What is adaptation? Kinds

Adaptation is a process that allows the body to adapt to new requirements, the conditions of a volatile environment. It can be psychological, physiological and biological. To understand what adaptation is, it is necessary to elaborate on its types in more detail.

Biological adaptation

In biology, speaking of this phenomenon, it means the development of a certain individual feature that allows one to survive and multiply by a particular species. This process occurs not only in all groups of animals, but also in plants. Morphological adaptation is manifested in such phenomena as rapid swimming of aquatic animals, survival in conditions of moisture deficit or where high temperatures are present. Even the tortoise shell, which allows surviving in difficult conditions, is a manifestation of this type of adaptation.

Physiological

It is usually associated with the chemical processes taking place in the body. For more A clear idea of what an adaptation is, give an example: the smell of a particular flower can attract specific insects. This will promote pollination of the plant. In addition, adaptation consists in the peculiarities of the structure of the digestive tract of a particular animal species, its enzymatic set, depending on the composition of the food. Thus, desert dwellers can survive and satisfy the need for moisture through a biochemical process that promotes the oxidation of fats.

Psychological adaptation

About it usually speak in the context of the concept of health of an individual. To understand what adaptation is psychologically, it is necessary to consider its structure:

- Psychophysiological. It includes a number of physiological reactions of the body. This species can not be considered apart from the personal and mental components.

- Psychological. Helps to adequately respond to various environmental situations. All of its levels participate in the regulatory process, which is defined as a state in which the needs of the individual face the requirements of the environment, and also as a process through which the state of balance is achieved. In the process of adaptation, both the personality and the environment are subject to change. As a result, certain relationships are established. Psychological adaptation is common and situational. And the total is a result of a number of situational adaptations.

- Social. To understand what social adaptation is, it is necessary to consider such concepts as socio-psychological adaptation and social compliance. However, in any case, one can say that there is no experience of conflict with the environment.

Socio-psychological: the process of overcoming certain situations by a person, in the course of which such adaptation uses the skills that have acquired in the previous stages of socialization. This allows the individual to interact with the group without external and internal conflicts, to justify role expectations and assert themselves. An example can serve as an adaptation to the school.

Social compliance: it is usually spoken about children and people with mental disorders. This correction of adaptation disorders, which occurs on the part of the environment in such a way that unacceptable behavior in one case becomes acceptable in the other.