Considering the role of ecology on individualdifferentiation

Our commentary articulates some of the commonalities between Baumeister etal.'s theory of socially differentiated roles and StrategicDifferentiation-Integration Effort. We expand upon the target article'sposition by arguing that differentiating social roles is contextual and drivenby varying ecological pressures, producing character displacement not only amongindividuals within complex societies, but also across social systems andmultiple levels of organization.