Fear and fitness revisited

Bibliographic Data

ID12938811
AuthorsLeif Edward Ottesen Kennair (0000-0002-2713-7096, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume5
Issue1
Pages105-117
Publication date2007-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Evolutionary Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1789-2082 • E-ISSN: 2060-5587
PublisherAkadémiai Kiadó (PUBLISHER • HU)
DOI10.1556/jep.2007.1020
OpenAlexW2101069464
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited38

Fears of specific and real dangers are adaptations. Hypophobia, a lack of adaptive aversive emotions in dangerous situations, is often maladaptive. Anxiety disorders also appear maladaptive, and many ethological suggestions about adaptive function are unconvincing from a clinical perspective. Modern and effective treatment (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is based on changing disorder specific cognitive and metacognitive processes. Earlier thinking on the adaptive function of different types of anxiety and the downplaying of the specificity of different anxiety disorders is challenged. A combination of the cognitive sciences Evolutionary Psychology and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy might be fruitful. Evolutionary Psychology may provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with a better understanding of the function of the mental mechanisms involved, while Cognitive Behavioural Therapy may provide Evolutionary Psychology with a better understanding of the proximate mechanisms of specific mental disorders

Anxiety · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Evolutionary psychology · Perspective (graphical · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Clinical Psychology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology

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