Briefly outline the humanistic perspective and the sociocultural perspective on psychological disorders.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

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The answer should contain the following information:

The humanistic perspective emphasizes the responsibility people have for their own behavior, even when such behavior is abnormal. The humanistic perspective concentrates on what is uniquely human-that is, a view of people as basically rational, oriented toward a social world, and motivated to seek self-actualization. Rather than assuming that individuals require a "cure," the humanistic perspective suggests that they can, by and large, set their own limits of what is acceptable behavior. As long as they are not hurting others and do not feel personal distress, people should be free to choose the behaviors in which they engage.

Although the humanistic perspective has been criticized for its reliance on unscientific, unverifiable information and its vague, almost philosophical formulations, it offers a distinctive view of abnormal behavior. It stresses the unique aspects of being human and provides a number of important suggestions for helping those with psychological problems.

The sociocultural perspective assumes that society and culture shape abnormal behavior. According to this view, the nature of one's relationships with others may support abnormal behaviors and even cause them. Consequently, the kinds of stresses and conflicts people experience in their daily interactions with others can promote and maintain abnormal behavior. This perspective is supported by research showing that some kinds of psychological disorders are far more prevalent among certain social classes, races, and ethnicities than they are in others. For instance, diagnoses of schizophrenia tend to be higher among members of lower socioeconomic groups than among members of more affluent groups. Proportionally more African American individuals are hospitalized involuntarily for psychological disorders than are whites. Furthermore, poor economic times seem to be linked to general declines in psychological functioning, and social problems such as homelessness are associated with psychological disorders.

On the other hand, there are many alternative explanations for the association between abnormal behavior and social factors. For example, people from lower socioeconomic levels may be less likely than those from higher levels to seek help, gradually reaching a point where their symptoms become severe and warrant a serious diagnosis. Similarly, psychological disorders may cause people to become homeless, rather than homelessness producing psychological disorders. Finally, sociocultural explanations provide relatively little guidance for treating psychological disturbance. That is, the focus on broad societal factors does not obviously translate into how to treat disorders in a specific individual.