Biological, psychosocial, and sociocultural factors all contribute to abnormal behavior. The document discusses several causal factors at each level: Biological factors include genetic defects, constitutional liabilities, physical deprivation, disruptive emotional processes, and brain pathology. Psychosocial factors comprise maternal deprivation, pathogenic family environments, early psychic trauma, and problematic interpersonal relationships. Sociocultural influences involve issues like war, prejudice, economic problems, and rapid social change. The causes of abnormal behavior are complex and multifactorial rather than the result of any single influence.

1. CAUSES OF
ABNORMAL
BEHAVIOUR
PRESENTED BY: SHUBHRA MISHRA

2. • Abnormal behaviour may be defined as
behaviour that is disturbing (socially
unacceptable), distressing, maladaptive and
often the result of distorted thoughts
(cognitions)

3. INTRODUCTION
• The causation of any particular behaviour pattern is tremendously
complex and even with the information we do have it all but
impossible to predict how given circumstances will affect given
individuals.
• Contemporary research findings in the biological and social sciences
have greatly advanced our understanding of the causes of abnormal
behaviour
• Before considering these causal factors let us take a moment to
broaden our perspective on causation

4. PERSPECTIVE ON
CAUSATION
• With regard to personality development and
adjustment, it established a framework for
examining the causes of abnormal behaviour
a) It can be regarded as the outcome of faulty
development
b) Severe stress
c) Combination of both

5. • In attempting to analysed the causal
factors, it will be helpful to briefly
review :
a) Differing viewpoints of causation
b) Changing views of causal relationships

6. DIFFERING
VIEWPOINTS
• Medical model
• Psychodynamic model
• Behaviouristic Model
• Cognitive Model
• Sociocultural Model
• Humanistic Model
• Interpersonal Model

7. The medical
perspective…..
• Those who hold a medical perspective focus
on biological and physiological factors as causes
of abnormal behaviour, which is treated as a
disease, or mental illness, and is diagnosed
through symptoms and cured through treatment.
Hospitalization and drugs are often preferred
methods of treatment rather than psychological
investigation.

8. The psychodynamic
perspective…
• The psychodynamic perspective, proposed
as an alternative to the medical model, evolved
from Freudian psychoanalytic theory, which
contends that psychological disorders are the
consequence of anxiety produced by unresolved,
unconscious conflicts.Treatment focuses on
identification and resolution of the conflicts.

9. The behavioural
perspective…
• Those exposing a behavioural
perspective contend that abnormal behaviour
results from faulty or ineffective learning and
conditioning.Treatments are designed to reshape
disordered behaviour and, using traditional
learning procedures, to teach new, more
appropriate, and more adaptive responses.

10. The cognitive
perspective…
• According to the cognitive perspective,
people engage in abnormal behaviour because of
particular thoughts and behaviours that are often
based upon their false assumptions.Treatments
are oriented towards helping the maladjusted
individual develop new thought processes and
new values.Therapy is a process of unlearning
maladaptive habits and replacing them with more
useful ones.

11. The social‐cultural
perspective…
• From the social‐cultural perspective,
abnormal behaviour is learned within a social
context ranging from the family, to the
community, to the culture. Cultural variables,
acquired through learning and cognitive
processes, are believed to be important in
producing abnormal behaviour.
•

12. Humanistic
perspective
• They are more concerned primarily with stress
situations that involve a threat to the individual
and therefore elicit anxiety. If the individuals
cope effectively with the stress situation, anxiety
is eliminated. However if the stress and anxiety
continue, the individual typically resorts to
various ego-defence mechanisms such as denial
and rationalization.

13. Interpersonal
perspective
• Concentrates on unsatisfactory interpersonal
relationships as being the root of maladaptive
behaviour. Such roots may extend back to
childhood as when the child‘s self concept was
distorted by significant others who appraised
him as being worthless or when rigid
socialization measures made it difficult to accept
and integrate the ―bad me‖ into his self concept.

14. CHANGING VIEWS
OF CAUSAL
RELATIONSHIPS
• Primary cause
• Predisposing cause
• Precipitating cause
• Reinforcing cause

15. • PRIMARY CAUSE: It is the condition without which
the disorder would not have occurred
• PREDISPOSING CAUSE: It Is the condition that
comes before and paves the way for later
psychopathology
• PRECIPITATING CAUSE: It is a condition that proves
too much for the individual and triggers the
maladaptive behaviour.
• REINFORCEMENT CAUSE: It is a condition that leads
to maintain maladaptive behaviour already present

16. FACTORS OF
ABNORMAL
BEHAVIOUR
Biological, psychosocial and social
cultural factors play a role in causing
maladaptive behaviour either by
producing faulty development or by
increasing stress or both

17. Five factors
a. Genetic defects
b. Constitutional liabilities
c. Physical deprivation
d. Disruptive emotional processes
e. Brain pathology

18. BIOLOGICAL
FACTORS
• Biological factors influence all aspect of our
behaviour
• Diseases, malnutrition, injuries and other
conditions that interfere with normal development
and functioning are potential causes of abnormal
behaviour

19. GENETIC DEFECTS
a. Chromosomal aberrations
b. Faulty genes
c. Genetic predispositions to
specific mental disorders

20. a. Chromosomal
aberrations
• Forty-six chromosomes in the nucleus of each normal being
• Encoded in the chromosomes is the hereditary plan
• When fertilizations takes place the normal inheritance of the
new individual consists of twenty-three pairs of chromosomes
–one of each pair being from the mother and one from the
father
• Twenty-two pairs of these chromosomes are known as
autosomes-which determine body characteristics
• The remaining pair, the sex chromosomes

21. • When the chromosomes are deficient in
specific genetic information the result may
be colour blindness , Down ‗s syndrome
• Down‘s Syndrome: A type of mental
retardation in which the individual haas
slanting eyes, a flat face, and other
characteristics that produce a superficial
resemblance to Mongolian.

22. b. Faulty genes
• Each chromosome is made up of a long molecule of
DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid)
• Scientist have shown that our genetic instructions are stored in
this DNA
• Genes carry the instructions for specific body traits such as eye
colour and blood type
• Two types of genes: (a)Dominant genes :Their
instructions are followed even if the other member of the pair
carries contradictory instructions
(b)Recessive genes :Genes whose instructions are not followed
unless the individual has inherited two such genes one from each
parent

23. c. Genetic predisposition to
specific mental disorder
• Although marked advances have been made in
the identification of faulty genes, most of the
information we have concerning the role of
genetic factor in mental disorder is based on
family studies

24. Constitutional
liabilities
It denotes the relatively enduring biological makeup of
the individual resulting from both genetic and
environmental influences.The traits that are included in
this category:
a. Physique
b. Physical handicaps
c. Vulnerability to stress

25. Physical deprivation
A wide range of physical deprivations may act as
predisposing or precipitating causes in mental disorders.
For our immediate purpose we shall focus briefly on two
categories :
a. Malnutrition
b. Sleep deprivation and fatigue

26. Disruptive Emotional
Processes
• We have noted that emotional processes like fear and anger
represent the mobilization of body resources to meet
emergency situation. Such a mobilization of recourses either
enables a threatened organism either to fight or to flee
• In modern civilization, however we are rarely confronted with
situations that can be met adequately by simple physical attack
or flight
• Yet we have not experience a comparable reduction in our
emotional excitability, we still become mobilizes=d for physical
fight or attack when we feel endangered or threatened

27. Brain Pathology
• About one half of the patients in mental hospitals are suffering
from mental disorders associated with toxic or organic brain
pathology
• The body produces antibodies to defend itself against invading
viruses and other microorganism, similarly, the brain has special
forms to reaction to stress in comparison with other organs
• Stress may disrupt the delicate biochemistry of the brain with
adverse consequences for certain predisposed individuals

28. PSYCHOSOCIAL
FACTORS
• Maternal Deprivation
• Pathogenic Family
• Early psychic trauma
• Disorder Interpersonal relationships
• Key Stresses of modern life

29. Maternal Deprivation
• Faulty development has often been observed in
infants deprived of maternal stimulation( or
mothering) as a consequence of either:
a. Separation from the mother and placement in
the institution
b. Lack of adequate mothering

30. a. Institution: There is likely to be less warmth
and physical contact, less in intellectual,
emotional and social stimulation and lack of
encouragement and help in positive learning
b. Lack of adequate mothering: The effects of
maternal deprivation vary considerably from
infant to infant and babies in other societies
appear to thrive under widely differing
conditions of maternal case

31. • The actual nature and extent of the damage
resulting from maternal deprivation appear to
depend:
a. the age at which deprivation first occur
b. The extent and duration of such deprivations
c. The constitutional makeup of the infant
d. The substitute care

32. Pathogenic Family
Pattern
• Faulty parent-child relationship:
a. Rejection
b. Over protection and restrictiveness
c. Over permissiveness and indulgence
d. Unrealistic demands
e. Faulty discipline
f. Communication failure
g. Undesirable parental models

33. Pathogenic
Structures
• Maladaptive family structure
a. The inadequate family:This type of family is
characterized by inability to cope with the
ordinary problems of family living
b. The disturbed family: Because of personal
instability interact with others in ways that is
destructive to others a well as themselves

34. c.The anti social family:This type of family
espouses values not accepted by the wide
community
d.The disrupted family: Disrupted families
are incomplete whether as a result of death,
divorce, separation or any other conditions

35. Early Psychic
Trauma
―I believe the most traumatic experience of my life
happened on April evening when I was eleven. I was not too
sure of how I had become a member of the family, although
my parents had thought it was wise to tell me that I was
adopted.That much I knew, but the term adopted meant
was something else entirely. One evening after my step
brother and I retired, he proceeded to explain it to me-
with a vehemence I shall never forget. He made it clear that
I was not a ‗real‘ member of the family., that my parents did
not wanted me around.That was the night that I vividly
recall crying myself to sleep.That experienced undoubtedly
played a major role in making me feel insecure and inferior‖

36. • Such traumas are kept to leave psychological wounds that never
completely heal
• The following will lead us in understanding the process why later
stress that reactivates these early wounds is apt to be particularly
difficult:
a. Conditioned responses are readily established in situations that
evoke strong emotions such responses are often highly resistant
to extinction
b. Conditioned emotional responses stemming from traumatic
experiences may generalize to other situations
c.Traumatic situations result in emotional conditioning rather than in
responses learned through reasoning and problem solving

37. Pathogenic
Interpersonal
Relationships
People differ markedly in their ability to give and receive
love. Nevertheless marital and other intimate relationships
do represent a major source of need fulfilment in the lives
of the most people .
 Marital Instability: For most of us the quest for an
intimate relationship with another person takes the form
of marriage and the great majority of people in society
will marry at some time in their lives and attempt to
established a happy home.

38. Types of Pathogenic
Relationships
a. Fraudulent interpersonal contracts :
Characterized by involving or proceeding from fraud
as actions, methods or gains.
This involves the terms of the relationship being
violated by one person in such a way to exploit the
other.

39. Continued……
Such patterns may take a variety of forms but
Carson(1969), has delineated a common underlying
sequence that may be summarised as follows
• A offers B a type of relationship or ―contract‖ in which B is
interested because it seems to offer favourable possibilities for need
satisfaction.
• B indicates acceptance of the terms of the contract and precedes
with activities appropriate to carrying out the terms agreed upon.
• A then assumes a stance that makes it justify to alter the term of the
contract .
• To maintain the relationship B is forced to accept the new terms
thus enable A to achieve the type of relationship he or she was
presumably aiming for in the first time.

40. b. Collusion: (secret or illegal cooperation or
conspiracy in order to deceive others)
In collusion a relationship is established and
maintained only because the partners agree
to follow certain maladaptive rules and
norms of their own choosing, rather than
socially established adaptive ones
One person usually take the initiative in
outlining the rules and norms which both
partners are then expected to follow .

41. c. Discordant interpersonal patterns:
Serious and continued dissension, disagreements
and conflicts are detrimental to the quality and
stability of the relationship as well as to the
persons involved .
• One or both partners who are not gaining
satisfaction from the relationship may express
feelings such as frustrations and disillusionment
in hostile ways such as nagging, and doing things
purposely to annoy the other person.

42. Severe Stress
 Devaluating Frustrations: In contemporary life
there are a number of frustrations that lead
to self-devaluation and hence particularly
develop to cope with it.Among these are:
a. Failures
b. Losses
c. Personal limitations and lack of resources
d. Guilt
e. Loneliness

43. SOCIOCULTURAL
FACTORS
 There are other characteristic of our time and place in
history that put stress directly or indirectly on most of
us.
 Among these are:
I. War andViolence
II. Group Prejudice and discrimination
III. Economic and Employment problems
IV. Rapid social change

44. WAR and VIOLENCE
 Although wars have sometimes been
necessary to achieve or maintain freedom and
human rights, the conditions of warfare have
placed great stress on large numbers of
people.
 While small wars and civil violence continue
to smoulder on our planet we have also
witnesses an ever-increasing rate of violent
crime in our own society.

45. GROUP PREJUDICE
and
DISCRIMINATIONS
• One of the most destructive form of group
prejudice is that of racial discrimination.
• Comparison on the basis of the economic status.
• Poverty often interferes with the development
not only of intelligence but also of healthy
personality.

46. Value Conflicts
Values play a key role in determining our ―choices‖.
If our value assumptions are unclear or
contradictory we are likely to experience difficulties
in making choices and direct in behaviour:
a. Conformity vs. Unconformity
b. Caring vs. non involvement
c. Avoiding vs. facing reality
d. Fearfulness vs. positive action
e. Integrity vs. self advantage

47. Pressures of Modern
Life
• Competition
• Educational, Occupational and
family demands
• Complexity and pace of modern
living

48. ECONOMIC and EMPLOYMENT
PROBLEMS
• Unemployment and job satisfaction are sources
of stress for many people.
• Extensive unemployment are typically
accompanied by increases in certain types of
maladaptive behaviour such as depression,
suicide and crime.
• Hardest hit by economic and employment
problems—handicapped by poorer education,
poorer nutrition, etc.

49. • For many people who are employed, a
major source of stress is job
dissatisfaction.
• Leads to anxiety, tension and a wide range
of psychosomatic disorders and impaired
marital and family relationships.

50. RAPID SOCIAL
CHANGE
 The rate and pervasiveness of change
today are different from anything our
ancestors have experienced.
 As a result many people in our society are
groping about, bewildered and bitter being
unable to find satisfying values to guide
their lives.

51. Thank YOU!!!!