maladaptive

comparative more maladaptive · superlative most maladaptive

1. human sciencesOf behavior, showing inadequate or counterproductive mental and behavioral adaptation to a new situation.

   Some programmatic responses to power issues are more maladaptive for particular clients, such as women, because they affect their role expectations.

   2013, Edith M. Freeman, Substance Abuse Intervention, Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Systems Change Strategies, page 44

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   It seemed likely that in the apparently maladaptive responses of workers to computer-based technology (what many called “resistance to change”), it would be possible to trace a lineage of ordinary assumptions that referred back to the realities of the past and their points of disjuncture with the future.

   1988, Shoshana Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine, New York: Basic Books, page xiv

   The learned helplessness explanation of sex differences in depression would be supported if it was shown that a greater degree of uncontrollability and a more maladaptive explanatory style in women account for any sex differences observed in depression in the sample.

   1989, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, “Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression: Evidence and Theory”, in Jill M. Hooley, John M. Neale, Gerald C. Davison, editors, Readings in Abnormal Psychology, page 234

   An individual's functioning can be conceptualized on a continuum, with one end being more adaptive and healthy and the other end being more maladaptive and less healthy.

   2013, Len Sperry, Behavioral Health: Integrating Individual and Family Interventions in the Treatment of Medical Conditions, page 21

   Yet, generalizing the western culture view on autism among all cultures can be maladaptive (Ma et al., 2021). The view of some ASD behaviors, like lack of communication, can be generalized for all cultures. Having an ASD official diagnosis is based on observing ASD atypical behaviors. However, these ASD atypical behaviors are considered atypical depending on the Western cultural view.

   2023 April 13, Omniah AlQahtani, Maria Efstratopoulou, “The UAE and Gulf Countries’ Cultural Characteristics and Their Influence on Autism”, in Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, →DOI

   Antonyms: adaptive

2. evolutionary theoryOf anatomy, physiology, or behavior, showing inadequate or counterproductive evolutionary adaptation to an environment or its changes.

   1 more example

   The mismatch is the result of an adaptive lag that occurs when the environment that produced an evolved mechanism changes more rapidly than the time it takes for the mechanism to adapt to the change. This theory posits that many of the physical and psychological traits that were originally selected for because they were at the time advantageous for survival and reproduction may not only no longer be useful but can even be maladaptive.

   2022 October 25, L. J. Shrum, Elena Fumagalli, Tina M. Lowrey, “Coping with loneliness through consumption”, in Journal of Consumer Psychology, volume 33, number 2, →DOI, page 458

   Antonyms: adaptive