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Related Experiment Videos

Are there precursors to repression?

D R Aleksandrowicz

    The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
    |March 1, 1977
    PubMed
    Summary

    Repression may have evolved from habituation, a behavior control mechanism. This evolutionary link suggests repression evolved to manage instinctual behaviors by filtering stimuli, similar to how habituation works.

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    Area of Science:

    • Psychology
    • Evolutionary Psychology
    • Neuroscience

    Background:

    • Repression is a psychological defense mechanism.
    • Understanding its evolutionary origins is crucial for a complete picture of behavior control.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To explore the evolutionary and developmental precursors of repression.
    • To investigate the adaptive functions of repression in controlling instinctual behavior.

    Main Methods:

    • Comparative analysis of repression and habituation mechanisms.
    • Examination of habituation's properties and its parallels with repression.
    • Consideration of developmental aspects in infants.

    Main Results:

    • Habituation, the cessation of response to repeated stimuli, shares key properties with repression.
    • Habituation involves sensory input inhibition, stimulus discrimination, and is affected by brain damage, drugs, and hypnosis.
    • Infant responses to stimuli suggest similar mechanisms for habituation and attention withdrawal.

    Conclusions:

    • Repression may represent an evolutionary advancement from habituation.
    • This evolutionary step allows for the inhibition of both irrelevant and undesirable stimuli.
    • Similar mechanisms may underlie habituation and attention withdrawal in early development.

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