Evolutionary psychologists claim the fight or flight response is a behavior humans today have inherited from their ancestors. Imagine the scenario long ago where a caveman is confronted by a grizzly bear. The caveman would likely experience an adrenaline rush, causing shortness of breath, increased awareness, and quickened impulses to survive the encounter with the bear. People today have now inherited this survival response and apply it to different situations. Not having to worry about giant grizzly bears, people today might instead experience fight or flight during a public speech. During a speech, a person may feel a sense of "danger," similar to that of the caveman, and therefore get an adrenaline rush.
Now to look at the evolutionary psychologist's approach to depression. Their claim is that depression is a "survival tool" humans have developed, just like with the fight or flight response. However, as you can imagine this is extremely different. Depression is a serious illness and is difficult to view as a "survival tool."
One example of how depression could promote survival comes from McGuire, Raleigh, and Troisi's experiment. In their study, they examined vervet monkeys and how their serotonin levels vary between each other. Low serotonin levels are BELIEVED to be associated with depression. The study found that high-ranking monkeys (alpha males) have twice the level of serotonin as low-ranking males. More importantly, they observed that when alpha males lost their top position, their serotonin levels plummeted and their behavior changed drastically (appeared to exhibit depression).
But how does this promote the monkey's survival? One answer is psychiatrist John Price's "Rank Theory." Price sees depression as a way for people to avoid conflict and aggression. In the monkey's case, the fallen alpha male accepts his lower status and avoids aggression towards the new alpha male. This behavior then promotes the monkey's survival (he doesn't pick a fight with the alpha male). Overall, evolutionary psychologists see depression as an "evolved mechanism of distress telling us to hibernate, escape, or change something" (Nando Pelusi's article in Psychology Today).
One example of how depression could promote survival comes from McGuire, Raleigh, and Troisi's experiment. In their study, they examined vervet monkeys and how their serotonin levels vary between each other. Low serotonin levels are BELIEVED to be associated with depression. The study found that high-ranking monkeys (alpha males) have twice the level of serotonin as low-ranking males. More importantly, they observed that when alpha males lost their top position, their serotonin levels plummeted and their behavior changed drastically (appeared to exhibit depression).
But how does this promote the monkey's survival? One answer is psychiatrist John Price's "Rank Theory." Price sees depression as a way for people to avoid conflict and aggression. In the monkey's case, the fallen alpha male accepts his lower status and avoids aggression towards the new alpha male. This behavior then promotes the monkey's survival (he doesn't pick a fight with the alpha male). Overall, evolutionary psychologists see depression as an "evolved mechanism of distress telling us to hibernate, escape, or change something" (Nando Pelusi's article in Psychology Today).
But...
The evolutionary approach to depression (everything above) is still in its infancy. One major problem with it is a lack of research. There is not enough evolutionary psychologists researching mental illness and the field is slow to develop new therapies. Overall, a lot more work needs to be done.
This is just one of many ideas where depression comes from. One can also view it as strictly a medical illness (instead of the evolutionary view). This could involve biological, genetic, or environmental factors. Many scientists think depression comes from the brains imbalance of certain chemicals. Such chemicals include serotonin, yet there is no way to be 100% positive this is a cause. Although scientists predict these factors play a role in depression, they are not certain. Depression's cause is still largely a mystery. However, looking at depression from medicine's perspective has led to successful treatment.
So what is at stake with this debate? The purpose of finding the origin of depression is to better treat those with the illness. If depression is a "survival tool," then psychologists can create better procedures and therapy techniques based on the findings. Yet suppose the cause is biological; in this case scientists can work to produce better medication for treatment. Overall, the better understanding of depression we have, the better we can fight it.
The evolutionary approach to depression (everything above) is still in its infancy. One major problem with it is a lack of research. There is not enough evolutionary psychologists researching mental illness and the field is slow to develop new therapies. Overall, a lot more work needs to be done.
This is just one of many ideas where depression comes from. One can also view it as strictly a medical illness (instead of the evolutionary view). This could involve biological, genetic, or environmental factors. Many scientists think depression comes from the brains imbalance of certain chemicals. Such chemicals include serotonin, yet there is no way to be 100% positive this is a cause. Although scientists predict these factors play a role in depression, they are not certain. Depression's cause is still largely a mystery. However, looking at depression from medicine's perspective has led to successful treatment.
So what is at stake with this debate? The purpose of finding the origin of depression is to better treat those with the illness. If depression is a "survival tool," then psychologists can create better procedures and therapy techniques based on the findings. Yet suppose the cause is biological; in this case scientists can work to produce better medication for treatment. Overall, the better understanding of depression we have, the better we can fight it.
So what are your opinions on the issue? Do you think it is possible depression began as a "survival tool?" Or do you disagree and believe it to be strictly a medical illness (having no evolutionary roots)?
Or do you maybe think it is a combination of both, or even neither (meaning something else)?
I always thought of depression strictly as a medical illness. A loss of serotonin makes sense as far as coping goes, but depression is long term.
ReplyDeleteAnother EP perspective on depression is that it contributes to complex problem solving. One study showed that people, in a testing setting, who became more depressed (as associated with central nervous system functioning) by a problem were better at solving it. The are arguing that depression gets rid of distractions (food, sex, socializing, etc) and allows the sufferer to focus on a problem at hand. This would mean that treatments for depression would revolve around helping the sufferer to identify and solve their problem.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=depressions-evolutionary&offset=2
That being said, I think that this approach to depression is very similar to other evolutionary scientific approaches to the brain. I get the sense that the general argument is: all traits and behaviors are a product of the physical brain, which is shaped by evolution, and when they happen outside of the proper situation or too much we cal them disorders.