Psychology

Maladaptive behavior is the behavior that prevents an individual from achieving major life goals such as having good relationships with other individuals or work effectively. The social behavior is governed by a number of unspoken rules of behavior.  These include maintaining reasonable eye contact with the person one is talking to, not standing too close to other people and wearing clothes that are appropriate for the occasion.  Those who see these rules being violated are likely to experience a certain amount of discomfort and may conclude that the violator is abnormal.  But this is not an infallible guide to abnormality and may reflect cultural differences in behavior and style.

This type of behavior is often used to reduce ones anxiety, but the result is dysfunctional and non-productive. For example, avoiding situations because you have unrealistic fears may initially reduce your anxiety, but it is non-productive in alleviating the actual problem in the long term.

Psychologists are beginning to realize the necessity of other societal disciplines relevant to maladaptive behavior.  Many are taking an interest in the role of religion in mans existence.  In this connection, many psychotherapists are recognizing the emotional support that religion can extend to the disturbed and the malcontent. A large number of churches are employing mental health professionals as full or part time members of the church staff.

A great variety of religious movements are springing up among the youth today. Apparently young people are sincerely searching for answers to the problems with which they are confronted and for a meaningful and fulfilling way of life.  For many young people, religious faith supplies values to live by as well as a meaning they have failed to find through other channels.  Religion is a trust that life, however difficult or strange, has meaning. (Vess, Armdt, Cox, Routledge  Goldenberg, 2005, 334).  Man lives in a vast universe and to pretend that we understand its intricacy or the forces behind it would be grandiose indeed. It would be equally foolish to ignore the fact that many people do undergo major changes in values and lifestyle after spiritual experiences. Furthermore, they feel they can imbibe forces in the universe that are much greater than they can hope to understand.  Of course, many scientists would explain such experiences as the product of naivety or wishful thinking but others would not try to share this view.  In any event, it should be noted that the great religious philosophies of the world share many value precepts in common, including the importance of love, peace, brotherhood and the Golden Rule.

One of the major approaches to the treatment of mental illness is known as Behavior Therapy.  This is something the church has tried to look into in order to understand individuals with mental illness.  The underlying notions are that most forms of mental illnesses occur as a result of maladaptive learning and that the best treatment consists of appropriate new learning or re-education as proposed by Erich Fromm in his Dialectic Historical Process. More specifically, behavior therapists believe that abnormal behavior is tempered through conditioning and that it is through the use of principles of conditioning that cures can be found.  In other words, behavior therapy is based on the assumption that classical and operant conditioning can change unwanted behavior into a more desirable pattern of behavior.   Cognitive therapies in recent years have witnessed a substantial increase in use for treatment with mentally ill individuals with success.  This form of therapy was introduced primarily by two clinicians, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.  However, the views of Albert Bandura have also been extremely influential in the development of cognitive therapy.  In essence, it is assumed by cognitive therapists that cognitive processes and structures have a significant influence on behavior.  It is also assumed that the existence of negative or self defeating cognitive processes and structures is an important ingredient in many forms of mental disorder.  Changing these processes and structures so as to make them resemble those of normal individuals is a primary goal of cognitive therapy and is expected to produce recovery from mental disorder. Experimental research on cognitive structures and cognitive processes has important implications for the practice of cognitive-behavior modification. The concept of schemata, knowledge structures that guide cognitive processing, is introduced. Self-schemata, particularly important in the maintenance of maladaptive behavior patterns, are described and related to the construct of self-efficacy.

When thinking of society and maladaptive behavior, part of what is missing from a statistical approach to abnormality is the consideration of the impact of a given individual behavior has on other people.  This has led some psychologists to emphasize on the notion of social deviance.  This approach has the view that those who behave in a socially deviant and apparently incomprehensible way which makes other people very uncomfortable should be regarded as abnormal.  It is true that most people who are labeled as clinically abnormal behave in a socially deviant fashion.  However, clinical abnormality should not be equated with social deviance.  There are various reasons why an individual is socially deviant.

Substantial evidence says that impulsivity is a robust correlate of offending. However, its effects appear to be partially dependent upon other criminological factors, such as neighborhood context. Results show that thrill and adventure seeking (among men) and lack of premeditation (among men and women) exert stronger influences on offending among those who live in neighborhoods low in perceived supervision.  Some people are so simply because they have chosen to adopt a non-conformist lifestyle.  Others are socially deviant because their behaviors are motivated by strong principles. Social deviance on its own is by no means a sufficient basis for regarding someone as abnormal. There are other problems in putting so much significance to social deviance.  What is regarded by society as deviant or abnormal behavior varies considerably from one culture to another.  Even if social deviance must be rejected as the sole criterion of abnormality, it does not mean that it is wholly irrelevant.

After all, people are social animals and derive much of their pleasure in life from their interaction with other people.  As a consequence, most people find it important for a contended existence to avoid behaving in socially deviant ways which bemuse or upset other people. (Holtforth, 2008, 157-159)