State of the science and state of the art:Peaceability versus human aggression

Dennis D. Embry, Ph.D.,President/Scientist, PAXIS InstituteCo-Investigator, Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early InterventionCo-Investigator, Promise Neighborhood Research Consortium

Harvard Graduate SchoolDesigning Environments to Prevent School Violence: Next Steps in Preventing Bullying and Harassment • June 7, 2011

What do we wish to change?

What do we want to

increase?

What do we want to

decrease?

Thinking about…Selection by consequences• Evolution• Matching Law• Neural pruning• The marketplace

Human Infectious/Biological Threats Human Predatory Threats

Evolutionary Adaptive Responses(Simplified)

Intra-GroupAffiliation (Anti-Inflammatory) Out-Group

Aggress. (Inflammatory)

Threat Attributional

Bias (Inflammatory)

Tit-for-Tat Beh. Bias

(Inflammatory)

Intra-GroupCooperation (Anti-Inflammatory)

Evolutionary Adaptive Responses(Simplified)

GeneralizedInflammatoryResponse

LocalizedInflammatory

Response

Anti-Inflammatory Regulators

Mood Modulator

s

Reward Delay

Modulators

Stress Modulator

s

Puberty/Sex Modulators

Neuro-Hormones

Modern culture commonly produces multiple evolutionary mismatches triggering multiple inflammatory responses.

RPath

Evolutionary Pathof a Child’s Life

KPath

RPath

Probability of long-life and reproductive

success

Probability of short-life and doubtful reproductive

success

R-Path can be triggered by evolutionary mismatch in

social or physical environment.

Conduct Disorder

s

Depression

Homicide &

Suicide

Addictions

Aggression

Obesity

Self harm

Oppositional/ ADHD

R PATH = Risky behaviors

BullyingHarassment

Nearly 75 percent of the nation's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service

• Medical/physical problems, 35 percent.

• Illegal drug use, 18 percent.

• Mental Category V (the lowest 10 percent of the population), 9 percent.

• Too many dependents under age 18, 6 percent.

• Criminal record, 5 percent.

Army Times, Nov 5, 2009 • www.missionreadiness.org/PAEE0609.pd

The US has 75 million children and teens.40.4 million are on psychotropic medications

Wall Street Journal, 12-28-2010

Evolutionary Mismatch

How have the changes in modern human ecology for which were were evolved and adapted affected

Sleep

Eating

Mental health

Problem behaviors

Physical Health

Sexual maturity

Successful human neonates born

with 60-day supply of omega-

3 in subcutaneous fat

from mother’s diet

NeonatesIn the Rife Valley, the human brain

evolution the result of eating

fish high in omega-3 not

savannah animals

EvolutionAmerican infants

have been getting steadily less

omega-3 (n3) and more pro-

inflammatory omega-6 (n6) in

breast milk

Breast Milk

Almost all adolescent risky behaviors have

now been documented to be related to low n3 and high n6 in US diet change in last

50 years

“Risky” Beh. &

MismatchTheory

See Broadhurst, Cunnane, & Crawford (1998). Rift Valley

lake fish and shellfish provided brain-specific nutrition forearly Homo

See HIbbeln et al. (2007).Maternal seafood

consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood (ALSPAC study): an

observational cohort study

Hibbeln et al. (2006). Healthy intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids:

estimations considering worldwide diversity.

See Ailhaud et al. (2006).Temporal changes in

dietary fats: Role of n6polyunsaturated fatty acids in

excessive adipose tissuedevelopment and relationship to obesity

Example Evolutionary Mismatch

Reinforcement

for “Bad”In one hour of

school, how often do peers

reinforce the “good” in school?

How often by adults at school?

How often at home or

community in a day?

Reinforcement

for “Good”

How often might adults in authority

exert perceived threats of coercion in school, at home,

or in the community in a

single day?

Adult coercion

The probability of human behavioral choice “matches”

this saturation formula in the

classroom, home and community,

and Matching Law works for all vertebrate creatures

Behavior & the

Matching Law

Example Evolutionary Mismatch

In one hour of school, how often

do peers reinforce the “bad” in school?How often by

adults at school?How often at

home or community in a

day?

What happens if you change the Matching

Law (the Good Behavior Game) in a classroom?

What happens if you teach students to praise each other for “peaceability”

DRI = Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behaviors

DRO = Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviors

Antecedents that make transitions more peaceful

Relational frame of belonging and generalization of prosocial behavior

• Every family can use simple, proven, wise, and powerful tools to fill the suitcases for life of our children, their friends’ and their friends’ friends.

What can Families do?

NowWhat?

Embry, D. D. and A. Biglan (2008). "Evidence-Based Kernels: Fundamental Units of Behavioral Influence." Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review 11(3): 75-113.

Basic understanding of kernels

Embry, D. D. (2004). "Community-Based Prevention Using Simple, Low-Cost, Evidence-Based Kernels and Behavior Vaccines." Journal of Community Psychology 32(5): 575.

Using kernels for population change

Embry, D. D. 2011. Behavioral vaccines and evidence-based kernels: non-pharmaceutical approaches for the prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Psychiatr Clin North Am 34 (1):1-34.

Behavioral vaccines for disease control

Learning to be an everyday scientist

We need to and empower every person with tools and structures to build a positive, productive, healthy world where peaceability flourish