ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR Full Report

ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

Defining Abnormal Behavior
When we ask how a society defines psychological abnormality, we are asking, first, where that society draws the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior and second, which unacceptable behaviors the society views as evidence of “disorder” rather than simply as undesirable characteristics.

Norm Violation
Every human group lives by a set of norms – rules that tell us what it is “right” and “wrong” to do and when, where, and with whom. Such rules circumscribe every aspect of our existence. They are taken for granted by people within a culture, but they can differ widely between cultures.

Statistical Rarity
From a statistical point of view, abnormality is any substantial deviation from a statistically calculated average. Those who fall within the “golden mean”- those who do what most, other people do – are normal, while those whose behavior differs from that of the majority are abnormal. This criterion is used in some evaluations of psychological abnormality. The diagnosis of mental retardation, for instance, is based in large part on statistical accounting. Those whose rested intelligence falls below an average range for the population, and who also have problems coping with life, are labeled “mentally retarded.

Personal Discomfort
Another criterion for defining abnormally is personal discomfort. If people are content with their lives, then they are of no concern to the mental health establishment.

Maladaptive Behavior
A fourth criterion for defining a behavior as abnormal is whether it is maladaptive. Here the question is whether a person, given then behavior pattern, is able no meet the demands of his or her life – hold down a job, deal with friends and family, pay the bills on time, and the like. If not, the pattern is abnormal.

Explaining Abnormal Behavior
Since antiquity, people have developed theories as to the causes of abnormal behavior. These theories have a common base in that they are all naturalistic; that is, they seek to account for abnormal behavior in terms of natural events-disturbances in the body or disturbances in human relationships.

The Medical Model
According to what is loosely called the medical model or disease model , abnormal behavior is comparable to disease. Each kind of abnormal behavior; like each disease, has specific causes and a specific set of symptoms. In its strictest sense, the medical model also implies that the abnormal behavior is biogenic – that is, it results from a malfunction within the body. However even those who do not think that all abnormal behavior is biologically based are still thinking in medical terms when they speak of overt “symptoms” and underlying causes.

Biogenic theories of abnormal behavior have been with us since ancient times. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, biogenic theories coexisted with supernatural theory, the belief that abnormal behavior was caused by God on, more often, the devil. But, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, religious explanations were gradually eclipsed by biological explanations were gradually eclipsed by biological explanations. This newly dominant medical approach was soon rewarded by a series of important breakthroughs. Several previously unexplained behavior patterns were found to result from brain pathologies-infection, poisoning, and the like. Such discoveries brought immense prestige to the biogenic theory of abnormal behavior. Medicine it was assumed, would ultimately conquer madness. On this assumption, madness was increasingly turned over to the medical profession.

There remained many patterns of abnormal behavior – indeed, the majority – for which no medical cause had been discovered, yet, because researchers were confident that such causes would eventually be found and because abnormal behavior was by then the province of medicine, these patterns were treated as if they were biologically based. In other words they were treated according to a medical “model”

Psychological Approaches
Complementing the medical model are the psychological theories of abnormal behavior. Such theories attribute disturbed behavior patterns not to biological malfunction but to psychological processes resulting from the person’s interaction with the environment. Thus, disturbed behavior may be explained by negligent upbringing, by traumatic experiences, by inaccurate social perceptions, or by too much stress.

There are dozens of competing psychological theories abnormal behavior. Still, it is possible to identity a few fairly unified perspectives – broad schools of thought based on the same fundamental assumptions. In this book, we will refer repeatedly to the following psychological perspectives.

1. The psychodynamic perspective, which assumes that abnormal behavior issues from unconscious psychological conflicts originating in childhood.

2. The behavioral perspective, which holds that a primary cause of abnormal behavior is inappropriate learning, whereby maladaptive behaviors are rewarded and adaptive behaviors are not rewarded.


3. The cognitive perspective, which maintains that abnormal behavior is an outgrowth of maladaptive ways of perceiving and thinking about oneself and the environment.

4. The interpersonal perspective which views abnormal behavior as the product of disordered relationship.


5. The sociocultural perspective which views abnormal behavior as the product of broad social and cultural forces. It also examines the biases that can influence diagnosis.



In addition to considering these psychological view points we will pay close attention to the neuroscience approach.

6. The neuroscience perspective, which analyzes abnormal behavior in terms of its neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and neurohormonal components.