Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Comparative Approach
- Part II Sociocultural Anthropology and Evolution
- Part III Evolution and Neuroscience
- Part IV Group Living
- Part V Evolution and Cognition
- Part VI Evolution and Development
- Part VII Sexual Selection and Human Sex Differences
- Part VIII Abnormal Behavior and Evolutionary Psychopathology
- 32 Psychopathology from an Evolutionary Perspective
- 33 Are We on the Verge of Darwinian Psychiatry?
- 34 The Evolution of Pro-social Behavior
- 35 Disordered Social Cognition
- Part IX Applying Evolutionary Principles
- Part X Evolution and the Media
- Index
- References
32 - Psychopathology from an Evolutionary Perspective
from Part VIII - Abnormal Behavior and Evolutionary Psychopathology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2020
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The Comparative Approach
- Part II Sociocultural Anthropology and Evolution
- Part III Evolution and Neuroscience
- Part IV Group Living
- Part V Evolution and Cognition
- Part VI Evolution and Development
- Part VII Sexual Selection and Human Sex Differences
- Part VIII Abnormal Behavior and Evolutionary Psychopathology
- 32 Psychopathology from an Evolutionary Perspective
- 33 Are We on the Verge of Darwinian Psychiatry?
- 34 The Evolution of Pro-social Behavior
- 35 Disordered Social Cognition
- Part IX Applying Evolutionary Principles
- Part X Evolution and the Media
- Index
- References
Summary
The purpose of this chapter is to consider the manner in which evolutionary perspectives offer an additional level of understanding to the field of psychopathology. This perspective offers both long-term and short-term considerations of psychological difficulties in everyday life. For all organisms, one of the main themes of evolution is the manner in which organisms are in close connection with their environment. It is this close connection that allows for change – including the turning on and off of genetic processes – to take place. In psychopathological disorders, this close connection with both the external and internal environment of the person may be dysfunctional.
When a person loses contact with the current environment and applies strategies that worked perhaps in an earlier time, then unsuccessful adaptation is the result. This lack of connectedness to our environment may take place on both external and internal levels.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020