Evolutionary basis of adaptation in resilience and vulnerability: response to Cicchetti and Blender.
This masterful and wide-ranging paper gives us a clear picture of the need for interdisciplinary studies of resilience and vulnerability. We need to go beyond the interacting events at the different levels to see clearly that multiple levels of analysis and concept do not themselves interact, but instead give us different aspects of a biological, psychological, or behavioral event. Thus, no levels are reducible to any of the others. In the rest of my discussion, I raise the likelihood that the multiple level responses of "resilience" are no more adaptive in their evolutionary history than the very different responses we call "vulnerability." Keeping in mind the evolved functions of these responses, and the circumstances of their selection during evolution, will provide us with new ideas and approaches for understanding and intervention.
Hofer
Myron A
MA
New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 40, New York, NY 10032, USA. mah6@columbia.edu
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D006801:Humans