Evolutionary Perspectives on Adolescence

Weisfeld, Glenn E.; Dillon, Lisa M.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_6

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 459 publications

(642 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…With the onset of puberty, sexual behavior and romantic attachment come to the forefront, and social competition further intensifies (see Ellis et al, in press a;Weisfeld, 1999). Puberty affords another opportunity to "revise" one's strategy, depending for example on the success enjoyed -or the level of competition experienced -during juvenility.…”

Section: Developmental Stages and Switch Points In Human Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of Stress: An Evolutionary—Developmental Framework

Giudice

Ellis

Shirtcliff

2012

Adaptive and Maladaptive Aspects of Developmental Stress

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this chapter we present an evolutionary-developmental framework for individual differences in stress responsivity, the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM). We argue that the core propositions of the ACM provide a context for the integrative biological analysis of the stress response system, exemplified by Tinbergen's "four questions" of mechanism, ontogeny, phylogeny, and adaptation. We then show how the ACM can be used to generate novel predictions on responsivity profiles in humans and their development across the life span.

show abstract

Section: Developmental Stages and Switch Points In Human Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of Stress: An Evolutionary—Developmental Framework

Giudice

Ellis

Shirtcliff

2012

Adaptive and Maladaptive Aspects of Developmental Stress

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Teaching people that their behavior is not nearly as much under their conscious control as they think would provide strong protection, but people are loathe to give up that belief. It would be wonderful if we could prevent initial drug use by telling young people that natural selection never shaped mechanisms to protect us against addiction, but youth are notoriously resistant to advice from their elders – possibly for the good evolutionary reason of avoiding manipulation 425‐427 . However, an evolutionary perspective on substance abuse can help to relieve stigma and encourage cooperation with treatment.…”

Section: Substance Use and Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary psychiatry: foundations, progress and challenges

Nesse

2023

World Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evolutionary biology provides a crucial foundation for medicine and behavioral science that has been missing from psychiatry. Its absence helps to explain slow progress; its advent promises major advances. Instead of offering a new kind of treatment, evolutionary psychiatry provides a scientific foundation useful for all kinds of treatment. It expands the search for causes from mechanistic explanations for disease in some individuals to evolutionary explanations for traits that make all members of a species vulnerable to disease. For instance, capacities for symptoms such as pain, cough, anxiety and low mood are universal because they are useful in certain situations. Failing to recognize the utility of anxiety and low mood is at the root of many problems in psychiatry. Determining if an emotion is normal and if it is useful requires understanding an individual's life situation. Conducting a review of social systems, parallel to the review of systems in the rest of medicine, can help achieve that understanding. Coping with substance abuse is advanced by acknowledging how substances available in modern environments hijack chemically mediated learning mechanisms. Understanding why eating spirals out of control in modern environments is aided by recognizing the motivations for caloric restriction and how it arouses famine protection mechanisms that induce binge eating. Finally, explaining the persistence of alleles that cause serious mental disorders requires evolutionary explanations of why some systems are intrinsically vulnerable to failure. The thrill of finding functions for apparent diseases is evolutionary psychiatry's greatest strength and weakness. Recognizing bad feelings as evolved adaptations corrects psychiatry's pervasive mistake of viewing all symptoms as if they were disease manifestations. However, viewing diseases such as panic disorder, melancholia and schizophrenia as if they are adaptations is an equally serious mistake in evolutionary psychiatry. Progress will come from framing and testing specific hypotheses about why natural selection left us vulnerable to mental disorders. The efforts of many people over many years will be needed before we will know if evolutionary biology can provide a new paradigm for understanding and treating mental disorders.

show abstract

“…If Jim does not respond to Tom's insults, his status will decline, and other men might be inclined to make a pass at his girlfriend. However, if Jim responds to the threat quickly and confidently, perhaps by returning insults or threatening Tom with physical force, he can maintain or restore his reputation and potentially deter other men from talking or flirting with his girlfriend (Weisfeld, 1999). These types of insults are analogous to male-male challenges seen in other species, and not responding results in loss of status.…”

Section: Dominance and Precarious Manhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%