- #1
jammieg
I've heard about this new field of study called evolutionary psychology which attempts to understand human behavior in light of evolution and I read this article on how shyness was a kind of genetic predisposition that tends to lead to greater chances of mental disorders as if it were a disease that needs a cure and what stumps me is if evolution has given us some people that are excessively shy and some kids that seem as if their heads are going to spin around then is evolution or nature making some mistake that we have to cure with lots of pills? There must be evolutionary advantages to both inborn personality types and an advantage to having a diversity of personality types within a group.
My view is it has to do with a degree of the perception of fear, that is that shy children are much more afraid of the unknown and cautious, anything that is unusual brings about a kind of increased sense of the negative consequences of what it may have, whereas the problem child is much more fearless, a problem child doesn't care so much about the negative that the positive outweighs this and that taking risks often lead to getting things we want, a problem child isn't seeking to get attention of any sort so much as get emotional stimulation of any sort, the shy child doesn't have to do much to get an emotional stimulation their sense of fear already dominates so that thinking itself can be a form of stimulation if or although that thinking would be prone to percieving the problematic side of things. A problem child as an adult may later be an extrovert and a shy child an introvert. In a tribal society it would be very beneficial to have a few people without much fear of attacking a lion in the midst of starvation of the group and a few people with a lot of fear of the lion who might stay up late on guard or make sure the fire doesn't burn out so they aren't eaten in the night. Both types have flaws so most people are roughly balanced, but that the extrovert has to eventually learn some caution or make many needless mistakes and the introvert some boldness or miss out on many opportunities.
As for myself, I was born shy so probably don't see as clearly from the point of view of the bold.
My view is it has to do with a degree of the perception of fear, that is that shy children are much more afraid of the unknown and cautious, anything that is unusual brings about a kind of increased sense of the negative consequences of what it may have, whereas the problem child is much more fearless, a problem child doesn't care so much about the negative that the positive outweighs this and that taking risks often lead to getting things we want, a problem child isn't seeking to get attention of any sort so much as get emotional stimulation of any sort, the shy child doesn't have to do much to get an emotional stimulation their sense of fear already dominates so that thinking itself can be a form of stimulation if or although that thinking would be prone to percieving the problematic side of things. A problem child as an adult may later be an extrovert and a shy child an introvert. In a tribal society it would be very beneficial to have a few people without much fear of attacking a lion in the midst of starvation of the group and a few people with a lot of fear of the lion who might stay up late on guard or make sure the fire doesn't burn out so they aren't eaten in the night. Both types have flaws so most people are roughly balanced, but that the extrovert has to eventually learn some caution or make many needless mistakes and the introvert some boldness or miss out on many opportunities.
As for myself, I was born shy so probably don't see as clearly from the point of view of the bold.