Abnormal

Behavior
Group I
Parayno, Shara joy B.
Timajo, Annie
Gabijan, Mariah Anne
Daquioag, Genesis
Encarnacion,Gaudioso
Nogrado, Lorraine

JOHN MARK S. DISTOR

Submitted to

ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
 Abnormal behaviour is characterized as not typical, socially unacceptable, and distressing to the person who
exhibits it or to the person’s friends and family, maladaptive, and the result of disorganized conditions

Abnormal behavior embraces three domains of human experience- the body, the mind and the social
environment of the individual. Every domain carries certain criteria for defining what is normal. The body carries the
biological criteria and the social environment, the socio-cultural criteria.

1. The biological criteria. These include a wide range of dimensions various bodily functioning. Some
biological disturbances being experience by the individual are directly related to psychological disorders
and have organic basis.
2. The psychological criteria. These include the emotional state of an individual, his ability to solve a
problem, recall what is learned communicate clearly, adjust to the environment adapt to certain stressful
situations and meet his personal needs are among the psychological measure used in evaluating the
normality and mental condition of an individual.
3. The socio-cultural criteria. These focus on the extent to which the individual has adopted the prevailing
social norms and conventions of a particular society. Any overt act or behavior that does not conform
the society’s shared expectations regarding appropriate behavior, referred to as social norms, is consider
abnormal.

OTHER MENTAL BEHAVIOR RELATED TO DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER

1. Amnesia- characterized where a person is unable to recall certain experience in his life.
2. Fungus states- these are conditions when an individual’s enters an altered state of consciousness and
indulges in behavior that he usually fails to recall his past at a certain point.
3. Somnambulism- this mental disorder is characterized by some thoughts that become so strong during
sleep that the person has the habit of walking about and often performing various other acts.
4. Schizophrenic disorder- these are characterized by insidious onset, affecting primarily adolescents and
young adults.

CONCEPTS OF NORMALITY AND ABNORMALITY

Normality
When the individual is able to function adequately and performs his daily living activities efficiently and feel reasonably satisfied with
his life style will be called normative individual

 CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAL INDIVIDUALS

 Sociability- All normal individuals conform to the social code and general ethos of their society and steer
meticulously clear of all temptations that may invite the scorn and contempt of society.
 Balance and fulfillment of needs – An individual of this kind is not inclined to become disturbed at the
smallest problem, illness, trouble, exhaustion, deterrent, etc. but makes concerted efforts to solve them.
 Health, security and balance – The normal individuals make conscious or unconscious efforts to
maintain their social, economic, physical and psychological health, as well as security. In a general sort of
way, their behavior does not violate the cannons of morality.

Abnormality
Abnormality is the deviation from the norm or standard or rules and regulations or psychological dysfunctioning or disorders, which
are resulting due to psychological factors. The abnormal behavior is suggestive of mental illness, when the person is unable to
understand his exaggerated behavior, which causes disability to the individual and to the others.

 CHARACTERISTICS OF ABNORMAL INDIVIDUALS

 Criminal and juvenile delinquents – The criminal or the juvenile delinquent is in some measure
abnormal, his mind an inferno of various kinds of conflicts, which sometime take destructive and
heinous forms. He is self-centered and vagrant, full of the feeling of vengeance, a composite of the
unsociable, irritable, quarrelsome, cruel, hypersexual and destructive traits.
 Mentally diseased – all mentally diseased are considered abnormal.
 Unsocial and anti-social - the abnormal individual is unsocial, incapable distinguishing between right
and wrong and of attaching any importance to the socially accepted notions of them.

Different Criteria of Abnormality

1. Statistical Approach - The mean and average of the various traits of personality and character are calculated.
This is average level, and as the individual moves higher or lower of this average, normalcy will decrease and
abnormality increase. In this manner, a person will be considered abnormal to the degree in which he deviates,
in average and in the mean, from the average quality or the mean quality.
2. Pathological approach - Abnormal individuals are those who are in some manner suffering from some or the
other mental disease.
3. Adjustive Approach - According to abnormal psychologist, the biggest single factor at the root of mental
aberrations is improper and incomplete adjustment, and it is true that mental distortion spoils adjustments.
4. Dichotomous Approach – This viewpoint adopts the quantitative as well as the qualitative approach. Where the
approach is qualitative, it means that the difference between normal and abnormal is more of degree.
5. Criterion of homeostasis – according to cannon’s theory, homeostasis balance implies the balance and
adjustment of the various functions such as temperature, blood pressure, breathing, etc., that lead to proper
health. When this balance is absent, the person will be considered and ill person, irrespective of the country
which he lives in.
6. Eclectic Approach – In the eclectic approach, every other viewpoint has appropriate place and hence in the
definition of the abnormal, the eclectic viewpoint is probably the most superior. From the eclectic viewpoint, it
is quite tenable to assert that in any population group there are some 10% of individuals whose social
adjustment would or does leave much to be desired and that they are suffering from one or other mental
aberration.

Forms of Abnormality

1. Psychoneurotic – This is the more common kind of abnormal individual, and is the victim of conflicts, mental
tensions and frustrations.
2. Psychotic - A more intense mental disease than psychoneurosis and in it the individual’s balance and equilibrium
are completely disturbed and social adjustment rendered void.
3. Mentally deficient of Feeble-minded – A term applied to persons with intelligence less than the average, but
even in this classification some people are more brainless than others.
4. Anti-Social Persons - Anti– Anti-social individuals form part of the abnormal class since one sign of normality in
an individual is his acquiescence to the laws of society and his conformity to them. Anti-social class is composed
 of individuals on the one hand, who are criminals and are punished according to law, and on the other, of
individuals who are called moral imbeciles.

MENTAL DISORDER
 According to DSM-IV-TR....
“A mental disorder is conceptualized as a clinically significant behavioral or
psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with
present distress or disability or with a significantly creased risk of suffering death, pain,
disability, or an important loss of freedom.”
CLASSIFICATION OF MENTAL DISORDER

1. Axis I 3. Axis III

– Clinical Disorders – General Medical Conditions
–Other conditions that may be a focus of 4. Axis IV
clinical attention – Psychosocial and Environmental Problems
2. Axis II 5. Axis V
– Personality Disorders – Global Assessment of Functioning
– Mental retardation

Abnormal behavior is characterized by diverging widely from the normal; descriptive of behavior which deviates markedly
from what is considered normative, healthy or psychologically desirable from adjust mental point of view.
An abnormal behavior is a neurosis, a benign mental disorder characterized by incomplete insight into the nature of the
difficulty, conflicts, anxiety reactions, and partial impairment, often but not necessarily, the presence of phobia, digestive
disturbances and obsessive-compulsive behavior.
Generally, neurosis or psychoneurosis includes this type of behavioral disturbances; anxiety, dissociative reaction, phobic reaction,
obsessive-compulsive reactions, hypochondriasis, neurasthenia, schizoid and schizotypal, paranoid and borderline.

1. Neurasthenia- this is form of psychoneurosis characterized by excessive weakness, fatigue, complaints of visceral
malfunction and anxiety.
2. Obsessive-Compulsive reactions- a person with this disorder constantly feel immobilized by his fear of making a mistake.
They are intensely perfectionist and so engrossed with trivial details, and consequently, unable to see the entire picture.
3. Schizoid Personality disorder- this is characterized by an indifference to social and sexual relationships and a limited range
of emotional expression and experience. Individual suffering from this disorder are unable to establish close relationship to
others
4. Hypochondriasis - characterized by a depressed emotional state and imaginary ill health. This anxiety is focus on the bodily
health.
5. Histrionic and Narcissistic personality disorder- characterized by excessive display of emotion and egocentricity. Person
suffering from this disorder is often highly excitable and reacts to trivial events with an alarming display of emotions.
6. Paranoid- characterized by systematized delusions and projection of personal conflicts that is ascribed to the supposed
hostility of others.
7. Phobias- these are reactions characterized by intense and irrational fear or anxiety of an object, circumstances condition or
some particular stimuli.
8. Dissociative Disorders and Somatoform- these mental disorders involve the expression of conflict through radical, and
sometimes extremely unusual, disturbances in behavior, with symptoms that are difficult to explain.
9. Multiple Personalities- these mental disorders are rare. These are characterized by the presumption that several parts of
personality have not been fully integrated so they become dissociated from each other and consequently, the individual
frequently shifts from one to the other.
10. Antisocial personality disorder- this is an extreme type of behavioral disorder in which an individual does not have the
normal conscience or sense of social responsibility and sympathetic concern for other people.
11. Controversial personality disorder- this is characterized by sadistic behavioral disorder by acting toward other in cruel and
demeaning ways, physically, psychologically or both.
12. Self-defeating personality disorder- this is one in which people act in various ways that lead them to undermine
themselves, be deprived of the gratification or pleasure, and suffer pain rather than experience pleasure.
13. Panic disorder- consists of episodic intense anxiety without identifiable provocative factors associated with physical
evidence of automatic hyperactivity.
 ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY
- is characterized by marked lack of ethical or moral development and apparent in ability to follow approved
models of behavior. Typically, these individuals are unsocialized and seemingly incapable of significant loyalty to other
person, groups or social value. The term psychopathic personality and sociopathic personality are commonly used in
referring to this type of disorder.
The group of antisocial personality includes a mix group of persons: crooked politicians, impostors, swindlers,
shrewd businessmen, shyster lawyer, quack doctors, deceitful evangelist, drug pushers, prostitutes and delinquents and
other type of criminals. Some of these individuals are confined in mental hospitals and penal institutions.

 ALCOHOLISM
As defined by Chaplin, it is a personality disorder characterized by excessive and compulsive drinking. An
alcohol finds reliefs to his problems whenever he is drinking and eventually increases his intake until it become
severe and accompanied by hallucinations, disorientation, disturbed intellectual function, and deterioration
personality.
People who are confronted with stress and frustrations sometimes resorts to drugs if not alcohol. Drugs
whenever natural or synthetic when taken repeatedly may cause detrimental effect to the psychological and
physical well-being of an individual. It becomes chronic as the person increases his intake and eventually becomes
fatal.

Four Stages on the Way to Male Alcohol Addiction According to Jellinek (1952)
1. Pre alcoholic Stage – The individual drinks socially and also on occasion rather heavily to relieve tension and to
forget about his problems
2. Prodromal Stage – The drinker remains conscious, talks coherently, and carries on other activities, without even
appearing to be greatly intoxicated, but later has no recall of the occasion. Alcohol begins to use more as a drug
and less as a beverage.
3. Crucial Stage – He has already lost control of his drinking. Once he takes a single drink, he continues to consume
alcohol until he is too sick or in too much of a stupor to drink anymore. The individual’s social adjustment also
begins to deteriorate. He starts to drink during the day, and this becomes evident to his employer, family, and
friends. The alcoholic neglect his diet, has his first bender, a several-day period of excessive drinking, and may
experience hallucinations and delirium when he stops drinking. At this stage, the individual still has the ability to
abstain. He can give up alcohol for several week or even months at a time, but if he has just one drink, the whole
pattern will begin again.
4. Chronic Stage – The individual lives only to drink. His bodily systems have become so accustomed to alcohol that
they must be supplied with it or he suffers withdrawal reactions. If liquor is not available to him, he will consume
any liquid he can find that contains alcohol such as shaving lotions, hair tonic, various medicinal preparations etc.
He neglects his personal appearance and having loss his self- esteem, feels little remorse about any aspects of his
behavior. Finally, he ceases to care at all about family and home, about friends, occupation and social status.

 DRUG ADDICTION
Types of Drugs and their effects

1. Stimulant drugs – These drugs stimulate the brain and sympathetic nervous system resulting in alertness and
increase in response and motor activity. The major drugs of this category are nicotine, cocaine, caffeine and
amphetamines
The addiction to stimulant drugs makes an individual dependent, physiologically and psychologically,
on its ever increasing doses for the continuous stimulation of sense organs. In the long run it anxiety and
irritability, sleep deprivation, gradual impairment of intellectual functioning and periodic episodes of delirium
2. Sedative drugs – These drugs slow down the activities of an organism and diminish the response of the brain
and nervous system. As a result they are used as pain relievers and sleep inducers and may be classified as
narcotics and hypnotics. The major narcotic drugs are opium, morphine, heroin, codeine, Demerol and
 methadone and hypnotic drugs include barbiturates like amytal, Nembutal, seconal, and non-barbiturates like
bromides and paraldehyde chloral hydrate.
The prolonged used of sedative drugs leads to increasing tolerance and physiological as well as
psychological craving for them. The immediate effects are pleasant and there is relief from pain and lessening
of voluntary movements followed by euphoria. But these effects are short-lived and are followed by a negative
phase of craving for more of the drug and the consequent ill effects.
The addiction to narcotics results in loss of appetite and weight, constipation, lack of sexual
desire and social interest. Unlike narcotics, the addiction to barbiturates and other hypnotics primarily affects
the brain resulting in intellectual impairment and disturbance of the motor functions dependent on the
cerebellum.
The sudden withdrawal of sedative drugs result in dangerous withdrawal symptoms like restlessness,
nervousness, excessive perspiration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe headache, marked tremors, cardio-
vascular collapse and painful muscular cramps. In the case of hypnotics the withdrawal reactions may lead to
epileptic seizures and delirium. If not treated in time, the seizures can cause death. Tranquilizers like
meprobamate also result in addiction and have the same results as with most of the sedatives.
3. Deliriant or mind –blowing drugs- these drugs produce transient states resembling psychoses resulting in
marked confusion, distortion in thought processes, delirium, illusions and hallucinations. Marijuana produces a
euphoric state involving increased self-confidence and a pleasant feeling of relaxation characterized by
floating imagination. There is a considerable distortion of the sense of time and space. In some cases the
individual becomes irritable. There is a marked impairment in the motor and intellectual functioning but the
users usually thinks that their efficiency has increased. This false sense of adequacy gives rise to incidents of
reckless driving and other antisocial episodes. In many individuals the intoxication of marijuana may produce
acute psychotic reactions as found with hallucinogenic drugs.

 ANXIETY DISORDER
Anxiety disorders are characterized by an avoidance of a variety of feared stimuli or situations that are often
important for optimal development and by somatic or physiological distress in the presence of these stimuli or situations.
 Generalized anxiety disorder– Disorder characterized by chronic, unrealistic, and excessive anxiety and worry
 Panic disorder - Characterized by recurrent panic attacks that come on unexpectedly, followed by at least one month
of persistent concern about having another panic attack
 Characteristics of panic disorder
– Intense apprehension, fear, or terror, often associated with feelings of impending doom
– Person may experience:
 Dyspnea
 Dizziness
 Sweating
 Trembling
 Chest pain or palpitations of the heart
 Phobic Disorders or Phobias this is a disorders characterized by persistent fear of an object or situation that presents
no actual danger to the person or in which the fear becomes exaggerated. Individual who is phobic experiences
feelings of uneasiness, tension or anxiety attached whenever he approaches the feared object/situation.
 Classification of phobia
 Acrophobia - Fear of high places that results in extreme anxiety
 Aerophobia - Morbid fear of fresh air or drafts
 Agoraphobia - Fear of being in an open, crowded, or public place, such as a field,
congested street, or busy department store, where escape may be difficult
 Agoraphobia - Fear of spiders
 Claustrophobia - Fear of closed spaces
 Nyctophobia - Obsessive, irrational fear of darkness
 Zoophobia - Persistent, irrational fear of animals, particularly dogs, snakes, insects, and mice
 Obsessive-compulsive disorders are a disorder in which the individual has intrusive thoughts and is urged to perform
repetitive, ritualistic behaviors. Examples are behaviors such as hand washing, counting, checking if all the doors are
closed, and putting things in order in a repetitive manner or say doing things ten times repeatedly. 
 Posttraumatic Stress disorders - Disorder in which the individual experiences characteristic symptoms following
exposure to an extremely traumatic event
• Individual reacts with horror, extreme fright, or helplessness to the event
 PSYCHOSES
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state
often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". People suffering from psychosis are described as
psychotic. Psychosis has given to the more severe forms of psychiatric disorder, during which hallucinations and
delusions and impaired insight may occur. Some professionals say that the term psychosis is not sufficient, as
some illnesses grouped under the term "psychosis" have nothing in common.

 SCHIZOPHRENIA DISORDER
The term schizophrenia Refers to a collection of seriously debilitating conditions characterized chiefly by
hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder.

POSITIVE SYMPTOMS
 Hallucinations
Involve experiencing a sensation in the absence of an external stimulus.
 Delusions
Are unfounded and culturally alien beliefs

NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS
 Avolition
-is the inability to initiate and persist in activities. People with this symptom show little interest
in performing even the most basic day to day functions, including those associated with personal
hygiene.

 Alogia-
A person with alogia may respond to questions with brief replies that have little content and
may appear uninterested in the conversation

 Anhedonia
- is the presumed lack of pleasure experienced by some people with schizophrenia. Like
some mood disorder, anhedonia signals an indifference to activities that would typically be
considered pleasurable, including eating, social interactions, and sexual relations
 Affective flattening
- You could communicate with them verbally, but you wouldn’t be able to see their
emotional reactions.

DISORGANIZED SYMPTOMS
 Disorganized speech or thought disorder
People with schizophrenia often lack insight, an awareness that they have a problem. Sometimes
they jump from topic to topic, at other times they talk illogically and speaking in unintelligible words and
sentences.
TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

 Treatment of schizophrenia
 Individual, group and family therapy
– Can help patient and family understand the disease and system triggers
– Teaches families communication skills
– Provides resources for dealing with emotional and practical challenges.
 Social skill training
– Can occur in hospital or community settings
– Teaches the person with schizophrenia social, self-care, and vocational skills.
 Medications
– Taking neuroleptic medications may help people with schizophrenia to:
o Clarify thinking and perceptions of reality
o Reduce hallucinations and delusions
– Drug treatment must be consistent to be effective. Inconsistent dosage may aggravate existing symptoms or
create new ones.
  AFFECTIVE or MOOD DISORDER
The individual experiences extremes and inappropriate levels of mood with presence of delusions in
these moods disorders. Mood disorders are characterized by significant shift in mood, primarily in emotions

a)      Major Depressive Disorder The individual experiences a long-lasting and continuously depressed mood

that interferes with the ability to function, feel pleasure, or maintain interest in life. People who are suffering from

this type of depression have problems in eating, sleep, concentration, manifest persistent deep feelings of sadness

and worthlessness, to the point of considering suicide.

b)      Bipolar affective Disorder This is also originally termed as manic depressive. This is a disorder where the

individual experiences alternate periods of depression and relatively normal moods.

PSYCHOTHERAPY
PSYCHOTHERAPY- involves a series of interview with a psychiatrist who can listen and question and who create a healthy
atmosphere conductive to dealing effectively with behavioural and emotional problems.

Psychoanalysis- is a system of understanding human behaviour based on Freud’s writings. Emphasis is placed upon
unconsciousness determinants of behaviour.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
1. Client-centered therapy- this is a verbal remedial procedure characterized by relatively little suggestions or direction from the
therapist.
2. Rational therapy- this are procedures based on the premise that lack of information or illogical thought patterns are basic
cause of patient’s difficulties and these can be counter acted by a direct, prescriptive, advice-giving approach by the therapist.
3. Eclecticism- literally, choosing this therapy, for example, occurs when the therapist exposes no single approach for all cases but
chooses among the alternative viewpoints available.
4. Behaviour therapy- characterized by the use of conditioning procedures in treatment of psychological problems.
5. Systematic Desensitization- this method is based partly upon procedures in classical conditioning.
6. Operant techniques- used to change overt behaviour and eliminate so called habits.

Various Methods of Therapy

Psychoanalytic Therapy
This method was developed by Sigmund Freud with the purpose of uncovering unconscious conflicts, which usually are traced back
to childhood experiences and brought into the conscious awareness.
The major techniques of psychoanalysis that are:
Free-association is asking the patient to narrate whatever comes to his mind, whenever there are painful,
embarrassing, or irrelevant; this is done so as the patient would not conceal those in his unconscious mind. The analyst puts
the patient in an encouraging mood such as sitting in a comfortable chair or reclining on a couch, without the analyst saying
anything during the session.
Interpretation is the analyst’s explanation about the significance of the patient’s free-associated thoughts as he
listens closely to observe patterns and hidden meaning as constructed in the patient’s problem.
Dream Analysis is an attempt to interpret those unconscious conflicts during sleep that may be expressed in some
contents of his dreams which have relation to the person’s motives and desires.
 Resistance is the stage where the patient avoids the analyst attempts to bring the unconscious
awareness.
 Transference occurs during the therapy when the patient displaces onto or his relationship
with the therapist the feelings he experienced during an earlier stage in this life. Ex. Mother,
father, of important figure.
Cognitive Therapy
        This emphasize on the importance of thought processes and beliefs changing individual’s behaviour. Two therapies, those of
therapy and Aaron Beck’s  Albert Ellis’ rational emotive cognitive-behaviour  therapy were found effective in handling clients’
problems. 
Humanistic Therapy
        The therapy was found effective in employing experiential technique that helps in solving the individual problems.
Behaviour Therapy
        These types of group therapy are: family therapy, encounter groups, and support groups. Being less expensive and it’s
availability, it provides group support, feedback and information and opportunities for behaviour rehearsal. 
Biochemical Therapy
        This therapy uses biological techniques to relieve psychological disorders. The three major forms of biochemical
therapy are: drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery

SPECIAL TECHNIQUE IN THERAPY

1. Play therapy- play may be used or release of tensions and as a medium of expression in therapy with children.
2. Group therapy- patients meeting with others and with a therapist or counsellor discuss their problems.
3. Family therapy- this is a form of group therapy in which it is assumed that a basic issue is the patient’s relations with other
members of his family.
4. Recreation therapy- this is a mode of treatment in which the client engages in various activities, such as sports, dancing,
singing, drawing and painting to help buried self-confidence, release tension and learn to work with others.
5. Marathon therapy- this is a group of therapy based on the premise that it takes longer that fifty minutes for the patient to
discard his defences. It may continue for several days.
6. Occupational therapy- this is a method of treatment where the client works around the hospital or is trained for a job
before he leaves the treatment place.
7. Hypnotherapy- the use of hypnosis in individual therapy is relatively recent, but because the phenomena are not well
understood, clinicians have been concerned about its misuse. Occasionally this is used in group therapy, where a single
person is place in hypnotic trance. It may be used for symptom removal, diagnostic or desensitization.

HUMAN ADJUSTMENT
Mental Health
 According to WHO…
“The capacity of an individual to form harmonious relationships with others and to participate in or contribute
constructively to changes in social environment”

 According to American Psychiatric Association,1950

“Simultaneous success at working, living and creating the capacity for mature and flexible resolution of conflicts
between instincts, conscience and reality.”

 Mental health is a state of the individual’s mind, where he can adjust and adapt to the situations in a harmonious manner, body
and mind work together in same direction in order to lead a happy and productive life.

Mental Hygiene
Mental hygiene is a branch of science specially designed to suggest measures for ensuring mental health. It is the practical
art, based on experimental evidence and psychology of adjustment, which restores the normal living of persons. It helps the persons
to achieve fuller, happier, harmonious and effective lives. It promotes the individual’s capacity and forms harmonious relationship in
groups