You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The r-selection and K-selection, the two opposing selective forces, are defined by Pianka (1974) as follows: “In a ‘competitive vacuum’ (or an extensively rarefied environment) the best reproductive strategy is often to put maximal amounts of matter and energy into reproduction and to produce as many total progeny as soon as possible. Because there is little competition, these offspring often can thrive even if they are quite small and therefore energetically inexpensive to produce” (r-selection = K.W.). “However, in a ‘saturated’ environment, where density effects are pronounced and competition is keen, the best strategy may often be to put more energy into competition and maintenance and to produce offspring with more substantial competitive abilities. This usually requires larger offspring; and because they are energetically more expensive, it means that fewer can be produced” (K-selection = K.W.).
The aim of this paper, based on the writings of Jung, Horney, Chitty, and Meyer and Chesser, is to analyze the sources of intrapsychic tension in an ecological environment. As is well known, an individual's personality is shaped by the environment in which the person happens to exist. On the other hand, an archetype that is given to every living organism a priori, in the gene system, undergoes changes from one generation to another, depending on current population conditions.
The preconscious functioning of the archetype, which can be changed under the influence of environmental conditions, generates a conflict between the information encoded in the gene system of a given population and the information received from the outer world (that is, a real situation in the ecological system that is, for example, the result of city growth and the problems entailed as well as the result of the massive use of technical devices in everyday life).