Preparedness
Definition
In psychology, preparedness refers to an organism’s readiness or predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways due to its evolutionary history.
Analogy
Think of preparedness like having an app pre-installed on your phone. Just as some apps come ready-to-use when you buy your phone (like the camera app), some behaviors or reactions are 'pre-installed' into species because they've been beneficial for survival throughout evolution.
Related terms
Phobia: An extreme or irrational fear of something specific which often leads to avoidance behavior.
Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to previously neutral but now conditioned stimulus.
Evolutionary Psychology: A theoretical approach in social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as perception, memory, and language from an evolutionary perspective.
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