Darwinian Medicine

Question 1

Why do we continue to experience disease caused by pathogens?

Answer 1

Pathogens are simple organisms that evolve much faster than us or our innovations

Question 2

Why do we continue to experience diseases (Non pathogen related)?

Answer 2

Evolutionary mismatch via evolutionarily novel features of the modern environment

Question 3

Why do we have Evolutionary Constraints?

Answer 3

Evolution can only incrementally modify designs via natural selection and cannot radically reshape design

Question 4

Are symptoms adaptations?

Answer 4

Yes. While diseases are not adaptations, its symptoms are adaptations

Question 5

What is the reason for negative emotions?

Answer 5

They function to…
1. Draw attention to interfering events
2. Alert individuals to the interferences
3. Mark the event for storage and retrieval
4. Motivate action to eliminate interference

Question 6

How can Anxiety Disorders be functional?

Answer 6

It facilitates the avoidance of danger

Question 7

How can Phobias be functional?

Answer 7

It can prevent extinguishing

Question 8

How can Depression be functional?

Answer 8

When risks are substantial or effort is likely to be wasted, low mood blocks investments

Question 9

Why do Addictions occur?

Answer 9

Abusable substances do not exist in high concentrations in the natural environment

Question 10

Why do Pathological Habits occur?

Answer 10

Caused by an evolutionary mismatch in the underlying regulatory mismatch for respective behaviors

Question 11

Why do Eating Disorders occur?

Answer 11

1. Evolutionary mismatches in food preferences
2. Social Competition Hypothesis

Question 12

What is Social Competition Hypothesis?

Answer 12

Proposes that intense intrasexual competition is the biological root of the drive for an ideal body image

Question 13

What is Schizophrenia?

Answer 13

Psychiatric disorder with the core feature of hallucinations and delusions (Its symptoms do not have an evolutionary function)

Question 14

Why do Schizophrenia occur?

Answer 14

May be due to a trade off; extreme levels of certain helpful traits like creativity may cause schizophrenia

Question 15

Can symptoms of ADHD be functional?

Answer 15

Yes. Genes associated with ADHD are linked to high levels of curiosity and exploratory personality

Question 16

Why do ADHD occur?

Answer 16

Additional curiosity and impulsiveness might have been beneficial, but modern environments are more stable and rich in information

Question 17

How do Darwinian Principles help psychiatry and psychology?

Answer 17

1. A framework to understand human behaviors and emotions
2. Insights into individual lives
3. Provide diagnostic guidance
4. Explaining individual differences

Question 18

Explain the idea of Darwinian Principles helping psychiatry and psychology via a ‘Framework to understand human behaviors and emotions’

Answer 18

Provides insight into the normative function of various evolved psychological mechanisms

Question 19

Explain the idea of Darwinian Principles helping psychiatry and psychology via a ‘Insights into individual lives’

Answer 19

Emphasizes the following to provide insights into psychopathologies
1. Fundamental goals regarding reproductive success
2. Circumstances over development shape individual responses
3. Relationship with kins & social others

Question 20

Explain the idea of Darwinian Principles helping psychiatry and psychology via a ‘Provide diagnostic guidance’

Answer 20

Certain diagnoses are often without references to the functions of certain responses

Question 21

3 considerations regarding the classification of mental disorders by Darwinian Principles

Answer 21

1. Emotional, cognitive, or behavioral responses that arise from normal systems
2. Symptoms arise from abnormal regulation of normal emotion or capacity
3. Abnormalities of emotion, cognition, and behavior that are not primarily involved with systems that regulate emotion and behavior

Question 22

5 types of ‘Emotional, cognitive, or behavioral responses that arise from normal systems/

Answer 22

1. Useful responses that may be averse
2. Normal responses that benefit the individual’s genes at the expense of one’s interests
3. Responses that arise from normal systems but that are not useful in the particular instance
4. Normal responses that are useless or harmful now
5. Normal responses that do not harm the individual but that are defined as abnormal by a group or culture

Question 23

3 types of ‘Symptoms arise from abnormal regulation of normal emotion or capacity’

Answer 23

1. Specific defects that account for the dysregulation
   -> Hardware problems/Causation from below
2. Dysregulation arising from social dilemmas or complexities
   -> Software problems/Causation from above
3. Extremes of a trait distribution increase vulnerability

Question 24

Explain the idea of Darwinian Principles helping psychiatry and psychology via ‘Explaining individual differences’

Answer 24

Provides a unifying framework that explains individual differences at all levels of sources that may be cross-interacting

Question 25

Sources of individual differences that are suggested by evolutionary psychology’s unifying framework

Answer 25

1. Genetic
   -> Ex. Effect of the gene coding for evolved psychological mechanism
2. Situational
   -> Ex. Activation of evolved psychological mechanisms
3. Development
   -> Ex. Life history theory
4. Environmental & Cultural
   -> Ex. Behavioral ecology
5. Societal
   -> Ex. Evolutionary mismatch theory
6. Random effects
   -> Ex. Mutations