Causes of abnormal behaviour
- 1. CAUSES OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR PRESENTED BY: SHUBHRA MISHRA
- 2. • Abnormal behaviour may be defined as behaviour that is disturbing (socially unacceptable), distressing, maladaptive and often the result of distorted thoughts (cognitions)
- 3. INTRODUCTION • The causation of any particular behaviour pattern is tremendously complex and even with the information we do have it all but impossible to predict how given circumstances will affect given individuals. • Contemporary research findings in the biological and social sciences have greatly advanced our understanding of the causes of abnormal behaviour • Before considering these causal factors let us take a moment to broaden our perspective on causation
- 4. PERSPECTIVE ON CAUSATION • With regard to personality development and adjustment, it established a framework for examining the causes of abnormal behaviour a) It can be regarded as the outcome of faulty development b) Severe stress c) Combination of both
- 5. • In attempting to analysed the causal factors, it will be helpful to briefly review : a) Differing viewpoints of causation b) Changing views of causal relationships
- 6. DIFFERING VIEWPOINTS • Medical model • Psychodynamic model • Behaviouristic Model • Cognitive Model • Sociocultural Model • Humanistic Model • Interpersonal Model
- 7. The medical perspective….. • Those who hold a medical perspective focus on biological and physiological factors as causes of abnormal behaviour, which is treated as a disease, or mental illness, and is diagnosed through symptoms and cured through treatment. Hospitalization and drugs are often preferred methods of treatment rather than psychological investigation.
- 8. The psychodynamic perspective… • The 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.
- 9. The behavioural perspective… • Those exposing a behavioural perspective contend that abnormal behaviour results from faulty or ineffective learning and conditioning.Treatments are designed to reshape disordered behaviour and, using traditional learning procedures, to teach new, more appropriate, and more adaptive responses.
- 10. The cognitive perspective… • According to the cognitive perspective, people engage in abnormal behaviour because of particular thoughts and behaviours that are often based upon their false assumptions.Treatments are oriented towards 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.
- 11. The social‐cultural perspective… • From the social‐cultural perspective, abnormal behaviour 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 behaviour. •
- 12. Humanistic perspective • They are more concerned primarily with stress situations that involve a threat to the individual and therefore elicit anxiety. If the individuals cope effectively with the stress situation, anxiety is eliminated. However if the stress and anxiety continue, the individual typically resorts to various ego-defence mechanisms such as denial and rationalization.
- 13. Interpersonal perspective • Concentrates on unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships as being the root of maladaptive behaviour. Such roots may extend back to childhood as when the child‘s self concept was distorted by significant others who appraised him as being worthless or when rigid socialization measures made it difficult to accept and integrate the ―bad me‖ into his self concept.
- 14. CHANGING VIEWS OF CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS • Primary cause • Predisposing cause • Precipitating cause • Reinforcing cause
- 15. • PRIMARY CAUSE: It is the condition without which the disorder would not have occurred • PREDISPOSING CAUSE: It Is the condition that comes before and paves the way for later psychopathology • PRECIPITATING CAUSE: It is a condition that proves too much for the individual and triggers the maladaptive behaviour. • REINFORCEMENT CAUSE: It is a condition that leads to maintain maladaptive behaviour already present
- 16. FACTORS OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR Biological, psychosocial and social cultural factors play a role in causing maladaptive behaviour either by producing faulty development or by increasing stress or both
- 17. Five factors a. Genetic defects b. Constitutional liabilities c. Physical deprivation d. Disruptive emotional processes e. Brain pathology
- 18. BIOLOGICAL FACTORS • Biological factors influence all aspect of our behaviour • Diseases, malnutrition, injuries and other conditions that interfere with normal development and functioning are potential causes of abnormal behaviour
- 19. GENETIC DEFECTS a. Chromosomal aberrations b. Faulty genes c. Genetic predispositions to specific mental disorders
- 20. a. Chromosomal aberrations • Forty-six chromosomes in the nucleus of each normal being • Encoded in the chromosomes is the hereditary plan • When fertilizations takes place the normal inheritance of the new individual consists of twenty-three pairs of chromosomes –one of each pair being from the mother and one from the father • Twenty-two pairs of these chromosomes are known as autosomes-which determine body characteristics • The remaining pair, the sex chromosomes
- 21. • When the chromosomes are deficient in specific genetic information the result may be colour blindness , Down ‗s syndrome • Down‘s Syndrome: A type of mental retardation in which the individual haas slanting eyes, a flat face, and other characteristics that produce a superficial resemblance to Mongolian.
- 22. b. Faulty genes • Each chromosome is made up of a long molecule of DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid) • Scientist have shown that our genetic instructions are stored in this DNA • Genes carry the instructions for specific body traits such as eye colour and blood type • Two types of genes: (a)Dominant genes :Their instructions are followed even if the other member of the pair carries contradictory instructions (b)Recessive genes :Genes whose instructions are not followed unless the individual has inherited two such genes one from each parent
- 23. c. Genetic predisposition to specific mental disorder • Although marked advances have been made in the identification of faulty genes, most of the information we have concerning the role of genetic factor in mental disorder is based on family studies
- 24. Constitutional liabilities It denotes the relatively enduring biological makeup of the individual resulting from both genetic and environmental influences.The traits that are included in this category: a. Physique b. Physical handicaps c. Vulnerability to stress
- 25. Physical deprivation A wide range of physical deprivations may act as predisposing or precipitating causes in mental disorders. For our immediate purpose we shall focus briefly on two categories : a. Malnutrition b. Sleep deprivation and fatigue
- 26. Disruptive Emotional Processes • We have noted that emotional processes like fear and anger represent the mobilization of body resources to meet emergency situation. Such a mobilization of recourses either enables a threatened organism either to fight or to flee • In modern civilization, however we are rarely confronted with situations that can be met adequately by simple physical attack or flight • Yet we have not experience a comparable reduction in our emotional excitability, we still become mobilizes=d for physical fight or attack when we feel endangered or threatened
- 27. Brain Pathology • About one half of the patients in mental hospitals are suffering from mental disorders associated with toxic or organic brain pathology • The body produces antibodies to defend itself against invading viruses and other microorganism, similarly, the brain has special forms to reaction to stress in comparison with other organs • Stress may disrupt the delicate biochemistry of the brain with adverse consequences for certain predisposed individuals
- 28. PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS • Maternal Deprivation • Pathogenic Family • Early psychic trauma • Disorder Interpersonal relationships • Key Stresses of modern life
- 29. Maternal Deprivation • Faulty development has often been observed in infants deprived of maternal stimulation( or mothering) as a consequence of either: a. Separation from the mother and placement in the institution b. Lack of adequate mothering
- 30. a. Institution: There is likely to be less warmth and physical contact, less in intellectual, emotional and social stimulation and lack of encouragement and help in positive learning b. Lack of adequate mothering: The effects of maternal deprivation vary considerably from infant to infant and babies in other societies appear to thrive under widely differing conditions of maternal case
- 31. • The actual nature and extent of the damage resulting from maternal deprivation appear to depend: a. the age at which deprivation first occur b. The extent and duration of such deprivations c. The constitutional makeup of the infant d. The substitute care
- 32. Pathogenic Family Pattern • Faulty parent-child relationship: a. Rejection b. Over protection and restrictiveness c. Over permissiveness and indulgence d. Unrealistic demands e. Faulty discipline f. Communication failure g. Undesirable parental models
- 33. Pathogenic Structures • Maladaptive family structure a. The inadequate family:This type of family is characterized by inability to cope with the ordinary problems of family living b. The disturbed family: Because of personal instability interact with others in ways that is destructive to others a well as themselves
- 34. c.The anti social family:This type of family espouses values not accepted by the wide community d.The disrupted family: Disrupted families are incomplete whether as a result of death, divorce, separation or any other conditions
- 35. Early Psychic Trauma ―I believe the most traumatic experience of my life happened on April evening when I was eleven. I was not too sure of how I had become a member of the family, although my parents had thought it was wise to tell me that I was adopted.That much I knew, but the term adopted meant was something else entirely. One evening after my step brother and I retired, he proceeded to explain it to me- with a vehemence I shall never forget. He made it clear that I was not a ‗real‘ member of the family., that my parents did not wanted me around.That was the night that I vividly recall crying myself to sleep.That experienced undoubtedly played a major role in making me feel insecure and inferior‖
- 36. • Such traumas are kept to leave psychological wounds that never completely heal • The following will lead us in understanding the process why later stress that reactivates these early wounds is apt to be particularly difficult: a. Conditioned responses are readily established in situations that evoke strong emotions such responses are often highly resistant to extinction b. Conditioned emotional responses stemming from traumatic experiences may generalize to other situations c.Traumatic situations result in emotional conditioning rather than in responses learned through reasoning and problem solving
- 37. Pathogenic Interpersonal Relationships People differ markedly in their ability to give and receive love. Nevertheless marital and other intimate relationships do represent a major source of need fulfilment in the lives of the most people . Marital Instability: For most of us the quest for an intimate relationship with another person takes the form of marriage and the great majority of people in society will marry at some time in their lives and attempt to established a happy home.
- 38. Types of Pathogenic Relationships a. Fraudulent interpersonal contracts : Characterized by involving or proceeding from fraud as actions, methods or gains. This involves the terms of the relationship being violated by one person in such a way to exploit the other.
- 39. Continued…… Such patterns may take a variety of forms but Carson(1969), has delineated a common underlying sequence that may be summarised as follows • A offers B a type of relationship or ―contract‖ in which B is interested because it seems to offer favourable possibilities for need satisfaction. • B indicates acceptance of the terms of the contract and precedes with activities appropriate to carrying out the terms agreed upon. • A then assumes a stance that makes it justify to alter the term of the contract . • To maintain the relationship B is forced to accept the new terms thus enable A to achieve the type of relationship he or she was presumably aiming for in the first time.
- 40. b. Collusion: (secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others) In collusion a relationship is established and maintained only because the partners agree to follow certain maladaptive rules and norms of their own choosing, rather than socially established adaptive ones One person usually take the initiative in outlining the rules and norms which both partners are then expected to follow .
- 41. c. Discordant interpersonal patterns: Serious and continued dissension, disagreements and conflicts are detrimental to the quality and stability of the relationship as well as to the persons involved . • One or both partners who are not gaining satisfaction from the relationship may express feelings such as frustrations and disillusionment in hostile ways such as nagging, and doing things purposely to annoy the other person.
- 42. Severe Stress Devaluating Frustrations: In contemporary life there are a number of frustrations that lead to self-devaluation and hence particularly develop to cope with it.Among these are: a. Failures b. Losses c. Personal limitations and lack of resources d. Guilt e. Loneliness
- 43. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS There are other characteristic of our time and place in history that put stress directly or indirectly on most of us. Among these are: I. War andViolence II. Group Prejudice and discrimination III. Economic and Employment problems IV. Rapid social change
- 44. WAR and VIOLENCE Although wars have sometimes been necessary to achieve or maintain freedom and human rights, the conditions of warfare have placed great stress on large numbers of people. While small wars and civil violence continue to smoulder on our planet we have also witnesses an ever-increasing rate of violent crime in our own society.
- 45. GROUP PREJUDICE and DISCRIMINATIONS • One of the most destructive form of group prejudice is that of racial discrimination. • Comparison on the basis of the economic status. • Poverty often interferes with the development not only of intelligence but also of healthy personality.
- 46. Value Conflicts Values play a key role in determining our ―choices‖. If our value assumptions are unclear or contradictory we are likely to experience difficulties in making choices and direct in behaviour: a. Conformity vs. Unconformity b. Caring vs. non involvement c. Avoiding vs. facing reality d. Fearfulness vs. positive action e. Integrity vs. self advantage
- 47. Pressures of Modern Life • Competition • Educational, Occupational and family demands • Complexity and pace of modern living
- 48. ECONOMIC and EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS • Unemployment and job satisfaction are sources of stress for many people. • Extensive unemployment are typically accompanied by increases in certain types of maladaptive behaviour such as depression, suicide and crime. • Hardest hit by economic and employment problems—handicapped by poorer education, poorer nutrition, etc.
- 49. • For many people who are employed, a major source of stress is job dissatisfaction. • Leads to anxiety, tension and a wide range of psychosomatic disorders and impaired marital and family relationships.
- 50. RAPID SOCIAL CHANGE The rate and pervasiveness of change today are different from anything our ancestors have experienced. As a result many people in our society are groping about, bewildered and bitter being unable to find satisfying values to guide their lives.
- 51. Thank YOU!!!!