Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. (context psychology chiefly of behaviour English) Showing inadequate or faulty adaptation to a new situation.
WordNet
adj. showing faulty adaptation [ant: adaptive]
Usage examples of "maladaptive".
Committee of 300 is counting on our maladaptive responses to govern our reaction to created events, and it will not be disappointed as long as we as a nation continue in the present way we respond.
My evaluation shows that you are not only socially maladaptive but seriously delusional.
The fetus may have characteristics, like the gill slits in mammals, that are entirely maladaptive after birth, but as long as they cause no serious problems for the fetus and are lost before birth, they can be retained.
A woman gave birth to them and moulded them into what they are: dysfunctional, maladaptive, emotionally dead.
Further, fear of death, which in some respects is adaptive in the evolutionary struggle for existence, is maladaptive in warfare.
Some more hidden defenses are revealed by certain maladaptive behaviors: acting out, severe withdrawal, passive-aggressive acts, and so on.
The more maladaptive defenses that one uses, the more likely one has a serious psychiatric disorder, many symptoms, and interpersonal problems.
Systematic desensitization as a treatment for maladaptive anger and aggression: A review.
But a human being, by virtue of his intelligence and his conceptual faculty, has an option: he can question the adaptiveness of his responses to life and, in the case of maladaptive responses, can develop better alternatives.
I use to describe the hell that maladaptive cross-dressing can become for both the CD and those close to him.
When an individual CD is evaluated in light of these criteria, it quickly becomes apparent whether his crossdressing is maladaptive or not.
They also show that maladaptive sexual behavior transcends the simplistic division of homosexual and heterosexual.
Cross-dressing is but one of the many forms of human sexual expression, and, as with any other form, there exist CDs with maladaptive behavior.
I want to present the stories of two CDs who exhibit maladaptive sexual behavior.
It is tempting to liken the problem of maladaptive cross-dressing to alcoholism.