From the medical view abnormalities are seen a mental illness. The people that are infected

with the mental illness are known as patients and they have to be treated by doctors. The

biological view can also be broken done into three more categories. These are known as

structural views, biochemical views and genetic views. The structural view thinks that

abnormalities in the brain structure are the main lead to mental disorders. The biochemical

view looks at the imbalances in the brain’s chemical structure such as neurotransmitters and

hormones as the cause to mental disorders. In the genetic view they look at distorted genes

as the main contributor to mental disorders. While the biological approach focuses on

inherited traits to be the main contributor to mental disorders, the psychological approach

looks at the environment and the unconscious mind as the main contributor to abnormalities.

This has three parts to it which includes the psychodynamic perspective, behavioral and

social cognitive prospective, and the humanistic perspective. The psychodynamic perspective

thinks that psychological disorders come from unconscious conflicts that can cause anxiety

and a maladaptive behavior.

The main contributor to deviant behavior in this approach is from early bad relationships.

If an individual develops bad relationships with either offspring early on in their life

than the individual will develop abnormalities. Sigmund Freud was the developer of the

psychoanalytic approach in which it places more emphasis on what you can’t physically see.

In the behavioral and social cognitive prospective they place an emphasis on the environment

in shaping abnormal behavior. They believe that people learn behavior by observing those

around them, through self control, through their beliefs in themselves, and through a

variety of other cognitive factors which are the key to psychological disorders in this

approach. In the humanistic perspective they place an emphasis on an individual’s freedom to

do what they want and chose their own destiny and personal characteristics. They believe

that psychological disorders come up when an individual fails to meet their own potential.

All of the psychological perspective focuses on the individual. The next approach is the

sociocultural approach. This concept places a larger emphasis on the area in which an

individual lives such as their family, neighborhood, economic status, and culture. For one

example, they believe that a conflict between one’s cultures will be a contributor to a

mental disorder in an individual. It’s not necessary the individual that has a mental

disorder but rather to an unbalanced social life. There are also some gender effects in

determining mental disorders. Women are more likely to have internal mental disorders, which

are disorders that affect them inside. They are more likely to be effected with anxiety

attacks, and moods of depression. On the other hand, men are more likely to be effected with

external disorders or disorders that are seen outward. Some examples of these disorders are

substance abuse and moods of aggression.

Many psychologists now believe that psychological disorders are universal which means that

they are the same for people everywhere around the world regardless of geographic location

or their social status. However, depending on the factors I just mentioned they do vary.

There are also some disorders that strictly effect people of one culture, and here are three

big ones that I’m currently aware of: Amok, Windigo, and Anorexia Nervosa. The Amok effect

people of Malaysia and the Philippines and in this disorder and individual suddenly has a

fierce burst of rage and anger and kill and injure as many people as possible before they

are killed. This disorder is commonly found in males and the cause of this can be numerous

of factors such as jealously, or losing a lot of money through gambling. Windigo is a

disorder commonly found in Algonquin Indian hunters and is very similar to a horror story in

which an individual is hunted and chased by a fictionist character and become bewitched such

as by a bit of a vampire or werewolf. The hunter becomes worried that they will turn into a

flesh eating cannibal and harm other around them.

The last disorder, I think that many Americans is aware of the last disorder and that is

called anorexia nervosa and effects people of mainly Western cultures with a special

emphasis on the people in the United States. This is an eating disorder in which an

individual tries to maintain an unhealthy low weight through starvation which can ultimately

lead to death.