Abnormal Behavior
Abnormal behavior refers to patterns of thoughts, feelings, or actions that deviate from societal or cultural norms and cause distress or impairment. It is often characterized by behaviors that are atypical, maladaptive, or dysfunctional. Psychologists study abnormal behavior to understand its causes and develop effective treatments for mental health disorders.
7 Key excerpts on "Abnormal Behavior"
- Nancy Fenton, Jessica Flitter(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Research & Education Association(Publisher)
...Chapter 14 Abnormal Behavior Psychopathology or abnormal psychology involves the scientific investigation of the cause (etiology), diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. This specialty in psychology involves both basic and applied research, as well as clinical practice, and can overlap with a variety of other fields, including cognitive psychology, medicine, biology, and pharmacology. Mental illness is extremely difficult to define; therefore, a variety of models to explain this concept have been proposed. The statistical model defines abnormality as thoughts or behaviors that are rare. This is incomplete because, although some mental illnesses, such as dissociative disorders, are extremely rare, others, such as anxiety disorders, are more common. Also, it bears mentioning that if Abnormal Behavior were defined simply as being rare, then individuals who have earned Olympic medals would be considered abnormal. Another way to define mental illness (psychological disorder) is a condition involving disturbances in cognition, behavior, or emotion that are deviant, dysfunctional, distressing, or potentially dangerous. Mental illness can be seen as being deviant if the resulting thoughts or actions differ from normal behavior, which is determined by cultural norms. For example, in some places around the world today, it would be considered deviant for a woman to be seen in public with her shoulders visible because it violates that culture’s social norm. It is also important to note that cultural norms can change over time. In the United States it would have been considered deviant, until recently, for the father to stay home and raise the children while the mother worked to support the family. A second aspect of mental illness is whether or not particular thoughts or behaviors are dysfunctional, also referred to as maladaptive...
eBook - ePubClinical Psychology
A Modern Health Profession
- Wolfgang Linden, Paul L. Hewitt(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The question can be broached broadly in two ways. The first deals with the processes of determining how a person’s behavior is defined as abnormal or maladaptive. The second deals with what processes clinical psychologists pay attention to when trying to make a determination whether some behavior is abnormal or maladaptive. Defining Psychological Problems There are at least three major approaches in defining abnormality that are used in research and clinical work. Each of these approaches has strengths and limitations and can be used, in some cases, simultaneously or in combination by clinical psychologists. Statistical or Normative Approach In this approach to defining abnormality, a judgment is made whether a person’s behavior conforms, generally, to the standards, expectations, or norms of a particular society or social group. Although different cultures and societies may have different standards or expectations, all cultures and societies have standards for appropriate behavior (Gorenstein, 1992). If a person’s behavior falls outside of the norm, that person’s behavior is considered to be abnormal, problematic, and in need of amelioration. Thus, behaviors that are unusual, occur rarely, or otherwise are not engaged in by most people, can be considered to be abnormal. For example, viewing an individual having an animated and emotional conversation with a telephone pole would likely result in an interpretation that that individual’s behavior is abnormal because the majority of people do not have conversations with telephone poles. Although this statistical approach captures or defines many individuals who do exhibit psychological problems and who can likely benefit from treatment, there are several difficulties or shortcomings of this approach. For example, there are many cultural differences in terms of behavior that falls within norms. What is seen as normal in one culture may be viewed as abnormal in another...
eBook - ePubIndividual Differences
Normal And Abnormal
- Michael W. Eysenck, University of London College(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...5 Approaches to abnormality The remainder of this book is devoted to that part of psychology which is concerned with psychological disorders. This area of psychology is often called abnormal psychology or psychopathology. In order to set the scene for our subsequent coverage of specific forms of psychopathology, we will focus in this chapter on some of the key general issues that confront anyone interested in this area. More specifically, there are three questions that will occupy us in this chapter: 1. What do we mean by abnormality, and how can it be distinguished from normality? 2. What are the main categories of psychological disorder? 3. What are the factors responsible for the development of each mental disorder? The first question is obviously important, because we need to know as precisely as possible which patterns of behaviour fall, and do not fall, within the bounds of abnormal psychology. As we will see, it is surprisingly difficult to produce any clear-cut answer to the question, but a partial answer is proposed. The second and third questions refer to the description and the explanation of mental disorders. As with the first question, there are no definitive answers available. What we will do is to present the major current views, and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each. What is abnormality? There are several different ways in which one might attempt to define “abnormality”. One way is based on the statistical approach, according to which the abnormal is that which is statistically rare in the population. Consider, for example, trait anxiety as assessed by Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The mean score for trait anxiety is approximately 40, and only about one person in 50 obtains a score higher than 55...
eBook - ePub- Michael Eysenck(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...Social factors, stressful life events, and problems with self-monitoring are also involved. Further Reading • Bennett, P. (2003). Abnormal and clinical psychology: An introductory textbook (2nd ed.). Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. There is accessible coverage of the main issues within abnormal psychology in this readable book. • Comer, R.J. (2007). Abnormal psychology (6th ed.). New York: Worth. Most of the important issues are discussed in a thorough and accessible way in this up-to-date textbook. • Davison, G.C., Neale, J.M., &Kring, A.M. (2004). Abnormal psychology (9th ed.). New York: Worth. This well-established textbook has readable accounts of the whole of abnormal psychology. • Durand, V.M., &Barlow, D.H. (2006). Essentials of abnormal psychology (4th ed.). New York: Thomson/Wadsworth. As the title implies, this textbook by leading clinical psychologists focuses on central issues within abnormal psychology. Therapeutic approaches DOI: 10.4324/9781315736945-22 Contents Drug Therapy Psychodynamic Therapy Behavior Therapy Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Effectiveness of Therapy How Effective are Different Forms of Therapy? Individuals with mental disorders exhibit a wide range of symptoms. There may be problems associated with thinking and the mind (e.g., the hallucinations of the schizophrenic), with behavior (e.g., the avoidance behavior of the phobic), or with physiological and bodily processes (e.g., the highly activated physiological system of someone with posttraumatic stress disorder). However, note that thinking, behavior, and physiological processes are all highly interdependent, meaning that they all affect each other. Therapeutic approaches could focus on producing changes in thinking, in behavior, or in physiological functioning. That is precisely what has happened. The psychodynamic approach was designed to change thinking, and the same is true of cognitive therapy. Behavior therapy emphasizes the importance of changing behavior...
- Susan Cave(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There are several different areas of research that can be brought to bear on this issue. Helman (1984) notes that culture may affect mental disorder in four ways: • it defines what is normal and abnormal in a particular society; • it may influence the prevalence and expression of particular disorders; • it may be a cause of the development of particular disorders; • it may determine the way the disorder is explained and treated in a given culture. These form the basis for the following discussion. How culture defines what is normal and abnormal In this section we are considering the ways in which culture affects our decisions about what is normal and abnormal. At one point in history, for example, certain groups of people in certain societies considered it desirable to flagellate (whip) themselves regularly. Nowadays that would be regarded as undesirable behaviour. So are there differences between cultures in ideas about mental health? According to Fernando (1995), in many Eastern cultures mental health is associated with integration and harmony with the family, environment, society and religious values. In the West, the aim is self-sufficiency, autonomy, efficiency and the enhancement of self-esteem. When it comes to mental disorder, ideas also differ about what is unusual or unacceptable. Response to unusual behaviours In many societies, being possessed by spirits, hallucinating, and speaking in unknown tongues (glossolalia), are acceptable, provided that those behaviours occur in ways that are prescribed by cultural norms. It is when they do not that they may be regarded as problematic. The research described next attempts to demonstrate when this is likely to occur. Several studies have explored the response of people from other cultures to psychiatric terms such as ‘insane’, or to descriptions of people who suffer from symptoms such as hallucinations. Africa would appear to have been the location for most research...
eBook - ePubProblems of Personality
Studies Presented to Dr Morton Prince, Pioneer in American
- C. MacFie Campbell, H. S. Langfeld, W. M. McDougall, A. A. Roback, E. W. Taylor, C. MacFie Campbell, H. S. Langfeld, W. M. McDougall, A. A. Roback, E. W. Taylor(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology BY ERNEST JONES, M.D. President of The International Psycho-Analytical Association; Editor of the "International Journal of Psycho-Analysis"; formerly Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto I N any record of Morton Prince's contributions to psychological science the fact will always deserve mention that he was one of the first to perceive the intimate connection between social psychology and psychology of the abnormal, and to proclaim this by issuing a Journal devoted to these two studies. The purpose of the present paper is to inquire into the significance of the various points of contact between the two. The title itself he has proposed for the latter of these branches of study does not seem to have been too happily chosen, to judge from the reluctance of other workers to adopt it. Apart from linguistic objections to it, * it would appear to lay unnecessary stress on the difference between the fields of the normal and the pathological. Without wishing to attach too much importance to the question of nomenclature, which, after all, is largely a matter of expediency and opinion, I should myself, for reasons that will presently be indicated, have preferred to use the term "clinical psychology." In England "medical psychology" is the term most widely used, but it is possible that professional prejudice may have much to do with this preference. In this connection an interesting suggestion made some years ago by Wilhelm Specht may be recalled. He proposed to restrict the term "psychopathology" to the study of abnormal mental phenomena carried out from a purely medical point of view, i.e., the investigation of the causes, pathological significance, and modes of treatment of such states; and to use the term "pathopsychology" for the investigation of the same data purely from the point of view of general psychology...
eBook - ePub- William McDougall(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...OUTLINE OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER I SKETCH OF THE SCHOOLS OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY There are two great classes of disorders of our mental life, those that are directly due to organic lesions of the nervous system and those which seem to imply no such lesion, no gross injury to the structure of the brain, and which are therefore called “functional disorders.” This distinction is discussed and defended in Chapter II. Its theoretical validity may be challenged; but there can be no question that, for all practical purposes, it is useful and important. The whole field of abnormal psychology falls into two corresponding divisions, concerned respectively with the organic and the functional disorders. Both have been assiduously cultivated in our time and are yielding good fruit; but hitherto the personnel and the methods of the two divisions are largely distinct; and only the most general conclusions reached in either division can be applied to the problems or correlated with the data of the other. Owing to the immense difficulties of research in the organic division, it remains relatively chaotic and obscure. The functional division is at the present time much the more profitable for the student of human nature; and this volume attempts to review the functional disorders only. The psychiatrist, governed by practical considerations, necessarily concerns himself with disorders of both classes. I ask the reader to pardon my use of the expression “abnormal psychology” in the restricted sense of psychology of functional disorders, and to understand that the present chapter is concerned, not with the various schools of psychiatry, but only with the schools of thought that are attempting to achieve some consistent interpretation of the functional disorders. Until recent years few psychiatrists recognised any mental disorders as of functional origin. With few exceptions they accepted the structuralist theory that all disease of the mind is primarily disease of the brain...
