When looking at threat protection from an evolutionary standpoint, the human brain cannot distinguish between outward and inward threats, as both can have the same negative impacts on someone’s well-being. For example, someone being bullied by another will feel the same in the brain as if they were in the mirror saying those same things to themself. This system helps to establish fight, flight, or submission behaviours.
The seeking and acquiring system is related to a person’s attention toward gaining resources and motivation to seek out positive emotions through experiences. It helps to establish feelings of excitement, vitality, and reward. In the modern world, this system is often associated with sexual relationships, food, and success.
However, it can also drive certain mental health disorders, including addiction, as a person’s reward center is activated when they seek and find the substance of choice. In today’s world, the active ability to seek and acquire is hindered due to convenience and accessibility to those things that, in the past, required more drive and work. When the emotional drive is not stimulated due to easy access, it can malfunction.
The contentment/soothing system is involved with the attachment/affiliation system. It helps to foster feelings of well-being, peacefulness, and essentially being content with what a person has in their life. It is connected to the rest and digest aspect of evolutionary neuroscience in the sense that, when a person is in the contentment/soothing state, their body is at rest because they have achieved all that they need to be content.