The Evolutionary Basis of the Emotions

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The Evolutionary Basis of the Emotions

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The goal of this website is to give support to people who are facing problems in their relationship related to cheating, abuse and narcissism. I am living in Europe and English is not my native language, I wish you will excuse me if I make some grammatical errors. I have a background in neuroscience and behavioral sciences and I am currently doing brain research related to these topics in university in my home country. I decided to write in English because I wish to reach as many people as I can around the world. If you wish to read more about me, please visit page Site Overview.

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The behavior of humans and other animals is controlled by information-processing mechanisms that originally evolved because they enhanced the odds of survival in the ancestral environments. According to this thinking, the evolutionary basis of the emotions is a collection of information-processing "programs", each with a particular function which has evolved as a result of the natural selection (Cosmides and Tooby). Particular physiological responses of an individual are related to particular external events (Marks, 1987). For example, in threatening circumstances the aim of the resulting physiological response is to enhance the survival possibilities of an individual.

There are also other, more complex emotional states that eventually aim to ensure the success and better survival of both individual and species. For example, the emotion of sexual jealousy has been proposed to be a form of emotional adaptation (Daly, Wilson & Weghorst, 1982). Emotions can therefore be seen as a "driving force" that motivates individuals to pursue certain goals that enhance the survival possibilities on the individual level as well as on the level of species, such as reproduction, caring for offspring and competition of the limited resources. To read how the brain reacts to tragedies in life such as cheating and living with a narcissist, visit page Control Your Emotions.

- Maria

If you wish to submit your own story and get feedback and support for your situation or if you wish to contact me for any other reason, send me email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments (1)

|2009-12-26 20:53:43 Johan

I came upon your websit looking things related to happiness. I am a biologist and vary much into evolutionary psychology. I am a born and raised European but the last half of my life I lived in the Caribbean. What bothers me about this site is that cheating in a marriage is almost automatically coupled to a personality disorder (narcissism in this case). I have never met a male this did not "cheat" once and a while. I did it once and I think I had a very good reason for it. I mean, is "cheating" always a bad thing? Isn't is maybe something that comes with life?
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