The Definition of Abnormal Behavior

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Abnormal behavior is defined as a behavior which deviates from norms of society. The deviations may range from mild cases of mood fluctuation to serious cases of people committing suicide or walking naked in public places. The definition of abnormal behavior is surrounded by many disagreements on what constitutes abnormal behavior and what does not. What may be abnormal in society X may be completely normal in society Y (Beidel, Bulik, & Stanley, 2010). That aside, abnormal behavior is found everywhere, and many psychologists do agree that everybody displays an abnormal behavior at some point in his or her life. Abnormality therefore is not something for a particular group or category of people, but rather something which is universal, and may happen at any time during the life of an individual. In this assignment, I will discuss abnormal behavior and some cases of abnormality.

Discussion

Criteria for defining abnormal behavior

There are various criteria for defining abnormal behavior. One such criterion is statistical infrequency. This criterion is based on the frequency of occurrence of some behaviors. If many people do not portray a certain behavior frequently, then it may be considered as being abnormal when portrayed by an individual. The other common criterion is that of deviation from societies’ norms, which in most cases, are usually not written anywhere, but are known and agreed upon by the members of a particular society. For example, if a grown up person walks naked in a public place, then the person may be considered as being abnormal (Beidel, et al, 2010).

Some people may be considered as being abnormal if they exhibit some behaviors which may be explained in terms of deviation from an ideal mental health status. Clinical psychologists explain a good mental health status as the one which enables a person think aptly, have the right attitudes and perceptions regarding a particular stimulus, which may be internal or external. For example, it is common knowledge that if a person loses a loved one, he or she may have distress, which may cause changes in his or her mood. But if the distress continues for a period of more than six months, then the person may be said to be in poor mental health status (Beidel, et al, 2010).

Other people may exhibit some behaviors which cause distress to them. For example, they may have extreme depression, unhappiness or anxiety. These behaviors cause distress to the people, making them to be considered as being abnormal. The funny thing about the same is that the people may not be aware that their mental states are causing distress to them.

Psychologists and psychiatrists have a standard criterion for defining abnormal behavior. This is the criterion of mental disorders or mental illness. The determination of abnormal behavior under this criterion is based on medical diagnosis. Psychiatrists believe that mental illness has a cause, and can therefore be treated. They appear to down play the role of spirits, demons and curses in causing mental illness. They believe that prayers can help in healing mental illness, but they should be done as a secondary intervention, with the primary intervention being medical diagnosis and treatment (Beidel, et al, 2010).

All these criteria for defining abnormal behavior support the argument that abnormal behavior is ubiquitous in nature, because at least everybody may falls under a certain criteria for the definition of abnormal behavior, meaning that almost everybody displays abnormal behavior at some point in life. The difference is in the magnitude, nature of the abnormality, duration of the abnormality and the frequency of the abnormal behavior. The criterion for psychologists and psychiatrist for defining mental illness happens to classify mental illness into various categories. Each category of mental illness has got other types of mental disorders. The following are some of the categories of mental illness.

Categories of mental illness

Organic brain disorders

These are disorders which occur due to physical changes, injuries or diseases affecting the brain (Pakhare, 2011). They result to anxiety, delusions and some degree of confusion. Examples include degenerative diseases, cardiovascular disorders, trauma and alcohol or drug related intoxications (Beidel, et al, 2010).

Mood and anxiety disorders

These are disorders which are related to mood and anxiety. The major types include phobias, depression, panic disorders, post traumatic disorders, bipolar disorders, and obsessive compulsive disorders. These disorders may be extreme or mild in nature. Many people have these disorders, only that they do not realize because theymanifest themselves in mild forms. A good example is post traumatic disorder, which may result from early experiences of sexual abuse or violent experiences like war. The victims usually have their thoughts and feelings influenced by a particular experience in their lives, which may make them exhibit particular types of personalities, or have some phobias to sexual or violent activities. The moods of the individuals are greatly influenced by the disorders, which in turn leads to anxiety (Beidel, et al, 2010).

Personality disorders

These are disorders which make an individual have a personality which does not match what is expected of him or her by the society. They originate from the persisted use of poor coping skills to stressful situations. The individual(s) may exhibit some behaviors which are weird, in responding to some situations. For example, a person may react to difficult situation like financial crisis by believing that everybody hates him or her. People with personality disorders may portray some unusual, dramatic, anxious and dramatic behaviors (Pakhare, 2011).

Psychotic disorders

These are diseases which affect the brain, making the individuals have problems in their thinking processes. A person who is psychotic may have problems in thinking rationally or may have impaired judgments on issues or events (Pakhare, 2011). These diseases are mainly characterized by delusions and hallucinations. People with delusions always believe that some facts are true or valid, even when the facts have been proved to be wrong. They have difficulties in changing their thinking in regard to a certain issue. People with hallucinations “hear” or “see” things, which are not heard or seen by others. The major symptoms of psychotic disorders include mood swings, slow movements, difficulties in maintaining relationships, strange speech patterns, poor personal hygiene and reduced interest in doing anything. Examples of psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, substance abuse psychotic disorder, delusional disorder and schizophreniform (schizophrenia which does not last for more than six months) (Beidel, et al, 2010).

Cases of persons with mental disorders

There is this case which was reported in the Kenyan media of a serial killer, who was raping women, killing them and drinking their blood. This is a case related to the mental disorder of psychopathy. Psychopathy is a mental disorder which makes the person lack empathy to anybody, and not feel any guilty for their actions. In fact, psychopaths derive pleasure from inflicting pain to others. Some may even have sexual orgasms. This type of a disorder is difficult to diagnose because the people live very normal lives, and therefore it is very difficult to suspect whether they are serial killers. This makes people fall under their trap, because they make use of sweet words to lure victims into sexual intercourse, and end up killing them.

There is another friend of mine, whom we schooled together at primary and high school levels. Since he was a very close friend of mine, I could observe some of his behaviors. One thing I noticed with him when we joined high school was that he was very much obsessed with cleanliness and neatness. The guy could shower for over an hour. He could also wash the utensils he used at the dining hall for several times before he was served, despite the fact that the utensils were usually washed before we could use them. The boy was obsessed with cleanliness and neatness, which could be attributed to the obsessive compulsive disorder.

There is another case I read in one magazine about a lady who was married, but was phobic to sexual intercourse with her husband. She was very phobic to sexual intercourse, such that the husband had to divorce her despite their happy and widely publicized wedding. The lady was interested in sex, but was very fearful when it came to penetration. She could scream, become restless and start sweating profusely. The diagnosis for the problem revealed that she was suffering from trauma caused by an instance of rape when she was eight years old. This made her develop a lot of fear towards sexual intercourse, even when she was an adult.

I also read in a newspaper of a young man who was had multiple personalities. One time, he could be a very welcoming, accommodating and caring person while at another time; he could turn out to be very unruly, violent and arrogant. The friends of the guy were finding it very difficult to understand him. He was not able to maintain a relationship for three months consecutively. Everybody they became friends got frustrated because the young man could wake up one morning and abuse the friends for no apparent reason, thereby ending their friendship. This was a personality disorder, which makes a person have multiple personalities, and therefore not able to coexist harmoniously with others in the society.

Lastly but not the least, there is this story I heard of in a counseling workshop, of a man who had tried to kill himself for several times without success. Every time the man differed with anybody, he could contemplate suicide, and even let others know of it. He was very much emotional, especially when he realized that he was not getting along well with his girlfriends, which he kept on changing every now and then. Every time a girl rejected him, he could contemplate suicide, and change his mood completely. He could suffer mild depression which could last for two weeks or so. The funny thing was that some other times, when everything was okay with him, he was very happy, outgoing, and jovial. He could make himself happy even when many people were not happy in a given situation. This type of disorder is referred to as bipolar disorder, which is characterized by mood swings and suicidal tendencies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the concept of abnormal behavior is surrounded by many debates centering on what constitutes an abnormal behavior and what does not. However, abnormal behavior can simply be described as any behavior which deviates from the common or typical behaviors in a given society. What may constitute an abnormal behavior in one society may be seen as very normal in another society.

Due to its diverse nature, abnormal behavior is defined using various criteria, all of which use specific aspects of abnormality. The criterion of statistical infrequency seems to attract many people in defining abnormal behavior because the criterion defines abnormal behavior based on how frequent the behavior is within a given society or community. Behaviors which are rare to find are therefore classified as being abnormal while those which are common or typical in a society, are seen as normal (Lamburt, 2006).

The criterion for psychologists and psychiatrists in defining abnormal behavior is based on medical diagnosis. Psychologists and psychiatrists believe that the brain is an organ, just like any other body organ like the liver or eyes. Since it is a body organ, it can become sick or get affected or infected by some diseases, which are treatable. According to them, there is nothing like evil spirits causing mental illness. Their criterion recognizes several types of mental illness, which have other types of mental disorders, which cause problems in the functioning of people’s brains (Lamburt, 2006).

Mental illness is therefore ubiquitous in nature, meaning that it affects people regardless of their age, education, religion, race, social or marriage status. Mental illness ranges from mild cases to severe ones, which may require hospitalization. The fact however is that many people, and in fact everybody lives with an abnormal behavior at a particular point in time. The difference comes in in the way the abnormalities manifest themselves in terms of duration and intensity. Our behavior, be it normal or abnormal, is greatly influenced by our thought process, and our brain can be described as the key organ, which influences our behavior and actions.

Many psychologists and medical doctors have been unable to agree on what constitutes mental health because different people may be affected by a similar brain disease or disorder, but portray different behaviors. If the criterion for describing mental health is based on the outward behavior, then the definition may be erroneous. This is an area which needs more research to uncover the relationship between mental health and behavior (Lamburt, 2006).

One problem with mental disorders is that they may cause stigmatization of the individuals by the society. If a person is known to be having a mental problem, the others may avoid him or her which may cause more problems to the affected person. One way through which this can be avoided is through the integration of treatment of mental disorders with the treatment of other general diseases. The point here is that mental illness is an illness like any other, and therefore the patients should be perceived just like any other patients. Treatment for mental illness may involve medical treatment and counseling. Psychiatrists recommend that people go for mental checkups on regular basis, so that they could be checked on their mental health. This enables the psychiatrists or mental doctors to detect any mental disorder at the early stages, and deal with it accordingly.

References

Beidel, D.C., Bulik, C., & Stanley, M. (2010). Abnormal Psychology. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Limited.

Lamburt, L. (2006). Abnormal Behavior: Personal Experiences. Portland, ME: Old Mountain Press.

Pakhare, J.(2011).Types of Mental Illness: List of Mental Disorders. Web.

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