Family Policy Indicators and Well-Being in Europe from an Evolutionary Perspective

Social progress and the evolution of civilizations have traditionally been predominant fields of study for sociology and important topics on political action for modern states as part of the concept of the Welfare State. The study, assessment, and design of social policies related to welfare have always focused on material indicators. However, some recent studies (Pfau-Effinger and Geissler 2005; Gauthier 1996; Held 2006; Daly and Lewis 2000) argue for the inclusion of subjective indicators to cater for aspects traditionally relegated to families’ private lives such as care or the perception of happiness. This article deals with the need to go beyond welfare to well-being from an evolutionary perspective. To do this, we propose a comparative study of different variables used by the European Social Survey (2010) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) family policy database (2013b) to analyze (a) possible variations in family policy in European countries, (b) links between well-being and the family policies being implemented, (c) the extent to which traditional indicators can measure the development of families’ needs, and (d) ways in which these indicators could be improved.     

生命史理论：进化视角下的生命发展观

传统的心理学研究很少从发展角度系统地考察童年早期经历和个体生物性发展之间的关系。然而，以进化理论为基础的生命史理论的研究表明，个体的幼年环境会影响一系列生命史事件的出现和持续时间。其要义在于，为了最大限度地成功繁衍，个体会根据环境线索来做出关乎生存和繁衍的具有适应性的权衡。特别地，性成熟时间是生命史理论区别于其他人类发展理论的核心变量。未来的研究一方面需要深入挖掘人类社会规范在生命史权衡中的意义，另一方面还要继续探索实证研究的新方法。     

Children's Risky Play from an Evolutionary Perspective: The Anti-Phobic Effects of Thrilling Experiences

This theoretical article views children's risky play from an evolutionary perspective, addressing specific evolutionary functions and especially the anti-phobic effects of risky play. According to the non-associative theory, a contemporary approach to the etiology of anxiety, children develop fears of certain stimuli (e.g., heights and strangers) that protect them from situations they are not mature enough to cope with, naturally through infancy. Risky play is a set of motivated behaviors that both provide the child with an exhilarating positive emotion and expose the child to the stimuli they previously have feared. As the child's coping skills improve, these situations and stimuli may be mastered and no longer be feared. Thus fear caused by maturational and age relevant natural inhibition is reduced as the child experiences a motivating thrilling activation, while learning to master age adequate challenges. It is concluded that risky play may have evolved due to this anti-phobic effect in normal child development, and it is suggested that we may observe an increased neuroticism or psychopathology in society if children are hindered from partaking in age adequate risky play.     

A Reconsideration of Altruism From an Evolutionary and Psychodynamic Perspective

Altruistic behavior and motivation has traditionally been regarded as a defense mechanism defined by the vicissitudes of instinctual gratification. In this article, we suggest that there exists a substantial body of evidence from the fields of ethology, infant research, and experimental psychology to support the existence of an independently motivated altruism that is nondefensive in nature. We attempt to show how the view of altruism as a universal motivational system stems from the recent developments in evolutionary theory and contributes to our understanding of intrapsychic factors influencing human behavior in general and the process of psychotherapy in particular. It is not our goal to prove the existence of "pure altruism" that can never be derived from selfish motives. Rather, our thesis is that self-oriented and altruistic motivations are equal and essential partners in human evolution and development. It is the optimal balance of these two forces that is necessary for evolutionary advancement and for psychological health.     

Personality Development in Evolutionary Perspective

A relationship between personality processes and evolution can be seen when behaviors associated with sexual maturation, mating, and parenting are examined. This article stipulates the types of proximal cues implicated in the shaping of personality variables that become important in the development of the individual's reproductive behavior.     

进化观点下的幸福研究

人类社会生活的一项重要目标是追求幸福(happiness), 影响幸福体验的因素有食物、财富、婚姻及友谊等。寻求幸福与避免痛苦能让人们的幸福需求得到满足。幸福和痛苦不是人类通过进化获得的一种最终机能, 然而幸福和痛苦对人类远古祖先的影响在于调节行为活动以增加生存与繁衍可能。为什么有些环境刺激比其他刺激更能让人体验幸福？为什么回避痛苦与追求幸福同样重要？为什么幸福体验有相对性、过度性与目标性的特点？这些问题可以在进化观点中得到较好回答。人们的幸福感可以在认识基因与环境关系的基础上得到加强, 如加强亲属联系、强化社会合作、重视婚姻承诺以及满足本能欲望等。     

Evolving Development: An Evolutionary Perspective on Development for an Interconnected World

The notion of development has been permeated by concepts and methods from positivistic science. As a result, many development initiatives are reductionistic, myopic, and with little or impact on the improvement of the quality of life and the sustainability of communities and societies. This article marks the beginning of a transdisciplinary inquiry among the authors, motivated by direct interest in the issue of development, per se, and in particular, Mexico's development. Our inquiry departs from and weaves together our various areas of expertise and experience, including: systems theory, general evolution theory, economic development, technology transfer, social innovation, sustainable development, environmental behavior, social systems design, and education. The article reviews the concept of development from an evolutionary and systemic perspective. It outlines the foundations of evolutionary development in terms of theory, philosophy, and methodology and provides a conceptual framework for future research aimed at the articulation of a practical model for evolutionary development.     

Kinship Foster Care from the Perspective of Quality of Life: Research on the Satisfaction of the Stakeholders

A quality of life studies perspective has guided the design and implementation of research on kinship care as a placement resource within the child protection system in Catalonia (Spain). This research was carried out gathering the points of view of the three main stakeholders: kinship caregivers, children who are placed in extended family and practitioners of the EAIAs (Childhood and Adolescence Interdisciplinary Care Teams). Satisfaction involved in kinship care has been explored. In this article the main stakeholders’ satisfaction with kinship care is presented, and on the other hand, children’s satisfaction with life as a whole and with five specific domains in life is analysed: Education received from their caregiver, their school, their friends, their time enjoyment and their health. As expected, practitioners show the lowest evaluations with this kind of service. Surprisingly, evaluations by children referred to kinship care and to education received by caregivers are higher than those in the normative population aged 12–16 in relation to their own natural family. The findings show implications for practice and they imply challenges for quality-of-life research.     

从进化心理学视角看两性冒险行为

进化心理学研究发现, 男性比女性更冒险, 男性冒险行为有社会助长和性别助长效应, 求偶动机与异性高魅力均可助长男性冒险行为。按照进化心理学观点, 冒险行为能表现男性作为潜在配偶的积极特征, 可增加其获得异性配偶的几率。择偶偏好研究也证实, 女性青睐敢于冒险的男性。作者认为, 女性冒险行为与求偶动机的关系主要受社会文化影响, 如中国女性在中意的异性面前更避险, 冒险行为领域中进化和文化的交互作用可能成为未来研究焦点。     

从人生矛盾探索人生智慧--评《解读人生》

人生犹如一本读不尽的"巨书",充满着无穷的诱惑和魅力.人生是丰富多彩的,每个人的人生历程带有个性化特征,我们不可能要求一本思考人生哲理的书涵盖和包容所有人的人生经历和体验,但是,我们可以期待作者在其著述中对人生有自己独到的见解,从一个新的视角来理解和认识人生.     

进化心理学视角下的智力研究

进化心理学和差异心理学是心理学的两个分支。进化心理学认为智力是一种进化的适应。差异心理学中智力是个体差异变量。本文试图整合二者的观点。认为智力既是进化的适应,也是个体差异变量。这将启示进化心理学家去研究更广范围的心理特质,允许智力研究和差异心理学运用进化心理学的理论和概念。本文还介绍了与智力进化相关的热带草原法则和Kanazawa的Savanna—IQ互动假说。     

Reports of My Death Anxiety Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: A Critique of Terror Management Theory from an Evolutionary Perspective

Although terror management theory's proponents claim that it is an evolutionary theory of human behavior, its major tenets are implausible when examined carefully from a modern evolutionary perspective. We explain why it is unlikely that natural selection would have designed a “survival instinct” or innate “fear of death,” nor an anxiety-reduction system in general, or worldview-defense system in particular, to ameliorate such fears. We argue that results of mortality-salience experiments are better explained as by-products of a psychological system of coalitional computation that evolved for a variety of functions, including defense against other humans, that is activated by certain kinds of death-related thoughts.     

休闲生活视域中的临淄蹴鞠

运用文献资料法,从休闲生活的视角对中国古代临淄蹴鞠与休闲生活的关系进行探讨。发现,休闲生活与当时的社会政治、经济、文化密切相关;起源于2300年前的古齐临淄蹴鞠既是一项充实休闲生活的文体娱乐活动,又是现代足球的母体,更以其极强的休闲性文化功能丰富着现代人们的休闲生活;蹴鞠与休闲生活,古为今用,相得益彰,共同为人类的健康长寿发挥作用。     

An Evolutionary Life History Framework for Psychopathology

In this article, I outline a general framework for the evolutionary analysis of mental disorders based on the concepts of life history theory. I synthesize and extend a large body of work showing that individual differences in life history strategy set the stage for the development of psychopathology. My analysis centers on the novel distinction between fast spectrum and slow spectrum disorders. I describe four main causal pathways from life history strategies to psychopathology, argue that psychopathology can arise at both ends of the fast–slow continuum of life history variation, and provide heuristic criteria for classifying disorders as fast or slow spectrum pathologies. I then apply the fast–slow distinction to a diverse sample of common mental disorders: externalizing disorders, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and depression. The framework integrates previously disconnected models of psychopathology within a common frame of reference and has far-reaching implications for the classification of mental disorders.     

生命退化论的哲学视野

生命退化是指生命系统从有序到无序或从高有序度到低有序度的转化趋势和过程,主要表现为物种数量减少、种群寿命缩短和个体衰老死亡.关于生命退化的原因,自然科学认为是自然规律和天灾人祸使然,宗教神学认为是人的犯罪和神的惩罚所致,哲学认为是自然、社会和神是的交互影响.生命退化论对人类具有启示和警示的积极作用,可是人们对它一直存在着认识上的误解和价值取向上的误区.     

The Evolutionary Roots of Morality in Theological Perspective

Theological ethics can interpret the relation between evolution and morality in at least three ways. The reductionist approach holds that morality emerges because it is adaptive. The independent approach maintains that morality develops without registering the influence of evolution. Finally, the interdependence position holds that morality reflects the influence of evolution to the extent that the latter shapes human emotional capacities and predispositions, for example, those regarding reciprocity and kin preference. The third approach is more suitable for theological ethics, which attends to ways in which natural desires can be ordered to serve morality, for example, to be habituated to virtue, and to ways in which we must strive to curb or minimize their disruptive effects on human communities.