Editorial: Finding the silver lining: incorporating resilience and adaptiveness into studies of psychopathology

Abstract

The editor muses about studies that might complement and enhance current etiologic studies of psychopathology, many of which focus on monotonically increasing maladaptative outcomes in response to increasing levels of risk/vulnerability. More meaningful and consistent considerations of the resilience counterfactual (e.g., Why are some youth with a given neural deficit unaffected? Why are some youth exposed to a given adversity unaffected?) should strengthen our causal inferences. We might also more frequently test for U-shaped associations with outcome (e.g., Does level of psychopathology predict deleterious outcomes in a dose-response fashion, or is the association curvilinear whereby moderate predict good outcomes?). In line with the latter, we might also more frequently consider the adaptive value of the disorder in evolutionary terms (e.g., Why is this disorder still part of the human repertoire? What might be its adaptive value for the species?).