Humans as Captives of Evolution: An Analysis of Anxiety and Depression - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... This report stresses that emotions can be valuable only if they manipulate the future, hence it is not unexpected that they are provoked primarily by events that alter our evaluations of whether we are capable of achieving our goals. Incidents that show that our best efforts will succeed stimulate hope whereas incidents that hint that our best efforts are pointless cultivate depression or despair. We all experience hope and depression, not at the starting point or final stages of our lives, but during our enduring efforts. These efforts emerge from the deep-seated values of cultures and their members, thus social outlooks toward hope for their victory and depression at their probable disappointment are not taken into account carelessly. As a matter of fact, majority of cultures have standards that spell out the proper attitude towards hope and depression.
This paper makes a conclusion that the presumed dissimilarities between primitive and contemporary environments frequently have been used to enlighten apparently abnormal or puzzling observations in both animals and humans. Several scientists argue that a number of human psychological and societal dysfunctions, particularly in this case anxiety and depression, can be rooted from ways of life varying from those who evolved to survive. Nevertheless, provided with all of these premises, it is obvious that modern psychotherapy has to take into account evolutionary perspective of depression and anxiety. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More