Adaptation of the human body to environmental conditions

Adaptation is the adaptation of the body to the circumstances and conditions of the world. Adaptation of a person is carried out through his genetic, physiological, behavioral and personal characteristics. With adaptation, human behavior is regulated according to the parameters of the external environment.

The peculiarities of human adaptation lie in the fact that he must achieve simultaneous balance with environmental conditions, achieve harmony in the “man-environment” relationship, and adapt to other individuals who are also trying to adapt to the environment and its inhabitants.

Adaptation concept. There are two approaches to analyzing the phenomenon of adaptation. According to the first approach, adaptation is a property of a living self-regulating organism, which ensures the constancy of characteristics under the influence of environmental conditions, which is achieved by developed adaptive abilities.

According to the second approach, adaptation is a dynamic formation, the process of an individual getting used to environmental circumstances.

Since man is a biosocial system, the problem of adaptation should be analyzed according to three levels: physiological, psychological and social. All three levels have a connection with each other, influence each other, and establish an integral characteristic of the overall functioning of the body’s systems. Such an integral characteristic manifests itself as a dynamic formation and is defined as the functional state of the organism. Without the term “functional state” it is impossible to talk about the phenomenon of adaptation.

Adaptability in situations in which there are no barriers to success is achieved through constructive mechanisms. These mechanisms include cognitive processes, goal setting, and conformist behavior. When the situation is problematic and saturated with external and internal barriers, the adaptation process occurs through the defense mechanisms of the individual. Thanks to constructive mechanisms, a person can show an adequate response to changes in social life circumstances, taking advantage of the opportunity to assess the situation, analyze, synthesize and predict possible events.

The following mechanisms of human adaptation are distinguished: social intelligence - the ability to discern complex relationships, dependencies between objects of the social environment; social imagination - the ability to understand experience, mentally determine fate, realizing oneself now, one’s resources and capabilities, placing oneself within the framework of the current stage of society; realistic aspiration of consciousness.

Personality adaptation consists of a system of defense mechanisms, thanks to which anxiety is reduced, the unity of the “I-concept” and the stability of self-esteem are ensured, and the correspondence between ideas about the world and about the person himself in particular is maintained.

The following psychological defense mechanisms are distinguished: denial - ignoring unwanted information or traumatic episodes; regression – a person’s manifestation of infantile behavior strategies; formation of a reaction - changing irrational impulses, emotional states to the opposite; repression – “erasing” painful memories from memory and consciousness; suppression is almost the same repression, but more conscious.

The above-described basic protective mechanisms during personality adaptation are still additional, they are considered more mature: projection - attributing to someone qualities and actions that are inherent in the personality itself, but she is not aware of them; identification - identifying oneself with some real or imagined character, attributing to oneself his qualities; rationalization - the desire to explain an action, interpreting events in such a way as to reduce its traumatic impact on the individual; sublimation – transformation of instinctive energy into socially acceptable forms of behavior and activity; humor is the desire to reduce psychological stress by using humorous expressions or stories.

In psychology, there is the concept of an adaptation barrier; it means a kind of boundary in the parameters of the external environment, beyond which personal adaptation will no longer be adequate. The properties of the adaptation barrier are expressed individually. They are influenced by biological environmental factors, constitutional personality type, social factors, individual psychological factors of a person that determine the adaptive capabilities of the individual. Such personal properties are self-esteem, value system, volitional sphere and others.

The success of adaptation is determined by the full functioning of the physiological and mental level of the individual. These systems are located and function in interconnection. There is a component that ensures this relationship between the two levels and carries out the normal functioning of the individual. Such a component may have a dual structure: a mental and physiological element. This component in the regulation of human adaptation is emotions.

Features of modern adaptation

Studying at school, moving from one level to another and admission itself always requires special expenses from the child. But the situation of entering school deserves special consideration, especially since over the past few years it has acquired new features while maintaining established ones.

• Technological progress and the informatization of society, as well as the introduction of educational standards, complicate the adaptation process.
• Federal state educational standards require serious expenses (physical, moral, psychological) from first-graders. In addition to the usual educational knowledge, skills and abilities, the child needs to achieve subject, meta-subject and personal results, to correspond to the portrait of a primary school graduate.
• Overnight, the first grader finds himself in a new status and role, environment, system of responsibilities and rights. The child receives an endless stream of new information.

Adaptation to school is a kind of difficult life situation for the child and parents. At the same time, it is the primary adaptation to school that influences the entire further educational, professional and personal path of the individual.

Arid type of adaptability

This type includes people living in desert areas. These latitudes are characterized by rare precipitation and a hot climate.

Features of the physique of an arid adaptive type of person: linear physique, flat chest, poorly developed muscles, small fat component, slow metabolic process in the body. Less sensitive to changes in environmental temperature.

What is adaptation to school

The problem of school adaptation is at the intersection of a number of sciences (psychology, pedagogy, sociology, medicine). Speaking about school adaptation, we will consider it as a psychological and pedagogical phenomenon.

• The very concept of adaptation relates to biology and means the adaptation of an organism to changing environmental conditions. According to V.I. Dolgova’s definition, adaptation is the process and result of internal changes, external active adaptation and self-change of the individual to new conditions of existence.
• For a person, this is a process of assimilation of norms and values, changing conditions, responsibilities and requirements.

School adaptation is the process of a child’s acceptance and assimilation of the social situation of schooling, his new status (school student) and new systems of interaction (“child – teacher”, “child – peer”); developing new means of behavior.

From a psychological point of view, school adaptation can be characterized by 4 specific criteria:

• The child’s mastery of a new social situation in the unity of its components.
• Acceptance of a new social position and status, reflected in the internal position of the student.
• Mastering new forms and means of social interaction in the emerging systems “student - teacher”, “student - student”.
• Differentiation of the “child – adult” relationship, purposeful restructuring of the child’s entire lifestyle (the initiator and manager is the adult).

The period of adaptation to school can last from 2-3 months to a year. Therefore, the first class is considered the most difficult and important.

Structure and types of adaptation

Adaptation to school is a systemic process. It is divided into social, physiological and psychological adaptation, each of which goes through:

• orientation phase (2-3 weeks);
• unstable adaptation (2-3 weeks);
• relatively stable adaptation (from 5-6 weeks to a year).

In the first phase, all systems of the body are tensed, in the second – the body is looking for optimal solutions, in the third – the tension subsides, the body’s systems return to normal, and stable forms of behavior are developed.

Social adaptation

Requires the ability to:

• listen;
• respond to the teacher;
• complete tasks independently;
• organize and analyze their implementation.

At the same time, it is important to be able to establish contacts with peers and adequately evaluate oneself and others.

Physiological adaptation

It assumes that the body is tense due to heavy loads. Regardless of what kind of activity a child is engaged in at school, his body works to the limit. This is dangerous due to overwork.

Psychological adaptation

Depends on the child's readiness for school. Assumes:

• desire to learn and complete tasks;
• the desire for their successful implementation and understanding.

A developed ability to remember and process information is important. You can read more about this element in the article “Is the child ready for school: ways to check, recommendations for parents.”

Impact of adaptation

From the above it follows that school adaptation affects the entire body and personality as a whole. We can distinguish 3 main areas and characteristic changes in them during dysfunctional adaptation:

1. Mental (cognitive component). When problems arise, internal tension (anxiety) and stress arise.
2. Psychophysiological (emotional component). When problems occur, emotional maladjustment and physical manifestations of stress occur.
3. Psychosocial (behavioral component). In case of problems, it is noted that it is impossible to form new communication connections.

This can be tracked (table below).

Criteria and indicators of a child’s adaptation to school (according to V.V. Gagai)

Signs of successful adaptation to school

1. The child’s satisfaction with the learning process, mastery of learning skills.
2. Independent organization of educational activities and homework; appropriate behavior.
3. Satisfaction with relationships with teachers and classmates; established contact.

Bottom line

A person is always forced to adapt at different levels of his life. First, a person adapts physiologically, getting used to control of his body, then to the surrounding nature. Social adaptation begins at the moment when parents begin raising a child. At the same time, psychological adaptation occurs when a person develops character traits that will help him feel harmonious in existing conditions.

Adaptation does not always imply exclusively effective and successful, acceptable behavior. You can adapt by developing an illness or bad behavior, which also helps you achieve your goals more quickly under existing conditions.

Levels of adaptation

A. L. Wenger identified 3 levels of school adaptation (low, medium, high) and the following components of school adaptation: attitude towards school, interest in educational activities, behavior, position in the class (see table below).

Levels of school adaptation (A. L. Wenger)

From the table it can be stated that a low level indicates the student’s maladjustment, a medium level indicates mild manifestations of maladjustment and risks, a high level indicates the successful adaptation of a first-grader.

Continental type of adaptability

The population of this zone is characterized by the following characteristics: a flat chest, a tendency to be overweight, and a lower than normal content of substances of mineral origin in the skeleton.

The chest type of body type is common, which is characterized by weak muscle development, stooping, and a hollow in the abdominal area. The abdominal type has also become widespread, the distinctive features of which are: a conical chest, a convex belly, and a regular (wavy) or stooped back.

In the taiga zone, the signs are similar, but the distinguishing feature is the miniature physique.

Adaptation Success Factors

The success of adaptation to school depends on a number of factors. External and internal factors of school adaptation are distinguished.

• External ones include relationships with the class, teacher and family.
• Internal ones include educational motivation, readiness for school, health and stress resistance of the child.

External and internal factors are interconnected. There is no consensus on what is secondary and determines the rest. This issue has not been fully studied. But many psychologists and teachers (S. N. Vereykina, G. F. Ushamirskaya, S. I. Samygin, T. S. Koposova, M. S. Golub, V. I. Dolgova) agree that the family is paramount. The child’s health (physical, psychological and mental), preparation for school, educational motivation and the ability to establish social contacts depend on the child-parent relationship.

Arctic type

The adaptive type of man was formed as a result of the influence of cold and food, mainly of animal origin. The population of this type is distinguished by powerful muscles, a massive skeleton, a fat complex, the chest is large and has the shape of a cylinder.

The hemoglobin level in the Arctic adaptive type of person is high compared to other types. The bone marrow reaches large sizes, the bones are rich in minerals, cholesterol and protein in the blood of such people are at a high level. At the same time, immunity is average.

The role of family in adaptation

V.I. Dolgova calls the child-parent relationship the main factor in a child’s adaptation. The author, in her study to identify the influence of family education style on school adaptation, relied on 2 indicators of adaptation success: anxiety and educational motivation. The results of the study showed the following:

• in families with the “symbiosis” type, children experience increased anxiety;
• high parental control contributes to a decrease in the child’s educational motivation;
• The “cooperation” style and the ability of parents to accept the child’s failures contribute to the reduction of anxiety.

The best position (style) in the family when adapting a first-grader is recognizing the child as an active subject of family relations; adequate control in the form of emotional acceptance of the child and voluminous, clear, feasible, consistent requirements.

Children from such families adapt well to school. They:

• active (socially, physically and communicatively);
• are proactive;
• independent;
• empathic and friendly.

However, what really prevails in most families is the subject-object attitude of parents towards the child. This causes problems with the child’s adaptation and socialization.

Alpine adaptive type

This type of latitude is characterized by low average annual temperatures and lack of oxygen. People of this type are distinguished by a massive skeleton, a cylindrical chest, and a high content of hemoglobin and red blood cells in the blood. The thyroid gland is less developed. Metabolism is intense compared to the types described above.

The intensity of development is low, as is growth, but life expectancy is significantly higher than in other regions.

Afterword

School adaptation is a crisis situation, since the child finds himself in new conditions without the appropriate “tools” and experience of similar situations. Studying in the first grade coincides with the 7-year crisis. This makes the adaptation process even more difficult. The period of school adaptation can be called a contradictory period of transformation of a preschooler into a schoolchild.

If the child is ready for school and has the support of the family and teacher, school adaptation can take place in 2-3 months. Otherwise, the process may last for a year and be accompanied by problems or result in maladaptation (the child’s inability to psychologically and physically accept a new way of life).

The democratic style of education has a beneficial effect on the development of the child and his adaptation to any conditions. Child-parent relationships in which each family member acts as an active subject, is interested in the affairs of others, supports, is involved in everything that happens and expects the same from others.

—>

The concept of adaptation (from the Latin word adapto-adapt) arose in biology and is considered in it as the adaptation of the structures and functions of the body, its organs and cells to environmental conditions. Social adaptation is considered as an individual’s adaptation to the conditions of the social environment; it is one of the main socio-psychological mechanisms of personality socialization, which includes the individual’s acceptance of a social role.

Social adaptation includes:

1. adequate perception of the surrounding reality and oneself;
2. successful communication and adequate relationships with others;
3. ability to work, study and organize leisure and recreation;
4. ability for self-service and self-organization;
5. variability of behavior in accordance with role expectations.

The importance of social adaptation increases in conditions of a radical change in a person’s activity and social environment. For students in first, fifth, and tenth grades, their social environment (new class composition and/or teachers) and system of activity (content of the new level of education) changes. The situation of novelty is always alarming to one degree or another for a person. In such conditions, the child experiences emotional discomfort due to the uncertainty of ideas about the requirements of teachers, the characteristics and conditions of education, the values ​​and norms of behavior in the class team, etc. This state is often accompanied by internal tension, which sometimes makes it difficult to make both intellectual and personal decisions . Sufficiently long-term mental stress can result in school maladaptation and the child then becomes undisciplined, inattentive, irresponsible, lags behind in studies, gets tired quickly and no longer wants to go to school. Somatically weakened children (and their number is increasing) are the most susceptible to maladjustment.

Of course, a child’s adequate perception of his school environment and successful establishment of relationships with classmates and new teachers are very difficult if he has a high level of personal and school anxiety. Thus, the learning process itself becomes more complicated, and productive work in the classroom becomes problematic. Even a potential excellent student can turn into a struggling student.

The process of adaptation of students becomes no less important for teachers who, knowing little about their students, may make mistakes in assessing their capabilities, successful individualization and differentiation of learning. Therefore, teachers need to timely adjust their own pedagogical position regarding the class and individual students.

InterpretationTranslation LEVEL OF ADAPTATION Neutral position in the sensory continuum; in special usage: the level to which the sense organ has adapted. Based on this concept, Harry Helson developed a whole theory of sensory-contextual influences. This theory states that neutral stimuli to which the subject has already adapted provide the background against which new stimuli are perceived. Thus, for example, cool water may feel warm if the subject has previously adapted to fairly cold water. Although the theory was developed in relation to sensory processes, it has been widely used in areas far from the sensory continuum, especially in the study of attitudes and changes in attitudes.

Explanatory dictionary of psychology. 2013.

Other books on request “ADAPTATION LEVEL” >>Sources used:

• https://studwood.ru/675093/psihologiya/urovni_vidy_protsessa_adaptatsii
• https://psychologist.tips/849-psihologicheskie-osobennosti-adaptatsii-rebenka-k-shkole-vidy-i-urovni-adaptatsii.html
• https://studopedia.ru/9_221824_ponyatie-i-osobennosti-adaptatsii.html
• https://psychology_dictionary.academic.ru/8614/adaptation_level

Tropical type of adaptability

At these latitudes there is high solar activity, tropical storms, etc. The environment plays an important role in the formation of adaptive types of humans.

This type includes people living in warm and humid areas. They differ in the following characteristics: elongated body shape, dolichomorphy - long arms and legs, combined with a short body. Relatively large body surface. There are many sweat glands, which contributes to intense sweat production.

The metabolic rate is average, the synthesis of endogenous fat and cholesterol from the liver is low, which affects human health in these areas. There is a reduced content of minerals in the bones. The phenomenon of low protein is common, and endemic diseases associated with increased or decreased levels of one or another chemical substance in the habitat area have also found their place.

All these signs were acquired due to exposure to a hot climate with high humidity.

Moderate type of adaptability

There is a relationship between adaptive human types and races, since the formation of different human types determines their distribution throughout the world.

The temperate zone type is the most common on the planet. In terms of distinctive features and climate, it occupies an intermediate position between two types: arctic and tropical.

The moderate type is widespread, combining many different factors of all latitudes to which the body must adapt.

Impact of climate

An important factor is temperature and its effect on the body. Population densities around the world vary depending on air temperature. Due to thermoregulation of the body, a person adapts to seasonal temperature changes. Therefore, the smaller the difference in seasonal temperature changes, the more favorable the living conditions and the population growth.

Solar activity affects a person’s performance and health; orientation in space also depends on sunlight and increases brain activity. Due to a lack of vitamin D, diseases such as rickets develop.

Adaptive types of humans in different climatic zones differ in skin color and muscles.

Atmospheric pressure also affects physiological parameters. In the north of Eurasia, Canada, and Alaska there is a cold zone. The growing season lasts no more than two months. Low temperatures prevent active farming.

In the latitudes of Eurasia there is a cool zone, as well as in the north and south of America, in the Andes. The warm regions of this belt are distinguished by the development of agriculture.

On the territory of Europe there is a temperate zone, not including the southern islands, the Russian Plain, Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia and the East, Mongolia, Tibet, Northeast China, the southern part of Canada, and the northern regions of the USA.

The warm zone occupies the Eurasian Mediterranean, southern China, most of the USA and Mexico, Chile and Argentina, southern Africa and Australia.

The hot-type belt occupies the predominant area of ​​Africa, South America, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central America. Also, agroclimatic zoning of the world is carried out depending on the degree of moisture.

Complications

Complications of adjustment disorder can develop in different ways.

Aggravation of existing symptoms and increase in maladjustment. Affective, anxiety and depressive disorders, from short-term, progress to a clinically formed anxiety-depressive disorder. With this course, the stress factor ceases to be the main one for the development of a full-blown clinical picture of the syndrome.

Development of neurotic and somatoform disorders. In addition to the existing symptom complexes, autonomic disorders, obsessive states appear, and the development of psychosomatic diseases is possible.

Formation of neurotic personality development. Neurotic disorders take a chronic course if the stressor is not eliminated. Personal neurotic changes are consolidated (increased anxiety, emotional instability, behavioral instability, asthenia), the connection with the psychogenic provoking factor is lost. Decompensation of neurotic disorders often appears. As a rule, neurotic personality development is formed after 3-5 years, in the presence of severe disorders.

Diagnostics

Diagnosis of adaptation disorder is carried out based on the presence of clinical criteria, the study of the patient’s personality using various methods, the general condition of the patient and symptoms.

The development of the clinical picture (symptoms of emotional and behavioral reactions) occurs within 1-3 months, against the background of exposure to acute stress or a prolonged stress factor. There are clinical symptoms of varying form and severity (affective and behavioral disorders, asthenovegetative manifestations). With severe asthenovegetative syndrome, a comprehensive examination of the body is required. There is significant distress out of proportion to the stressor. Manifestations of the disorder negatively affect social or professional activities. A person’s experiences are directly related to a stressful situation and are reflected in symptoms. The clinical picture of adaptation disorder does not appear after six months from the end of exposure to the stressor (with the exception of a prolonged depressive reaction).

Differential diagnosis is carried out with other neurotic disorders with a predominant depressive and anxiety clinic (generalized anxiety disorder, depressive episode), and disorders caused by stress factors (post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress reaction). These disorders have different time frames and more precise characteristics of stressors and patient reactions. People with significant post-traumatic stress but who do not meet the criteria for PTSD or acute stress disorder may have adjustment disorders.