Natural selection favors the evolution of mechanisms that optimize the allocation of
resources and time among competing traits. Hormones mediate developmental plasticity …

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) is highly responsive to social challenges.
Because stress hormones can have negative developmental and health consequences, this …

The assumption that early stress leads to dysregulation and impairment is widespread in
developmental science and informs prevailing models (eg, toxic stress). An alternative …

Developmental plasticity is a widespread property of living organisms, but different
individuals in the same species can vary greatly in how susceptible they are to …

Living organisms are flexible; they can respond to changing conditions through a variety of
morphological, physiological, and behavioral mechanisms. The processes that organisms …

The ability of a given genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to different
environments is termed “plasticity,” and is part of the organism's “adaptability” to …

The hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis provides physiological adaptations to various
environmental stimuli in mammals. These stimuli including maternal care, diet, immune …

Chapter Overview 107 emotions, and social behaviors, nor are we satisfied with describing
and theorizing about how children's transactions in the world influence development. To all …

Phenotypic plasticity, or the ability to alter one's morphological, physiological, and behavior
phenotype in response to environmental change (Pigliucci 2001), is central to organismal …

Explaining how populations adapt to environments is among the foremost objectives of
evolutionary theory. Over generations, natural selection impels the phenotypic distribution of …