Beyond Mental Health: Child Development in Evolutionary Perspective
Jay Belsky, Emeritus Professor Human Development
By viewing human development principally from a mental-health perspective, we misconstrue it by failing to view it in evolutionary perspective. Most developmental theory, inquiry and practice presumes (too often) that there is something commonly referred to as “optimal development.” Consider in this regard Freud’s claims about the capacity “to love and to work”, Maslow’s self-actualization model, Erikson’s 8-stages highlighting basic trust, identity, intimacy and generativity; and presumed sequelae of sensitive-supportive parenting, including attachment security, peer competence and capacity for intimacy. In light of this way of viewing so-called optimal development, it is no wonder that we view adversity as “undermining” or “compromising” development. But from an evolutionary perspective, we need to appreciate and distinguish diverse developmental strategiesthat serve the ultimate goal of ALL living things under varying contextual conditions: passing on genes to the next generation. In this talk I will illustrate the utility of an evolutionary perspective—for leading to new developmental insight--by considering two current topics in developmental science whose origins are sometimes decades old, but remain underappreciated: (1) Accelerating effect of developmental adversity on biological aging and (2) Differential susceptibility to developmental experiences and environmental exposures. Along the way I will (a) explain why adversity accelerates biological aging (and it not just due to “wear and tear” on the developing organism) and why children vary in their susceptibility to environmental influences, as well as (b) present evidence consistent with these claims.
Jay Belsky is Emeritus Professor Human Development at the University of California, Davis (2011-present), having stepped down from the Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professorship before retiring in 2022. He is the author of more than 500 scholarly articles and chapters, including serving as author/editor of five books, most recently The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life published by Harvard University Press. Professor Belskyobtained his Ph.D. in 1978 in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University. Thereafter he served on the faculty at Penn State University and Birkbeck University of London. Professor Belsky is an internationally recognized expert in the field of child development and family studies. His areas of special expertise include effects of day care, parent-child relations and other developmental experiences and environmental exposures early in life on psychological and behavioral development, the transition to parenthood, the etiology of child maltreatment and the evolutionary basis of parent and child functioning. He was named among the 200 Eminent Psychologists of the Modern Era in 2014 (Archives of Scientific Psychology); in 2015 he was listed among the top 100 “Greatest Living Behavioral and Brain Scientists” based on citation analysis; in 2016/17/18 he was designated a “Highly Cited Researcher” by the Web of Science, being among the top 1% of scholars cited in the fields of psychiatry and psychology; and in 2019 among the top 0.01% of all scientists based on impact (PLoS Biology, Ioannidis et al.).