Michael Botwin

I am a first-generation college student who grew up in the Detroit suburbs. People growing up in my working-class neighborhood generally planned their career paths around some aspect of the auto industry. In my first career I progressed from a draftsman to a mechanical designer working on machines that put car parts together. In high school, a recruiter from the local community college came to my vocational drafting class and said that we could earn significantly more money with an Associates’ degree. That was the mercenary reason that starting my pursuit of higher education. I took an elective class in psychology and was hooked on the field. After finishing my Associates degree at the local community college (1978) I moved to Oakland University in Rochester Michigan to complete my bachelors’ degree (1982). While there, I became fascinated with personality psychology and decided to pursue that area of study is my life’s work. I completed my doctorate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1989) under the supervision of Prof. David Buss. During this time, I started to become interested in an area he was pursuing, evolutionary psychology. I spent the next year in the cornfields of Illinois as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois in quantitative psychology. Subsequently, I was hired by California State University Fresno and started my professorship in the fall of 1990. During my time at Fresno, I have continued my work in personality and evolutionary psychology. I have also spent a considerable amount of time in faculty governance.  For better or worse I’m the longest-serving chair of the Academic Senate on our campus completing six years of service as chair and currently serve as the body’s Parliamentarian. As I start to see the end of my career, I get most of my satisfaction from working with my undergraduate and graduate students in PEARL (Personality, Evolution, Attraction, Research Laboratory) and my classes.

Over the last several years I have refocused my work on the intersection of personality and evolutionary psychology. Working with students in my lab we have explored a variety of areas including romantic infatuation, mate guarding, personality traits, flirting, and a variety of other topics primarily centered on romantic relationships.

If you click the link below you can watch my short video biography: