What is ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR?

DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

• WHOSE NORM?
• FOR WHAT AGE?
• FOR WHAT CULTURE?
DEFINING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
• Abnormal behavior is behavior that deviates
from what is expected and normal.
Perspectives on Abnormal behavior
• The behavioral perspective
• The cognitive perspective
• The social‐cultural perspective
Behavioral Perspective
• abnormal behavior results from faulty or
ineffective learning and conditioning
• The emphasis of the behavioral approach is on
the environment and how abnormal behavior is
acquired, through classical conditioning,
operant conditioning and social learning
Cognitive perspective
• people engage in abnormal behavior because of
particular thoughts and behaviors that are often
based upon their false assumptions.
The basic assumptions
• Maladaptive behavior is caused by faulty and
irrational cognitions.
• It is the way you think about a problem, rather
than the problem itself that causes mental
disorders.
• Individuals can overcome mental disorders by
learning to use more appropriate cognitions.
Medical Perspective
• focus on biological and physiological factors as
causes of abnormal behavior, which is treated as
a disease, or mental illness, and is diagnosed
through symptoms and cured through
treatment.
psychodynamic perspective
• psychological disorders are the consequence of
anxiety produced by unresolved, unconscious
conflicts.
Social‐cultural perspective
• Norms are expected ways of behaving in a
society according to the majority and those
members of a society who do not think and
behave like everyone else break these norms so
are often defined as abnormal.