Perspectives on Abnormal Behavior

Abnormal Behavior Those in the field of abnormal psychology study people's emotional, cognitive, and/or behavioral problems. Abnormal behavior may be defined as behavior that is disturbing (socially unacceptable), distressing, maladaptive (or self-defeating), and often the result of distorted thoughts (cognitions).

Medical Perspective Definition: Focus on biological and physiological factors as causes of abnormal behavior . Treated as a disease, or mental illness, and is diagnosed through symptoms and cured through treatment. Treatment: Hospitalization and drugs are often preferred methods of treatment rather than psychological investigation.

Psychodynamic Perspective Proposed as an alternative to the medical model, evolved from Freudian psychoanalytic theory, which contends that psychological disorders are the consequence of anxiety produced by unresolved, unconscious conflicts. Treatment focuses on identification and resolution of the conflicts.

Behavioral Perspective Results from faulty or ineffective learning and conditioning. Treatments are designed to reshape disordered behavior and, using traditional learning procedures, to teach new, more appropriate, and more adaptive responses. For example, a behavioral analysis of a case of child abuse might suggest that a father abuses his children because he learned the abusive behavior from his father and must now learn more appropriate parenting tactics

Cognitive Perspective People engage in abnormal behavior because of particular thoughts and behaviors that are often based upon their false assumptions. Treatments are oriented toward helping the maladjusted individual develop new thought processes and new values. Therapy is a process of unlearning maladaptive habits and replacing them with more useful ones.

Social-Cultural Perspective Abnormal behavior is learned within a social context ranging from the family, to the community, to the culture. Cultural variables, acquired through learning and cognitive processes, are believed to be important in producing abnormal behavior. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia, for example, are psychological disorders found mostly in Western cultures, which value the thin female body