Approaches to Abnormal Psychology

There are a number of different perspectives used in abnormal psychology that explain and treat abnormal behavior, thoughts and emotions. Approaches are like a rainbow, it gives dimensions to psychopathology. There are seven colors in the rainbow and also seven approaches in abnormal psychology.  While some psychologists or psychiatrists may focus on a single viewpoint, many mental health professionals use elements from multiple areas in order to better understand and treat psychological disorders. These perspectives include: Psychoanalytic, behavioral, biological, cognitive, socio cultural, humanistic and evolutionary. 

Psychoanalytic Approaches 

Psychoanalytical approaches also sometimes known as Freud approaches developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Psychoanalytic is considered as a game changer approaches in psychopathology. This theory was the beginning of a new ear for psychology. Though this theory is criticized nowadays for being rationalist it was the most popularized theory back in the 19th century, this approaches gave birth to other approaches. There are three key assumptions to his theories.

1. Personality structure: id, ego and superego
2. Level of consciousness 
3. Psychosocial stages of development

Personality structure: id, ego and superego

Freud constructed a model of personality with three interlocking parts id ego and superego. Each of them has their own characteristics. To understand it more clearly you can imagine a weighing scale machine, two plates are id and superego whereas pin at the middle of plates is ego.  

Id is the unorganized reservoir of wishes or passions related to our sexual and aggressive drives. It acts instantaneously without giving much thought to what is right and what is wrong. It’s based on the pleasure principle and follows the concept of right now. For example, if someone wants to drink alcohol while in a meeting, Id wouldn’t think of anything but urges the individuals to have alcohol in any cases which means he/she would be drinking alcohol in the middle of meetings.  

The Super-Ego is related to the social or the moral values that an individual developed as they mature as we learn moral and ethical standards by parents, teachers and culture. Super ego is the storehouse of moral and ethical standards taught by parents, teachers and culture. It is a storehouse of moral principles. For example, if someone wants to drink alcohol he would drink it because Superego believes that drinking alcohol is in the category of sin.

Ego is based on the reality principle. It acts as a mediator between Id and the Super ego. Ego is the logical and the conscious part of the mind. Ego tries to solve the conflict arising by Id and Superego by understanding the reality of demand and moral concepts arises. For example, when an individual thinks about drinking alcohol in the middle of a meeting, ego would rather decide to drink only after the meeting or in the evening. 

Freud believes that our abnormality or even our personalities depends on id, ego and superego. We act normal until ego is able to balance both id and superego. If any of the latter two is strong we act abnormally. For example, if id was strong, for example, he/she will have alcohol while in a meeting or if superego was strong, he/she would think of norms every time when there is an urge to drink. 

Levels of Consciousness: 

Freud describes three different layers of mind they are consciousness, preconscious or sub conscious and unconscious. 

According to Freud, consciousness is the part of the mind about which we are aware of. This is where our current thoughts, feelings, and focus live. For example the things you are reading right now. The preconscious comprises thoughts or activities that are stored in memory that are easily made conscious; it needs an effort to remember. For example your birth date or food you had last night. You were not consciously thinking about it but when asked you can easily bring it to level of consciousness. 

Similarly unconscious is another part of mind which you can’t easily recall or reachable; it resides outside of conscious awareness. It gives rise to important needs and influences our behavior. The larger layers of mind are unconscious. For example, call your female teacher a mother during the classroom.    

Freud believes that in order to understand the nature of individuals we should understand his/her unconsciousness; it is where the problematic behavior resides. Dream interpretation, storytelling or writing, TAT, Rorschach test are few techniques to understand unconsciousness. 

Psychosexual stages of development 

Freud believes that infants from birth have a drive of sex (instinctual libido) focusing on different parts of the body. To be more specific, a child from toddler has a desire of having pleasure seeking activities or desire of sex (not to have sex). However libido resides in different parts of the body not only to the sexual organ but also to the mouth, sensitive to touch, genitals and anus. Children try to fulfill pleasure at the finest level in each stage of psychosexuality.

But a child may go unsatisfied or over-satisfied with the fixation required for that stage which means the child may receive maximum or minimum pleasure then required for that stage. If so Freud believed that personality related problems may arise in later stages of life. However the child continues to fulfill the pleasure that was required for an old stage even moving into a new stage. 

In the oral stage (birth to 1 year) a child libido is located in their mouth. Meaning the mouth is the primary source of pleasure. They explore the world by putting things in their mouths like chewing or sucking things, and contact mothers with breast feeding. If fixation occurs in this stage children in adulthood may have problems with nail biting, thumb-sucking, overconsumption of alcohol/smoking and overeating.

In the anal stage (1 to 3 year) a child libido is focused on anus and bladder. Freud believed that during this stage, toilet training and learning to control bowel movements and bladder are a major source of pleasure. If fixation occurs, individuals in later life may develop obsessive compulsive behavior or disorder, he/she may try to be perfectionists. Personalities of children in later life depend upon the teaching mechanism of parents; it may be liberal or harsh training. 

In the Phallic stage (3-5 year) the erogenous zone is onto the genitals, specifically the penis. In this stage boys have oedipal complexes, a wish to have sexual attachment with their mothers. To win the approval of mother, boy tries to become like father. While girls shift away from mother and get closer to father, an experience labeled as Electra complex. The male child tries to copy the behavior of the father, as he sees a certain pattern of behavior, ideas of right and wrong of father that gives joy to mother. The same applies to female children who become more like mothers to win the heart of their fathers. 

In latency (6 – puberty) period sexuality is largely repressed, they mostly spend their time with same sex friends and asexual activities like learning, hobbies, and social relationships. Freud believed failure to move through this stage could result in lifelong immaturity, or the inability to have and maintain happy, healthy, and non sexual relationships as an adult. 

Puberty mark the period of genitals, it is where libido remerges. Individuals begin to have strong sexual interest in the opposite sex and practice sexual intercourse. If the stage is successful, individuals will have heterosexual intercourse and develop loving, lifelong relationships with someone of the opposite sex. 

Behavioral approaches

Second approaches to psychology is Behavioral approaches, this approaches are also known as second school of thoughts. Under this approaches significant person to contributes are behaviour perspectives proprietor.

Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), B.F Skinner (1904–1990) and J.B Watson (1878–1958) are credited for flourishing behavioral approaches. The basis assumption of the behavioral model is that all behavior is learnt including abnormalities. They emphasize that learning takes place in both normal and abnormal way. Just like the normal behavior abnormal deviant, inappropriate behaviors are also learned through phenomenon. Behaviors are learned through three different mechanisms: operant conditioning, classical conditioning and observation learning. 

According to operant theories (B.F Skinner) of learning, we are more or less likely to show our behavior depending upon its consequence; consequence may be either rewards or punishments. Behavior will likely be repeated if reinforced. For example an individual may be rewarded for showing anxiety by receiving attention from family and friends this would lead to the behavior being reinforced. 

Classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) states that learning is acquisition through association. In this type of learning previous neutral stimuli are associated with a condition stimulus and formed a new response to unconditional stimulus For example, a person may develop a phobia for riding on a bus following a traumatic experience during travelling. In this example, a previously neutral stimulus (bus) becomes paired or associated with an aversive stimulus (trauma), which leads to the conditioned response (phobia).

Observational also known as social learning theory (Albert Bandura) states when behavior is observed and copied. A person can reverse and learn abnormal behavior. For example an individual who saw the teacher didn’t punish his friend who presents anxiety related symptoms might show the same symptoms to avoid punishment in future. 

Cognitive Approaches

The key assumption of cognitive approaches is that individuals who suffer from mental disorder have distorted and irrational thinking, which in the end cause maladaptive behaviors. It is believed to be developed by Ulric Neisser’s (1928-2012). It’s the way individuals think about the problem rather than the problem itself which causes the mental disorder.

Our internal thoughts, perception, reasoning, and spontaneous thoughts about situations contribute to psychological disorder. For example Michel and Sisan had an argument regarding football, Michel saw Sisan the next morning but hesitated to talk thinking that Sisan may not be interested to talk to him after their serious argument they had the following day. Antecedent can cause irrational belief. Another example, being unable to give the presentation required by lecture and believes of being worthless.        

Humanistic Approaches

Humanistic approaches psychologist Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987) puts emphasis on the positive aspects of life, free choices and personal growth experiences. According to his approach abnormality results from conditions imposed by societies, family members, and friends so that their self-concept and actualizing tendency become incongruent. They refuse to accept personal their own actions and thoughts. These result abnormality behaviors. For example Kobid want to be photographer but his wishes are rejected by their parents, they want him to be engineers, in this case Kobid have to live his life that are conditioned by parents.  

Similarly Abraham Maslow (1908 –1970) suggested that people are motivated by the actualizing tendency to enhance the self (self-actualization). Each person, in different ways, attempts to grow psychologically and continuously enhance themselves. When needs are not fulfilled people may start to feel stress which on other hand may lead to abnormality.  Both Rogers and Maslow regarded personal growth and fulfillment of life as a basic human motive.

Socio cultural Approaches

Social cultural approaches highlight that abnormality is also affected by social and cultural rather than only behavior, cognitive or other factors. This approach emphasizes that social and cultural factors of individuals can determine the normality and abnormality factors such as socio economical, gender, environmental. Low socioeconomic status results in higher rates of mental illness. 

Persistent worry about the way of life for being unemployed or under-employed, unable to have better health and education facilities, inability to eat healthy food low and others leads to feeling hopeless, helpless. Similarly people living in war, politically conflict natural calamities prone zones may not be mentally sound. Unstable or abusive relationships, divorce death, problems during pregnancy can lead to abnormality. Also the environments that the child is nurtured determine the abnormal behavior of the child in later life. Malnutrition before birth, exposure to viruses, and other psychosocial factors are believed to contribute to the risk of developing schizophrenia and other mental disorders.