Adjustment: a psycho-social dimension of any individual

in Adaptation and Cultural Appropriation, eds. Pascal Nicklas and Oliver Lindner, 2012

Adaptation: A Dialogue between the Arts and Sciences adaptation (etymology 'to fit') 1. The action or process of adapting, fitting, or suiting one thing to another (1610 ff.) 2. The process of modifying a thing so as to suit new conditions (1790 ff.) 3. The condition or state of being adapted (1677 ff.) 4. A special instance of adapting […] an adapted form (1859 ff.) 5. Biol. Organic modification by which an organism or species becomes adapted to its environment (1859 ff.) (Oxford English Dictionary)

The term adaptation is used in biology in three different ways. It may refer to changes which occur at the cell and organ level, or at the individual level, or at the level of gene action and evolutionary processes. Adaptation by cells, especially nerve cells helps in: communication within the body, the distinguishing of stimuli, the avoidance of overload and the conservation of energy. The time course and complexity of these mechanisms varies. Adaptive characters of organisms, including adaptive behaviours, increase fitness so this adaptation is evolutionary. The major part of this paper concerns adaptation by individuals and its relationships to welfare. In complex animals, feedforward control is widely used. Individuals predict problems and adapt by acting before the environmental effect is substantial. Much of adaptation involves brain control and animals have a set of needs, located in the brain and acting largely via motivational mechanisms, to regulate life. Needs may be for resources but are also for actions and stimuli which are part of the mechanism which has evolved to obtain the resources. Hence pigs do not just need food but need to be able to carry out actions like rooting in earth or manipulating materials which are part of foraging behaviour. The welfare of an individual is its state as regards its attempts to cope with its environment. This state includes various adaptive mechanisms including feelings and those which cope with disease. The part of welfare which is concerned with coping with pathology is health. Disease, which implies some significant effect of pathology, always results in poor welfare. Welfare varies over a range from very good, when adaptation is effective and there are feelings of pleasure or contentment, to very poor. A key point concerning the concept of individual adaptation in relation to welfare is that welfare may be good or poor while adaptation is occurring. Some adaptation is very easy and energetically cheap and welfare can be very good when it is occurring. Other adaptation is difficult and may involve lower or higher level emergency physiological responses or abnormal behaviour, often with bad feelings such as pain or fear. In that case, welfare is poor or very poor even if complete adaptation eventually occurs and there is no long-term threat to the life of the individual. In some circumstances, adaptation may be unsuccessful, the individual is not able to cope, stress occurs and welfare is ultimately very poor.

The modern concept of adaptation is quite unlike is ancient cognates. Like other partly-scientific concepts, it has changed its meaning through time partly through scientific discoveries. This chapter traces some of the changes. The ancient Greek concept was refuted by developments in seventeenth and early-eighteenth century natural philosophy. Discoveries in physics, stemming from Newton, made early views of adaptation untenable. Biological discoveries of the early nineteenth century, followed by Darwin’s evolutionary writings, again refuted many traditional concepts. The varying approaches to evolution in the 20th century led to more controversies regarding adaptation, both conceptual and factual. If we recognize the variety of early opinions that are now abandoned, we may be more modest about the certainty of our own views ... at least of this morning.

Psychology, 2014

Generally, the study of animal welfare is based on the identification and promotion of speciestypical behaviors of the individual or target group. The adjustment to new conditions (i.e. captivity) is easier for some species, while for others it may be very difficult or even impossible. The adjustment to captive conditions is a basic element for the development of conservation strategies (i.e. translocation, introduction, and reintroduction) and can be measured by different variables related to an animal's psychological well-being. From a psychological point of view, we assume that organisms can adjust their behavior in correspondence to changes in their environment, adjustment that is enabled by an ecological contact medium (e.g. Ribes, 2007; Ribes & Perez-Almonacid, 2011). Under this assumption, we propose a methodology that allows the classification, identification and manipulation of relevant factors for an individual's adjustment to different conditions (i.e. freedom and captivity) and a more rational handling of organisms and their specific life condition. The main elements of this methodology are: 1) adaptive and survival circumstances; 2) description of ecological milieu; 3) interactive processes (i.e. intra-individual, inter-individual, and inter-individual dependence); and 4) interaction-situation relationship.

Материалы международной научной конференции «Дагестан в начале XX-XXI веков: проблема социально-экономической и культурной модернизации». , 2021

The article shows that social adaptation is one of the mechanisms of socialization. It is noted that social adaptation is the process of active assimilation of the social environment by the individual. The individual acts as both an object and a factor of adaptation. The social environment is both adaptive and adaptable. Therefore, various studies have shown the importance of the connection between the concepts of "social adaptation" and "socialization". Most scholars point out that adaptation is related to socialization, but the nature of this relationship is different. Some authors interpret these concepts as synonyms. From this point of view, it is emphasized that adaptation is one of the mechanisms of socialization. Social adaptation takes place, first of all, in a certain society. That is, each individual is socialized only by the society in which he was born and operates. Because a person who comes into the world as a biological being, as a result of social adaptation, becomes a member of society by assimilating its values, norms and past experience. Through this process, the individual socializes and becomes a person.

Sosiologiya, Sosial Psixologiya və Siyasət jurnalı, 2021

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of social adaptation of personality, the theory of social adaptation is analyzed. The development of modern theories of social adaptation in psychology is studied during the research of foreign scientists. Based on the analysis of theories of social adaptation, it is noted that adaptation is a more or less conscious process on the basis of which adaptation to a social, natural or cultural environment takes place. This adaptation is due to changes in the behavior and attitude of people, as well as the establishment of relationships corresponding to this environment. Social adaptation is a measure of social development. In other words, the criterion for measuring the social development of each person is his level of adaptation to other people. Emotional intelligence, logical thinking is part of general intelligence. The main connection is related to social adaptation. Thus, emotional intelligence, which was part of cognitive intelligence in the early twentieth century, combines several criteria. This includes internal psychological abilities, interpersonal communication skills and thinking. He understands the value of wealth in a person's hands and the value of advice given to him. He can compare good and evil, science and ignorance, ignorance and thought. Depending on the time and place, people's opinions on these issues may be different or even contradictory. The adaptation process involves the restructuring of the functions of an organ, mechanism, which leads to the adequacy of the person and the environment, the acquisition of updated skills, habits and qualities. From the analysis of theories of social adaptation, it can be concluded that the process of human adaptation can be considered as the subject of a set of measures.

Adjustment can be defined as a process of altering one's behavior to reach a harmonious relationship with their environment. This is typically a response brought about by some type of change that has taken place. The stress of this change causes one to try to reach a new type of balance or homeostatis between the individual (both inwardly and outwardly), and with their environment. Adjustment occurs over time-in common speech; this is often referred to this as an "adjustment period".

Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2022

Adaptation (i.e., actions that reduce the harms caused by climate change) is widely recognized as one of two pillars of climate action, along with mitigation (i.e., actions that reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases which cause climate change). Action to date in both pillars is widely recognized as insufficient. This article argues that a major source of this deficiency of adaptation is ambiguity in the concept of adaptation, which hinders planning and implementation of action. The review traces the origins and consequences of this ambiguity and examines three major conceptual obstacles: the unclear relationship between adaptation and mitigation, the tendency to define adaptation by listing distinct types that are not directly comparable and hence difficult to measure, and a persistent separation of short-term and long-term perspectives that limits the ability to build from current action to transformation. The article identifies recent efforts that have addressed these obstacles, although new areas of concern have emerged, particularly maladaptation and Loss and Damage.