Definition
Evolutionary clinical psychology, or evolutionary psychopathology, is the study of mental disorder from an evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary psychology, in general, studies primarily how the mind works, in its normal and universal state. Different evolutionary approaches consider both the conditions that mainstream mental health care and research have defined as abnormal or pathology, or offer evolutionary perspectives to how these conditions may be considered adaptive, or even how one may fundamentally understand what psychopathology is.
Introduction
Evolutionary clinical psychology is the study of mental disorder from an evolutionary perspective. This enterprise involves discussions of how to understand the human capacity for mental disorder (Gilbert 1998; Nesse 2011), definitions of mental disorder (Wakefield 1992, 1999), and even adaptationist approaches to...
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Kennair, L.E.O., Kleppestø, T.H., Jørgensen, B.E.G., Larsen, S.M. (2018). Evolutionary Clinical Psychology. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_688-1
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