Atypical psychological behavior refers to a condition characterized by abnormal feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Psychopathy on the other hand involves the study of abnormal behaviors, including their etiology, symptoms, and treatment. Psychopathology as a term can also refer to the manifestation of abnormal behavior. While the point of convergence may prove difficult to find, it is of great importance for mental health professionals to agree on which kinds of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are in reality atypical in the sense that they show the presence of psychopathology. Specific pattern of inner experiences and behavior are easily classified as abnormal and visibly indicate presence of some type of psychological disturbance. An individual who washes his hand 30 times per day and the one who reports the existences of some voices unheard by others exhibit behaviors and feelings that majority would deem abnormal. Conversely, student-joining college for the first time may long for home consistently, such feeling may not be present regularly, but they fall in the league of normal behavior. Consequently, psychologists strive to differentiate psychological disorders from inner behaviors and experiences that are merely idiosyncratic, situational, or unconventional.
Definitions
From statistical infrequency perspective, atypical or abnormal behavior refers to behavior that deviates from what is expected and normal. The study about abnormal behavior is referred to as abnormal psychology. This implies that any behavior that does not conform to normal statistics is regarded as abnormal behavior. This definition requires clarity on the extent to which uncommon trait or behavior should appear before classifying it as atypical (Dorfman and Walker, 2007). For instance, one may argue that a person whose IQ is above or below the ordinary level of IQ in the society is abnormal.
The second definition views abnormal behavior as a failure to function adequately (Sue et al., 2015). Under this approach, abnormality refers to the inability of a person to cope with daily life. In such circumstance, an individual lacks the ability to interact with others, express himself or herself properly, maintain social relationships or keep a working relationship. For instance, social; dysfunction abnormality is characterized by the inability to function adequately by showing signs such as suffering, loss of control violation of moral standards, and incomprehensibility.
The third approach defines abnormal behavior as a violation of social norms. Under this criterion, the thinking or behavior of a person is classified as abnormal if it violates societal norms about what is acceptable or expected in a particular group (Cuthbert and Insel, 2010). Their behavior may be difficult to comprehend or make other feel uncomfortable or threatened. The last approach defines atypical behavior as a deviation from social norms, where norm refers to expected ways of behaving in the society.
The DSM V and Models of Abnormal Behavior
Similar to the medical model, the DSM system treats atypical behavior as a symptom or sign of underlying pathologies or disorder. Nonetheless, DSM does not assume that atypical behaviors necessarily reflect biological defects or causes. The model maintains that the causes of most disorders remain uncertain, whereby some may point to biological cause while others may indicate psychological causes (Merker et al., 2017). Still others, perhaps most, are better addressed within a multifactorial models that takes in consideration the interaction of psychological, biological, social, and physical environmental factors. However, some research suggest the need to remove conditions should be removed from classification of mental disorder (Robles et al., 2015).
The psychologists who author DSM have recognized that the application of the term mental disorder is problematic it fails to distinguish clearly between mental and physical disorder (Sue et al., 2015). They emphasize that an aspect of ‘physical’ appears in ‘mental’ disorders and an aspect ‘mental’ appears in ‘physical’ disorders. Psychologists using DSM still employ the term ‘mental disorder’ because the proponents of the model have failed to agree on an alternative term to use (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Consequently, many researchers use psychological disorder instead of mental disorder because it sounds more professional to classify the study of abnormal behavior appropriately with a psychological context (Carr, 2001). In addition, using a psychological approach bring the benefit of accounting for both behavioral together with the ‘mental’ experiences including beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and attitude.
Biological Explanation for Mental Disorders
While little is known about the exact cause of most mental illnesses, current research indicate that these conditions are caused by psychological, biological, and environmental factors. Some mental illnesses have been associated with abnormal functioning of nervous system connecting particular parts of the brain. The genetic make-up can predispose a person to being at risk of developing mental illness in the brain thereby leading to change in personality and in some instances produces symptoms of an illness (Ramsden, 2013). Other factors that can contribute include misuse of substances such as drugs and alcohol and deficiencies in some vital vitamins in the diet (Liu, 2017). Biological perspective examines abnormality by considering biological aspects such as genetics and upbringing.
Biological factors have contributed to the development of abnormal behavior. For instance, people from families that have certain mental condition running in their family line have a higher likelihood of developing such conditions. Susceptibility is passed on in the lineage through genes (Gureje and Stein, 2012). Some people may acquire to mental illness from their families that does not automatically develop into a disorder. Occurrence of the mental only starts to manifest due to interaction of genes together with other factors, such as drug abuse, stress, or a traumatic event (lvar et al., 2014). Prolonged abuse of drug, precisely, has been linked to depression, anxiety, and paranoia. In addition, some studies show that a disruption of early fetal brain development that occurs during birth, for instance oxygen shortage, can contribute to development of certain conditions.
Psychological Explanation for Mental Disorders
According to cognitive approach to explaining mental disorder, the root cause of abnormal behavior is faulty thought processes. These may include negative though towards self, pessimistic view of the future, and a distorted perception of reality. Cognition shape behavior whereby healthy cognition produce normal behavior while faulty cognitions lead to abnormal behavior. People understand the world through cognitive processes, and the brain has devised means of organizing cognitive processes such that they are easy to access ideas and rules called schemas (Ramsden, 2013). Schemas help in in quick interpretation of the environment according to set expectations or standards. People with abnormal behavior often exhibit imprecise anticipations concerning the world and behavior of other based on inaccurate schemas.
Behavioral explanation views abnormal behavior as a learned behavior, acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning (Cloud, 2012). Psychodynamic approach on the other hand includes all the theoretical aspects used in psychology that view functioning of human based on the interaction of forces and drives within a person, especially unconscious, and the various aspects of personality. Freud maintains that the unconscious accounts for 90 percent of human mind, and the remaining 10 percent is the unconscious (Shrubb, 2014). Consequently, the feelings, behaviors, and judgments are based on childhood memories. People are unable to access their own unconscious mind. Inappropriate desires, traumatic events, and unsettled conflicts that are concealed in the unconscious mind by ego defense mechanism such as suppression (Ramsden, 2013). Memories stored in the conscious mind, for instance a childhood trauma, may affect behavior during adulthood and sometimes lead to psychological abnormality. The ego acts to protect the ego from any external force that may attempt to control the id and superego.
Conclusion
Various approaches have been advanced to attempt to diagnose and classify atypical psychological behavior as well address challenges in doing so. The concept of abnormality poses challenge to define because it is imprecise and difficult to define. This is because abnormality may take different forms and may vary according to culture or region. The relevance of these approaches and their applications by psychologists in establishing the difference between normal behavior and abnormal behavior still pose a challenge (Yakeley, 2016). The differences in approaches used present various problems such as diagnostic and relativism problems. In addition, using these different approaches may lead to addition or removal of some diagnostic conditions depending on the criteria.
References
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