素是 LHT-P 的核心承诺，并且当解释性原则从一种转移到另一种时，细微差别可能会在传播过程中丢失。在这两种情况下，理论上预测的方法规则是不同的。尽管目前 LHT-E 和 LHT-P 之间存在重大差异，但通过理论建模和进一步的实证研究，未来有更大的集成潜力。本文是主题“生命史与学习：童年、看护和老年如何塑造人类和其他动物的认知和文化”的一部分。