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Evolution and depression: issues and implications.

Paul Gilbert1

  • 1Mental Health Research Unit, Kingsway Hospital, Derby, UK. p.gilbert@derby.ac.uk

Psychological Medicine
|October 21, 2005
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Depression involves reduced positive emotions. Evolutionary theories suggest toning down positive affect may be adaptive after loss of control, especially in competitive social settings.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary psychology
  • Affective neuroscience
  • Clinical psychology

Background:

  • Depression is characterized by the down-regulation of positive affect systems.
  • Understanding the adaptive value of modulating positive affect is crucial.
  • Dysfunctions in affect regulation contribute to depressive states.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review social and non-social theories explaining the adaptive advantages of reduced positive affect.
  • To explore how loss of control influences positive affect regulation.
  • To examine the role of social environments in the severity of depressive phenotypes.

Main Methods:

  • Review of evolutionary theories of depression, including attachment-loss and defeat-loss models.
  • Analysis of social theories emphasizing the impact of social environment control.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Consideration of factors like self-evaluation, rumination, and modern social contexts.

    • Main Results:

    • Loss of control over events or resources pressures positive affect downwards.
    • Social theories highlight the depressogenic impact of losing control over the social environment.
    • Adverse social environments (hostile, unsupportive, competitive) can exacerbate affect dysregulation.

    Conclusions:

    • Phenotypes for toning down positive affect may be adaptive but can become dysfunctional.
    • Human competencies like self-evaluation and rumination can accentuate maladaptive affect regulation.
    • Modern social contexts may intensify dysfunctional affect regulation in depression.