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Abnormal Psychology Essay examples

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It’s human nature to wonder why we act the way that we do and why things happen. So many scholars over the years have come up with numerous theories in order to categorize the things that are known and explanations of what it all means. Life is full of trials and tribulations and those who study maladaptive behavior usually focus on the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and skills one uses during daily living. Feelings, thoughts, perceptions and skills all combine to aid in creating our mental states and lead to behavioral abnormalities. Thoughts are made up of ideas, concepts and the internal dialogue a person has within their mind. Perceptions are how one interprets incoming sensory signals through processing and organizing the …show more content…

This perspective truly focuses on the mind-body connection (Sarason & Sarason, 2005, p.47). The psychodynamic perspective believes that biological and mental are both equal contributors to human life. Those who support the psychodynamic perspective believe that personality is shaped by combining inner and outer events, with emphasis on the inner events (Sarason & Sarason, 2005, p.59). Basically, our experiences shape who we are. Sigmund Freud is the most well known theorist of this type with the basis of his concept involving the conscious and unconscious psychic connection (Sarason & Sarason, 2005, p60). The third theory of abnormal behavior is the behavioral perspective specifically focusing on how the environment affects how we behave. Those who formed the behavioral perspective felt that Freud’s ideas were too complicated and that this was a simpler way to explain human behavior- simply that we are a product of our environment (Sarason & Sarason, 2005, p.67). The cognitive perspective puts emphasis on how people acquire and interpret information and use it in problem solving. This perspective also emphasizes the mental processes that people are unaware of or can be made aware of. The cognitive perspective focuses on our present thoughts and relationships between emotions, motivations and

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