Are Expectations the Missing Link between Life History Strategies and Psychopathology?

Despite advances in knowledge and thinking about using life history theory to explain psychopathology there is still a missing link. That is, we all have a life history strategy, but not all of us develop mental health problems. We propose that the missing link is expectations – a mismatch between expected environmental conditions (including social) set by variations in life history strategies and the current environmental conditions. The mismatch hypothesis has been applied at the biological level in terms of health and disease and we believe that it can also be applied more broadly at the psychological level in terms of perceived expectations in the social environment and the resulting distress—psychopathology—that manifests when our expectations are not met.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Frontiers in Psychology

• Publication date

  2018-02-06

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00089PMID 29467701PMCID 5808228
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Intimate Partner Violence, Interpersonal Aggression, and Life History Strategy

  2018cited by this paper
• Life history strategies and psychopathology: the faster the life strategies, the more symptoms of psychopathology

  2017cited by this paper
• Low Childhood Socioeconomic Status Promotes Eating in the Absence of Energy Need

  2016cited by this paper
• Cross-species evidence for the role of interleukin-33 in depression risk.

  2016cited by this paper
• Slow and Steady Wins the Race: K Positively Predicts Fertility in the USA and Sweden

  2016cited by this paper
• The Life History Model of Psychopathology Explains the Structure of Psychiatric Disorders and the Emergence of the p Factor A Simulation Study

  2016influential reference
• The development of the child unpredictability schema: Regulation through maternal life history trade-offs

  2016cited by this paper
• Childhood Adversity, Self-Esteem, and Diurnal Cortisol Profiles Across the Life Span

  2016cited by this paper
• Secure Infant-Mother Attachment Buffers the Effect of Early-Life Stress on Age of Menarche

  2016cited by this paper
• A Unified Model of Depression

  2016cited by this paper
• Evolutionary Foundations of Developmental Psychopathology

  2016cited by this paper
• Cognitive adaptations to stressful environments: When childhood adversity enhances adult executive function.

  2015cited by this paper
• Life History Theory and Evolutionary Psychology

  2015cited by this paper
• A global reference for human genetic variation

  2015cited by this paper
• An Evolutionary Life History Framework for Psychopathology

  2014influential reference
• Central nervous system regulation of brown adipose tissue.

  2014cited by this paper
• Autistic-like and schizotypal traits in a life history perspective: diametrical associations with impulsivity, sensation seeking, and sociosexual behavior

  2014cited by this paper
• Male Scarcity is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Premature Gestation and Low Birth Weight Births Across the United States

  2013cited by this paper
• Beyond allostatic load: Rethinking the role of stress in regulating human development

  2013cited by this paper
• The evolution of predictive adaptive responses in human life history

  2013influential reference
• Life History theory and social deviance: The mediating role of Executive Function

  2013cited by this paper
• Testing the cumulative stress and mismatch hypotheses of psychopathology in a rat model of early-life adversity.

  2012cited by this paper
• The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior: implications for science, policy, and practice.

  2012cited by this paper
• The Antihero in Popular Culture: Life History Theory and the Dark Triad Personality Traits

  2012cited by this paper
• Match fitness: development, evolution, and behavior: comment on Frankenhuis and Del Giudice (2012).

  2012cited by this paper
• Discovery of blood transcriptomic markers for depression in animal models and pilot validation in subjects with early-onset major depression

  2012cited by this paper
• Animal models for depression and the mismatch hypothesis of disease.

  2011cited by this paper
• The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity.

  2011cited by this paper
• The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: a life history theory approach.

  2011cited by this paper
• Severe Early Life Stress Hampers Spatial Learning and Neurogenesis, but Improves Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity and Emotional Learning under High-Stress Conditions in Adulthood

  2010cited by this paper
• Slow and steady wins.

  2010cited by this paper
• Fundamental aspects of the impact of glucocorticoids on the (immature) brain.

  2009cited by this paper
• Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk

  2009cited by this paper
• The role of genes in the current obesity epidemic.

  2009cited by this paper
• Epigenetic influences on brain development and plasticity.

  2009influential reference
• Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse

  2009cited by this paper
• Life History strategy, Psychopathic Attitudes, personality, and general intelligence

  2009cited by this paper
• THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE * : . 4120 HISTORY TRAITS : A Critique of the Theory and a Review of the Data

  2008cited by this paper
• Genetic basis of fitness differences in natural populations

  2008cited by this paper
• Developmental and epigenetic pathways to obesity: an evolutionary-developmental perspective

  2008cited by this paper
• Maternal Care and Hippocampal Plasticity: Evidence for Experience-Dependent Structural Plasticity, Altered Synaptic Functioning, and Differential Responsiveness to Glucocorticoids and Stress

  2008cited by this paper
• Sexual coercion and life-history strategy

  2008cited by this paper
• Family unpredictability, future discounting, and risk taking

  2008cited by this paper
• Schizophrenia and phenotypic plasticity: schizophrenia may represent a predictive, adaptive response to severe environmental adversity that allows both bioenergetic thrift and a defensive behavioral strategy.

  2007influential reference
• Early life events and their consequences for later disease: A life history and evolutionary perspective

  2007influential reference
• Schizotypy, creativity and mating success in humans

  2006cited by this paper
• Argonaute—a database for gene regulation by mammalian microRNAs

  2005cited by this paper
• Natural selection and the regulation of defenses: A signal detection analysis of the smoke detector principle.

  2005cited by this paper
• Predictive adaptive responses and human evolution.

  2005cited by this paper
• Living with the Past: Evolution, Development, and Patterns of Disease

  2004cited by this paper
• Working models of attachment shape perceptions of social support: evidence from experimental and observational studies.

  2004cited by this paper
• Effects of acute metabolic stress on the dopaminergic and pituitary-adrenal axis activity in patients with schizotypal personality disorder.

  2004cited by this paper
• The concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine.

  2003cited by this paper
• Life History Theory

  2003cited by this paper
• Childhood unpredictability, schemas for unpredictability, and risk taking

  2002cited by this paper
• The Smoke Detector Principle

  2001cited by this paper
• Behavioral sequelae of perinatal insults and early family adversity at 8 years of age.

  2000cited by this paper
• Quality of early family relationships and individual differences in the timing of pubertal maturation in girls: a longitudinal test of an evolutionary model.

  1999cited by this paper
• The role of future unpredictability in human risk-taking

  1997cited by this paper
• Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: and evolutionary theory of socialization.

  1991cited by this paper
• Life-History Tactics: A Review of the Ideas

  1976cited by this paper

• Life-history strategy, adverse environment, and justification of life-ending decisions

  2025cites this paper
• Developmental timing of index trauma exposure and accelerated epigenetic aging in United States military veterans.

  2025cites this paper
• Testing psychological processes between childhood risks and adulthood short-form video addiction from a life history perspective

  2025cites this paper
• Life is so Short, Future is so Long: The Relationship between Life History Strategies and People’s Metaphorical Perspectives on Time

  2024influential citation
• Pubertal timing mediates the association between threat adversity and psychopathology

  2024cites this paper
• The effect of perceived stress on binge eating behavior among Chinese university students: a moderated mediation model

  2024cites this paper
• Digitally Connected, Evolutionarily Wired: An Evolutionary Mismatch Perspective on Digital Work

  2024cites this paper
• Öngörülemezlik İnançları Ölçeğinin Türkçeye uyarlama çalışması

  2023cites this paper
• Childhood environment and adulthood food addiction: Testing the multiple mediations of life history strategies and attitudes toward self.

  2023cites this paper
• Desire for social status affects marital and reproductive attitudes: A life history mismatch perspective

  2023cites this paper
• Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

  2022cites this paper
• Effects of Economic Uncertainty and Socioeconomic Status on Reproductive Timing: A Life History Approach

  2022cites this paper
• Effects of childhood adversity on smartphone addiction: The multiple mediation of life history strategies and smartphone use motivations

  2022cites this paper
• Perceived life expectancy, environmental unpredictability, and behavior in high-risk youth

  2021cites this paper
• Extending a Life History Model of Psychopathology: Expectations and Schemas as Potential Mechanisms

  2021cites this paper
• Self-Perceived Facial Attractiveness, Fluctuating Asymmetry, and Minor Ailments Predict Mental Health Outcomes

  2021cites this paper
• Effects of Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Anxiety and Eating Behavior—A Longitudinal Study

  2021cites this paper
• Testing a life history model of psychopathology: A replication and extension

  2020cites this paper
• Evolutionary psychology’s next challenge: Solving modern problems using a mismatch perspective.

  2020cites this paper
• An Embodied Neurocomputational Framework for Organically Integrating Biopsychosocial Processes: An Application to the Role of Social Support in Health and Disease

  2019cites this paper
• Testing the unsolved problems hypothesis: The evolutionary life issues-mitigating function of nature exposure and its relationship with human well-being

  2019cites this paper
• Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying emotional awareness: insights afforded by deep active inference and their potential clinical relevance

  2019cites this paper
• Testing the indirect effects of somatic and parental effort on stress: the roles of worldviews and coping strategies

  2018cites this paper
• Testing the indirect effects of somatic and parental effort on stress: the roles of worldviews and coping strategies

  2018cites this paper