PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Psychological disorders in general are mental dysfunction that alters or interferes with an individual’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral way of functioning( Davison, G. C., & Neale, J. M. 1998). Abnormal behavior is characterized by conditions that are referred as rare and dysfunctional. A certain behavior is considered to be abnormal when it out of what is considered ordinary, consists of undesirable features and can result in altering how an individual functions. It is that which is said to be a deviation from the societal, cultural and ethical expectations.

There are several and different types of factors that leads to an individual having abnormal behavior. Among this factors some are casual factors that are encountered during daily life routines.  Some of this casual factors that cause abnormal behavior are as follows;

• Family factors

Family is an institution that plays an important role in the emotional and behavioral development of a child right from when they at their early age and so the influences that occurs with a family can be long lasting with long lasting effects (Coleman, J. C. (1950). Examples include;

Parenting styles- in a situation where for instance one parent wasn’t around during a child’s growth that child may end up feeling lie they are different from the other kids they interact that they have both parents and feel the need to take himself or herself unsuitable. Or may lack the personality characteristics that are supposed to be built by the absent parent. In our society today the parenthood has changed a lot in that parents are always held up in their work and leave the upbringing to caretakers who in most cases can’t give children parental emotional and psychological support and therefore the children end up growing with some behavior that the parents were supposed to shun down.

Loss of parents- people who grew up with no parents or in other words orphans tend to have withdrawn personality and maladjusted behavior. In one way it’s because they lacked someone to guide them through the psychosexual stages and ended up with many developmental fixations that result to them picking up deviated behaviours like recklessness, untidy among others. Due to life difficulties and no adult to cater for them this kids may also get involved in deviated behavior like stealing.

Traumatizing childhood experiences- children who grow from a violent homes have different characters and act different from kids who grew in non-violent homes.  Violence lifts up aggressive behaviors in kids and mostly they develop defense mechanisms that are totally socially unaccepted like the need to regularly engage in fights. Other traumatizing events that cause maladaptive behavior includes things like rape that bring the unresolved issue effect into adulthood and influence one’s behavior.

Domestic violence- if one grew up seeing their mother or sibling or themselves got beaten up into injury limits this can cause emotional traumatizing and make one act like the society isn’t safe for them. And this results to them adopting inconsiderate behaviors because they were raised to protect themselves and what they love first and so they take selfish and even aggressive actions in their lives.

• School factors

School environment is another place where people spend most of their growing time. Some school factors maybe unfavorable in that instead of helping in the individual developmental process it instills undesirable behavior that isn’t healthy in their life. This negative influential factors include;

Maladaptive peer relationships- in schools there is massive peer pressure and some of the time it might be negatively controlling. For instance in a school environment an individual can meet with a group of students from a dysfunctional home who already have questionable behaviors and through the interaction process one might intentionally imitate their behaviors or be pressured to adjust to their ways of living.

Bullying- schools that don’t discourage bullying and never take action of bullying behavior can affect their students who are victim to this vice in a great measure. Students who are frequently subjected into being mistreated by their schoolmates may end up losing their self –esteem, confidence dashes away and they get consumed by fear and anxiety and they behavior get ruled by fearful actions. They end being overly anxious around school and lack the courage to come out of the crowds. In some other cases students who get bullied at some point they develop behaviors that they use to defend themselves and they might have controllable anger issues.

Inappropriate corporal punishments- schools that still use corporal methods to punishment their learners they play a major role in causing abnormal behavior in their learners present and future lives. Most of the time the student might get unreasonable whipping that doesn’t weigh up with what they did and this most of the times might to the students not knowing what exactly is right for them to do and in fear of getting physical injuries they shut down their curious personality and may result to them being totally inattentive and rising unconcerned kind of behavior.

• Cultural factors

Different cultures in societies have several expectations of the young people growing up. Some of this expectations put so much pressure in their lives and may push them into behaviors that aren’t accepted by the society. Some factors include;

Social change- cultures vary in every society and if one constantly gets evolved in different forms of cultures it may need too much effort for them to adjust into the frequent new society expectations and this kind of pressure may result to one giving up in social aspect of life and adopt questionable social behaviors.

Unemployment- generally prolonged employment situations leads to unbearable poverty situations that may bring frustrations towards life. If one comes from a forever poor family that can’t manage to provide even basic needs freely to them life becomes hard and if they are girls they may end up in behaviors like early sexual involvement and boys mostly end up in the stealing side of it.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder that was published by American Psychiatric Association is the most used reference book used by psychologists and psychiatric to diagnose, classify and treat mental disorders. The DSM-5 uses various axial system to classify this disorders because they belong in different categories. The DSM has 5 axes that are used to classify this disorders;

1. Axis I – it’s used to record the patient’s primary or to make first diagnosis.
2. Axis II- records personality or mental retardation existing for a long time in a patient.

• Axis II- records any medical conditions that may affect the patient’s psychological condition.

1. Axis IV – records any essential psychosocial or environmental issues experienced by the patient.
2. Axis V- records an assessment of the patient’s level of functions.

References

Galli, F., Caputi, M., Gallucci, M., Termine, C., Chiappedi, M., & Balottin, U. (2017). Headache and psychological disorders in children and adolescents: a cross-generational study. Minerva pediatrica, 69(4), 231-238.

Davison, G. C., & Neale, J. M. (1998). Abnormal psychology. John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Coleman, J. C. (1950). Abnormal psychology and modern life.