Beyond risk, resilience, and dysregulation: phenotypic plasticity and human development

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Evolutionary thinking presents challenges for developmental science and psychopathology.
• The diathesis-stress model has guided research on risk, resilience, and dysregulation.
• Phenotypic plasticity requires further investigation as a distinct area of study.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a theoretical and empirical foundation for individual differences in developmental plasticity.
• To advocate for phenotypic plasticity as a subject of independent scientific inquiry.
• To highlight the implications of the differential-susceptibility hypothesis for understanding development.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical argumentation integrating evolutionary and developmental perspectives.
• Review and synthesis of recent empirical findings on person-environment interactions.
• Conceptual analysis of phenotypic plasticity as an individual-difference construct.

Main Results:

• Individual differences in developmental plasticity are theoretically and empirically supported.
• The differential-susceptibility hypothesis offers a new lens for person × environment interactions.
• Recent findings underscore the importance of studying phenotypic plasticity.

Conclusions:

• Phenotypic plasticity should be treated as an individual-difference construct.
• Further empirical research is needed to explore unknowns in differential susceptibility.
• This perspective stimulates new hypotheses and data interpretation in developmental psychopathology.