226 PSYCHOLOGY
tional, conventional woman, suffers from agoraphobia. Her conscious fear of leav-
ing her home territory is a cover, a mask over a forbidden wish. She is angry with
her husband and is filled with buried resentments. The forbidden wish is a desire
to take flight from the marriage.(a) The viewpoint assumes that pathological behavior is caused by an organic
factor.
(b) The viewpoint assumes that pathological behavior arises because of
repressed emotional conflicts.
Answers: (a) biological; (b) psychodynamic.The learning viewpointassumes that pathological behavior is a maladaptive
response to an adverse experience (or a set of related experiences). For example,
Quentin suffers from claustrophobia. When he was a preschooler, his mother used
to punish him by locking him in a dark closet for an hour or two at a time. His
phobia can be understood as a kind of conditioned reflex (see chapter 6).
The humanistic viewpointassumes that pathological behavior is a response
to an inability to become self-actualizing. For example, Joan suffers from chronic
depression. When she was an adolescent she displayed talent in creative writing
and won several high-school short story contests. She dreamed of a career as a
novelist. Today, she is divorced with three children, and works as a checker in a
discount store. One of the factors in her depression is the frustration associated
with her inability to make the most of her talents.
The sociocultural viewpointassumes that pathological behavior is a mal-
adaptive response to large, inescapable forces and events arising from the social
world, the world of other people. Such forces include war, economic depression,
overcrowded housing, a totalitarian government, and so forth. For example, fifty-
seven-year-old Lloyd is suffering from a major depressive episode and often thinks
of suicide. Once he was worth more than two million dollars in stock. Major
reverses in the economy, combined with some impulsive, ill-considered decisions
on his part, wiped out his fortune.
It is not necessary to make a choice among the viewpoints and decide which
viewpoint is thecorrect one. The viewpoints overlap and are not mutually exclu-
sive. Often the factors associated with two or more viewpoints may interact. In
appropriate cases, any of the viewpoints may be useful and applicable.(a) The viewpoint assumes that pathological behavior is a maladaptive
response to an adverse experience (or a set or related experiences).(b) The viewpoint assumes that pathological behavior is a response to an
inability to become self-actualizing.
Answers: (a) learning; (b) humanistic.