Evolutionary Psychology Archives

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024

Two new studies registered

Evolutionary Systems Therapy, Evolution and Personality Lab

Two new studies registered at our lab! The main goal of Evolution & Personality Lab is to investigare personality and its pathology through the lens of evolutionary psychology and psychopathology. Consistently with this goal and ongoing studies, we registered two research protocols.

The first study is aimed to validate cross-culturally the evolutionarily informed conceptualization model we have worked on in the last few years. The protocol has been registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and comprises three studies involving teams from USA, Italy, Spain, Poland, China: (i) to explore the inter-rater reliability of the model in therapists; (ii) to explore the acceptability by therapists and patients; (iii) to explore the cross-cultural and cross-theoretical validity of training and application of the model. We hope this project will confirm that our model can be used within different cultural contexts and by clinicians with different therapeutic backgrounds.

The second study is aimed to explore the clinical utility of the three interpersonal styles and dynamics we have tested in a previous trial. In a recently concluded study we found that patients with personality pathology may show three prominent interpersonal styles that would correspond to the three main spectra of psychopathology: perfectionistic style and internalizing spectrum; antagonistic style and externalizing spectrum; schizotypal style and reality impairing/psychosis spectrum. The methodology used was potentially biased (patients were forced to chose only one style through a dummy variable). In this new study (registered on OSF) we used de-sitgmatizing labels for the three styles and offer a continuous Likert-type scale.

These two new studies registered on ClinicalTrials and OSF will better describe the clinical utility of our protocol for conceptualizing and treating personality pathology: namely, Evolutionary Systems Therapy. This protocol may be hopefully useful not only as and independent treatment. We are not that interested in proving what we do is good! It would be more important to show how an evolutionarily informed conceptualization may support different kinds of treatments (we are involving colleagues from a variety of background: psychodynamic, integrative, humanistic, cognitive, etc.) and may be reliable in spite of the different cultural background and interpersonal style of the patient.

June 2, 2023June 2, 2023

An evolutionary look at schizotypy

For those interested in, here’s my presenation at Evolution 2023, the international congress on the theory of evolution. Martin Brüne and I have recently reviewed existing evolutionary studies on schizotypy and then summarized them for this speech!

November 6, 2022January 21, 2023

Oddity, Schizotypy and Evolution?

Oddity, schizotypy, evolution, evolutionary theory

My paper on an evolutionary model of schizotypy is finally out! New Ideas in Psychology has published it. As I anticipated in a previous post here, this study aims to summarize existing kowledge about proximate and evolutionary factors involved in schizotypy and oddity, and propose an integrative model.

Such a model suggests how schizotypy may be better understood by looking at the role of social brain in the evolution of our species and the neurodevelopment of those with prominents openness to experience and introversion.

The paper is also the foundation of the the shared conceptualization of newly developed treatment for schizotypal personality disoder, namely Evolutionary Systems Therapy for Schizotypy (ESTS). In the next few months the paper – figers crossed! – about a preliminary randomized controlled trial should be pulished.

Cheli, S. (2023). An evolutionary look at oddity and schizotypy: How the rise of social brain informs clinical practice, New Ideas in Psychology, 68, 10099, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.100993

September 12, 2022October 20, 2022

An evolutionary look at oddity

I’m extending the genetic background of my new paper on an evolutionary look at schizotypy. I have to thank the reviewers we asked me to improve this part of the research. The paper represents the theoretical foundation of my clinical work with those struggling with schizotypal psychopathology.

The idea at the core can be traced back to the long-standing debate about the evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia. In short, we know how schizophrenia hugely impact on quality of life, but it has always been present in our history. Or better we know how it is a very species-specific disoder. I was really surprised by discovering how those with high prevalence of Nehandertal genes were reporting a lower risk to been diagnosed with schizophrenia and if they were so they showed less severe symptoms!

In my paper I focus on schizotypy, that is a broad organization of personality that is reputed to range from healthy states (such as creativity) to severe manifestations such as schizophrenia. The hypothesis that I discuss in the submitted manuscript is that oddity (a core clinical manifestion of schizotypy defined by odd behaviors, emotions, thoughts) would represent the failure in socializing one’s own openess to experience. The latter trait is a healthy side of human personality allowing creativity and discovery, whereas oddity is a defensive stance often leading to emotional suffering and isolation.