The Phylogenesis of Human Personality: Identifying the Precursors of Cooperation, Altruism, and Well-Being

Abstract

Intro Paragraph: Human beings have a natural potential for love and altruism that is expressed when they are functioning in a healthy way. Prosocial behavior is a prominent aspect of health and happiness in human beings, which is characteristic of integrated states of physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being (Cloninger and Zohar, 2010). From a neuropsychiatric perspective, selfish and uncooperative behaviors are signs of mental dysfunction because they are strongly associated with life dissatisfaction and ill health (Cloninger, 2004). From an evolutionary perspective, antisocial behav- ior in human beings is the unregulated expression of primitive impulses because it is a consequence of the failure of the human capacity for apperception of unity (Cloninger, 2009).