COMMENTARY
A unifying theoretical framework for clinical psychology
 
 
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Submission date: 2018-10-16
 
 
Acceptance date: 2018-10-22
 
 
Online publication date: 2018-12-19
 
 
Publication date: 2018-12-17
 
 
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2018;6(4):343-348
 
KEYWORDS
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ABSTRACT
Clinical psychology lacks a theoretical framework through which to interpret and apply research findings. This comment explains the theoretical framework of ethology, a discipline that is extinct in the United States. Ethologists, Lorenze and Tinbergen developed behavioral systems theory as a means to place the proximal causes of behaviors within the context of adaptive goals. This comment asserts there are four adaptive goals that motivate human social behavior: attachment/affiliation, caregiving, dominance and sex. Tinbergen developed the 4 questions of ethology as a complete explanation for behavior. The articles in this volume are discussed in terms of behavioral systems theory and the 4 questions of ethology.
 
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