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Evolved Psychological Mechanisms

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Evolved Psychological Mechanisms
Evolved psychological mechanisms, this is specific psychological processes that have evolved because they solved particular adaptive problems which include

A. Sexual behavior: attraction between sexual partners maintaining relationships and caring for children. Here there is sexual attraction based on physical appearance and also sexual attraction based on a man’s ability to provide resources.

B. Parental behavior: for parents who nurture their children they ensure survival of their genes but sometimes the parents and children have divergent interest.

C. Aggression and dominance: aggression could be defending against attack negotiating status and power hierarchy. There is a higher rate of aggression among men than women especially when competition among men serves as an evolutionary purpose of selecting the fittest women.

D. Culture: the transmission of ideas from one generation to another and this may include elaborate symbolic representations such as religion.

E. Language and thought: this has given us the capacity to develop a theory of mind that understands the thoughts and intentions of others.

Conditions necessary for therapeutic process

1) Unconditional positive regard: this means that the therapist accepts the client but this does not mean the therapist approves, clients are most likely to be more open when they feel the therapist accepts them for who they are.

2) Congruence: here the therapist behavior should match his or her inner experience. This deals with a feeling of things being consistent between the real self and the ideal self. It helps when the therapist is transparent so that the client can see him or her for who he is.

3) Empathetic understanding: here the therapist tries to understand the subjective experience of the client and not forgetting other approaches that could be used to reduce the client’s pain. The therapist tries to share the experience of the client

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