Differential susceptibility hypothesis

The differential susceptibility hypothesis proposed by Jay Belsky is another interpretation of psychological findings that are usually discussed according to the Diathesis-stress model. Both models suggest that people's development and emotional affect are differentially susceptible to experiences or qualities of the environment. Where the Diathesis-stress model suggests a distinct and mostly negativity-sensitive group, Belsky describes a group that is sensitive to negative experiences but also to positive experiences. These models may be complementary, if some individuals are dually or uniquely positivity-sensitive, while other people are uniquely negativity-sensitive.

The idea that individuals vary in their responsivity to qualities of the environment is generally framed in diathesis-stress or dual-risk terms. That is, some individuals, due to their biological, temperamental and/or behavioral characteristics (i.e., "diathesis" or "risk 1"), are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of negative experiences (i.e., "stress" or "risk 2"), whereas others are relatively resilient with respect to them (see Figure 1, an adaptation of Bakermans-Kranenburg and van IJzendoorn's (2007) Figure 1).

A fundamentally different, even if not competing view, of the very same phenomenon is central to Belsky'sdifferential susceptibility hypothesis and Boyce and Ellis' (2005) related notion of biological sensitivity to context: Individuals do not simply vary in the degree to which they are vulnerable to the negative effects of adverse experience but, more generally, in their developmental plasticity.

On this hypothesis, more "plastic" or malleable individuals are more susceptible than others to environmental influences in a for-better-and-for-worse manner. That is, susceptible to both the adverse developmental sequelae associated with negative environments and the positive developmental consequences of supportive ones. Less susceptible individuals, in contrast, are less affected by rearing conditions, be they presumptively supportive or undermining of well being (see Figure 2, an adaptation of Bakermans-Kranenburg and Van IJzendoorn's (2007) Figure 1).

Belsky suggests that evolution might select for some children who are more plastic, and others who are more fixed in the face of, for example, parenting styles.

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