Discriminating Ecologies: A Life History Approach to Stigma and Health

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L. Neuberg ◽  
Andreana C. Kenrick
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Causes Of Mortality ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Complementary Set

How does being discriminated against affect one’s health, and through what mechanisms? Most research has focused on two causal pathways, highlighting how discrimination increases psychological stress and exposure to neighborhood hazards. This chapter advances an alternative, complementary set of mechanisms through which stigma and discrimination may shape health. Grounded in evolutionary biology’s life history theory, the framework holds that discrimination alters aspects of the physical and social ecologies in which people live (e.g., sex ratio, unpredictable extrinsic causes of mortality). These discriminating ecologies pull for specific behaviors and physiological responses (e.g., risk-taking, sexual activity, offspring care, fat storage) that are active, strategic, and rational given the threats and opportunities afforded by these ecologies but that also have downstream implications for health. This framework generates a wide range of nuanced insights and unique hypotheses about the discrimination-health relationship, and suggests specific approaches to intervention while pointing to complex ethical issues.

The effect of childhood unpredictability on co-parenting relationships during the transition to parenthood: A life history approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 2438-2458
Author(s):  
Ohad Szepsenwol
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Transition To Parenthood ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Parental Behaviors ◽  
Childhood Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Environmental Unpredictability ◽  
History Approach

Recent extensions to life history theory posit that exposure to environmental unpredictability during childhood should forecast negative parental behaviors in adulthood. In the current research, this logic was extended to co-parental behaviors, which refer to how parents coordinate, share responsibility, and support each other’s parental efforts. The effects of early-life unpredictability on individual and dyadic co-parental functioning were examined in a sample of 109 families (two parents and their firstborn child) who were followed longitudinally from before the child’s birth until the age of two. Greater early-life unpredictability (family changes, residential changes, and parents’ occupational changes by age 8) experienced by mothers, but not fathers, predicted more negative co-parental behaviors in triadic observations 6 months post birth, and lower couple-reported co-parenting quality assessed 3, 9, 18, and 24 months post birth. These effects were not explained by parents’ childhood socioeconomic status or current relationship quality. These findings highlight the role of mothers in shaping co-parenting relationships and how these relationships might be influenced by mothers’ early-life experiences.

scholarly journals An integrative evolutionary framework for psychopathology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Marco Del Giudice ◽  
John D. Haltigan
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
History Approach ◽  
P Factor ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract The field of psychopathology is in a transformative phase, and is witnessing a renewed surge of interest in theoretical models of mental disorders. While many interesting proposals are competing for attention in the literature, they tend to focus narrowly on the proximate level of analysis and lack a broader understanding of biological function. In this paper, we present an integrative framework for mental disorders built on concepts from life history theory, and describe a taxonomy of mental disorders based on its principles, the fast–slow–defense model (FSD). The FSD integrates psychopathology with normative individual differences in personality and behavior, and allows researchers to draw principled distinctions between broad clusters of disorders, as well as identify functional subtypes within current diagnostic categories. Simulation work demonstrates that the model can explain the large-scale structure of comorbidity, including the apparent emergence of a general “p factor” of psychopathology. A life history approach also provides novel integrative insights into the role of environmental risk/protective factors and the developmental trajectories of various disorders.

scholarly journals The nature and dynamics of world religions: a life-history approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1818) ◽  
pp. 20151593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Baumard ◽  
Coralie Chevallier
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Life Strategy ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Face ◽  
Diffusion Pattern ◽  
History Approach

In contrast with tribal and archaic religions, world religions are characterized by a unique emphasis on extended prosociality, restricted sociosexuality, delayed gratification and the belief that these specific behaviours are sanctioned by some kind of supernatural justice. Here, we draw on recent advances in life history theory to explain this pattern of seemingly unrelated features. Life history theory examines how organisms adaptively allocate resources in the face of trade-offs between different life-goals (e.g. growth versus reproduction, exploitation versus exploration) . In particular, recent studies have shown that individuals, including humans, adjust their life strategy to the environment through phenotypic plasticity: in a harsh environment, organisms tend to adopt a ‘fast' strategy, pursuing smaller but more certain benefits, while in more affluent environments, organisms tend to develop a ‘slow' strategy, aiming for larger but less certain benefits. Reviewing a range of recent research, we show that world religions are associated with a form of ‘slow' strategy. This framework explains both the promotion of ‘slow' behaviours such as altruism, self-regulation and monogamy in modern world religions, and the condemnation of ‘fast' behaviours such as selfishness, conspicuous sexuality and materialism. This ecological approach also explains the diffusion pattern of world religions: why they emerged late in human history (500–300 BCE), why they are currently in decline in the most affluent societies and why they persist in some places despite this overall decline.

Evolutionary Psychopathology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Del Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
Seamless Integration ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Diagnostic Categories ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Specific Disorders

This book presents a unified approach to evolutionary psychopathology, and advances an integrative framework for the analysis and classification of mental disorders based on the concepts of life history theory. The framework does not aim to replace existing evolutionary models of specific disorders—which are reviewed and critically discussed in the book—but to connect them in a broader perspective and explain the large-scale patterns of risk and comorbidity that characterize psychopathology. The life history framework permits a seamless integration of mental disorders with normative individual differences in personality and cognition, and offers new conceptual tools for the analysis of developmental, genetic, and neurobiological data. The concepts synthesized in the book are used to derive a new taxonomy of mental disorders, the fast-slow-defense (FSD) model. The FSD model is the first classification system explicitly based on evolutionary concepts, a biologically grounded alternative to transdiagnostic models based on empirical correlations between symptoms. The book reviews a wide range of common mental disorders, discusses their classification in the FSD model, and identifies functional subtypes within existing diagnostic categories.

scholarly journals Within-host competition drives energy allocation trade-offs in an insect parasitoid

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8810
Author(s):  
J. Keaton Wilson ◽  
Laura Ruiz ◽  
Goggy Davidowitz
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Body Sizes

Organismal body size is an important biological trait that has broad impacts across scales of biological organization, from cells to ecosystems. Size is also deeply embedded in life history theory, as the size of an individual is one factor that governs the amount of available resources an individual is able to allocate to different structures and systems. A large body of work examining resource allocation across body sizes (allometry) has demonstrated patterns of allocation to different organismal systems and morphologies, and extrapolated rules governing biological structure and organization. However, the full scope of evolutionary and ecological ramifications of these patterns have yet to be realized. Here, we show that density-dependent larval competition in a natural population of insect parasitoids (Drino rhoeo: Tachinidae) results in a wide range of body sizes (largest flies are more than six times larger (by mass) than the smallest flies). We describe strong patterns of trade-offs between different body structures linked to dispersal and reproduction that point to life history strategies that differ between both males and females and individuals of different sizes. By better understanding the mechanisms that generate natural variation in body size and subsequent effects on the evolution of life history strategies, we gain better insight into the evolutionary and ecological impacts of insect parasitoids in tri-trophic systems.

scholarly journals Why do women stop reproducing before menopause? A life-history approach to age at last birth

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1692) ◽  
pp. 20150147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Towner ◽  
Ilona Nenko ◽  
Savannah E. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Age At Menopause ◽  
Human Reproductive ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Post Menopausal ◽  
Sample Age

Evolutionary biologists have long considered menopause to be a fundamental puzzle in understanding human fertility behaviour, as post-menopausal women are no longer physiologically capable of direct reproduction. Menopause typically occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, but across cultures and history, women often stop reproducing many years before menopause. Unlike age at first reproduction or even birth spacing, a woman nearing the end of her reproductive cycle is able to reflect upon the offspring she already has—their numbers and phenotypic qualities, including sexes. This paper reviews demographic data on age at last birth both across and within societies, and also presents a case study of age at last birth in rural Bangladeshi women. In this Bangladeshi sample, age at last birth preceded age at menopause by an average of 11 years, with marked variation around that mean, even during a period of high fertility. Moreover, age at last birth was not strongly related to age at menopause. Our literature review and case study provide evidence that stopping behaviour needs to be more closely examined as an important part of human reproductive strategies and life-history theory. Menopause may be a final marker of permanent reproductive cessation, but it is only one piece of the evolutionary puzzle.

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