ABSTRACT
Locke discusses that motives to approach communion (e.g., form partnerships), avoid communion (e.g., limit obligations), approach agency (e.g., enhance status), and avoid agency (e.g., sidestep conflicts) are universals because each has reliably – under certain circumstances – proven adaptive throughout our evolutionary history. Guided by upward, connective, downward, and contrastive social comparisons, people selectively invest in social goals that promise to be fulfilling (e.g., befriending likeminded others) and divest from goals that threaten to be frustrating (e.g., attacking stronger rivals). Individuals who can harness agency toward communal ends tend to experience better psychological, physical, and social outcomes; however, individuals differ in their inclinations towards agentic and communal motives due to factors such as life history (e.g., unpredictable rearing environments), life stage (e.g., parenthood), gender, and general sensitivities to costs/rewards. Variations in social motives across persons and situations are partly mediated by variations in oxytocin (which tends to amplify communal motives to protect and nurture close others and social bonds) and testosterone (which tends to amplify agentic motives to vigorously defend and enhance social rank).
