adaptation

Examples of adaptation in the following topics:

• Sensory Adaptation

  • Sensory adaptation is the decrease in the responsiveness of a sensory system that is confronted with a constant stimulus.
  • Sensory adaptation, also called neural adaptation, is the change in the responsiveness of a sensory system that is confronted with a constant stimulus.
  • One example of sensory adaptation is sustained touching.
  • These corpuscles rapidly change and adapt when a stimulus is added.
  • This is because the additional stimuli are new, and the body has not yet adapted to them.

• Evolutionary Psychology

  • Evolutionary psychology seeks to understand human behavior as the result of psychological adaptation and natural selection.
  • It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations—that is, the functional products of natural selection.
  • Just as evolutionary physiology has worked to identify physical adaptations of the body that represent "human physiological nature," evolutionary psychology works to identify evolved emotional and cognitive adaptations that represent "human psychological nature."
  • Evolutionary psychology stems from Charles Darwin's theories of evolution, adaptation, and natural selection.
  • The brain's adaptive mechanisms have been shaped over time by natural and sexual selection.

• Sensory Absolute Thresholds

  • There are several factors that can influence the level of absolute threshold, including adaptation to the stimulus and individual motivations and expectations.
  • Sensory adaptation happens when our senses no longer perceive a stimulus because of our sensory receptor's continuous contact with it.
  • If you've ever entered a room that has a terrible odor, but after a few minutes realized that you barely noticed it anymore, then you have experienced sensory adaptation.
  • Like thresholds, adaptation can occur with any sense, whether it's forgetting that the radio is on while you work or not noticing that the water in the pool is cold after you've been swimming for a while.

• Intellectual Disabilities

  • Intellectual disabilities are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by significantly impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning.
  • An intellectual disability is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significantly impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning.
  • It is defined by an intelligence quotient (IQ) score below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that affect an individual's everyday life.
  • significant limitations in one or more areas of adaptive behavior (e.g., communication, self-help skills, interpersonal skills) across multiple environments, and
  • In general, people with intellectual disability have an IQ below 70, but the diagnosis may also apply to individuals who have a somewhat higher IQ but severe impairment in adaptive functioning.

• Coping with Stress

  • All coping strategies have the adaptive goal of reducing or dealing with stress, but some strategies can actually be maladaptive (unhealthy) or merely ineffective.
  • Coping strategies can also be positive (adaptive) or negative (maladaptive).
  • Examples of adaptive coping include seeking social support from others (social coping) and attempting to learn from the stressful experience (meaning-focused coping).
  • Proactive coping is a specific type of adaptive strategy that attempts to anticipate a problem before it begins and prepare a person to cope with the coming challenge.
  • Give examples of adaptive and maladaptive strategies for coping with stress

• Intellectual Disabilities

  • An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in an individual's cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors.
  • An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in an individual's cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors.
  • An individual must also display deficits in adaptive functioning; have impairments in at least two areas of functioning, such as self-care, social skills, or living skills; and experience the onset of symptoms before the age of 18 in order to be diagnosed as having an intellectual disability.
  • Individuals with intellectual disabilities may experience difficulty learning social rules, deficits in memory, difficulty with problem solving, and delays in adaptive behaviors (such as self-help or self-care skills).

• Somatosensation: Pressure, Temperature, and Pain

  • These receptors differ in their field size (small or large) and their speeds of adaptation (fast or slow).
  • The speed of adaptation refers to how quickly the receptor will react to a stimulus and how long that reaction will be sustained after the stimulus is removed.
  • Rapidly adapting cells allow us to adjust grip and force appropriately.
  • Slowly adapting cells allow us to perceive form and texture.

• Early Frameworks: Structuralism and Functionalism

  • Functionalism considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment.
  • James' approach to psychology was less concerned with the composition of the mind, and more concerned with examining the ways in which the mind adapts to changing situations and environments.
  • Functionalism's emphasis on the scientific study of the adaptive functions of behaviors and mental processes advanced the study of psychology as a science.

• Behavior Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis

  • Behavior therapy is based on the idea that maladaptive behavior is learned, and thus adaptive behavior can also be learned.
  • It applies the principles of operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and observational learning to eliminate inappropriate or maladaptive behaviors and replace them with more adaptive responses.
  • The basic premise is that the individual has learned behaviors that are problematic and maladaptive, and so he or she must learn new behaviors that are adaptive.
  • The modeling process involves a person being subjected to watching other individuals who demonstrate behavior that is considered adaptive and that should be adopted by the client.

• Early Roots of Psychology

  • Functionalism considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment.
  • James's approach to psychology was less concerned with the composition of the mind and more concerned with examining the ways in which the mind adapts to changing situations and environments.
  • Functionalism's emphasis on the scientific study of the adaptive functions of behaviors and mental processes advanced the study of psychology as a science.