catastrophism
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From catastrophe + -ism, coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1837.
Noun[edit]
catastrophism (countable and uncountable, plural catastrophisms)
- (geology) The doctrine that sudden catastrophes, rather than continuous change, cause the main features of the Earth's crust.
- Antonym: uniformitarianism
- (biology) The doctrine that, in addition to the more gradual effects of evolution, huge catastrophic events shape the earth's flora and fauna by causing major die-offs which make way for the emergence of new organisms.
- The practice or tendency of catastrophizing, regarding bad things as catastrophic.
- 2018, René Mauricio Barría, Cohort Studies in Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 55:
- A therapeutic programme based on pain education showed significant improvements regarding pain intensity, disability, catastrophism, depression, anxiety and health, with few positive results on anguish and cognition.
- 2020, Carmen Ramírez-Maestre, Madelon Peters, John Andrew Sturgeon, Rocio de la Vega, Resilience Resources in Chronic Pain Patients The Path to Adaptation, Frontiers Media SA, →ISBN, page 29:
- However, we did not obtain significant relationships with pain catastrophizing. […] On the contrary, catastrophism is measured in a general context, with no motivational context, and without related situations where goals can compete.