Posted by SLS on May 11, 2009, at 6:14:03
In reply to Re: Bullying and subsequent psychosis » SLS, posted by Dinah on May 10, 2009, at 11:42:38
> Did they account for the uncanny ability of children to notice small differences in others?
>
> I seem to remember from my bullying books that children who were later to develop mental illness were more likely to be picked on by classmates, because classmates had noticed small clues to innate biological vulnerabilities.Interesting. I think you are right. That is not to say that all children who are bullied have such vulnerabilites. However, it might be true that the majority of those who do have vulnerabilities are bullied.
> Which would make some evolutionary sense.
Yes. Unfortunately, as a species, we have not yet shed our primate instincts for many biologically programmed social behaviors. However, as is true of so many other human behaviors, the frontal cortex of the brain can modify instincts through learned executive functioning. People learn not to act on every impulse. Evolution has selected for more complex social interactions that tend to involve cooperation and compromise. Without these behaviors, a biologically fragile species such as ourselves would never have been so successful as to take over an entire planet. In this case, it is behavioral evolution that is at work and not physiological evolution. This natural selection is still at work.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:894853
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090421/msgs/895158.html