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social learning (learning by imitating otheabnormal functioning in individual behaviour). These three types of members. Some families have an conditioning account for behaviour, enmeshed structure in which the whether adaptive or maladaptive. members are overinvolved in each other’s Psychological factors are also activities, thoughts, and feelings. emphasised by the cognitive model. This Children from this kind of family may model states that abnormal functioning have difficulty in becoming independent can result from cognitive problems. in life. The broader social networks in People may hold assumptions and which people operate include their social attitudes about themselves that are and professional relationships. Studies irrational and inaccurate. People may have shown that people who are isolated also repeatedly think in illogical ways andand lack social support, i.e. strong and make overgeneralisations, that is, they fulfilling interpersonal relationships in may draw broad, negative conclusions on their lives are likely to become more the basis of a single insignificant event. depressed and remain depressed longer Another psychological model is the than those who have good friendships. humanistic-existential model which Socio-cultural theorists also believe that focuses on broader aspects of human abnormal functioning is influenced by the existence. Humanists believe that human societal labels and roles assigned to beings are born with a natural tendency troubled people. When people break the to be friendly, cooperative and constructivnorms of their society, they are called and are driven to self-actualise, i.e. to fdeviant and ‘mentally ill’. Such labels this potential for goodness and growth. tend to stick so that the person may be Existentialists believe that from birth we viewed as ‘crazy’ and encouraged to act have total freedom to give meaning to our sick. The person gradually learns to existence or to avoid that responsibility. accept and play the sick role, and Those who shirk from this responsibility functions in a disturbed manner. would live empty, inauthentic, and In addition to these models, one of the dysfunctional lives. most widely accepted explanations of In addition to the biological and abnormal behaviour has been provided by psychosocial factors, socio-cultural the diathesis-stress model. This model factors such as war and violence, group states that psychological disorders prejudice and discrimination, economic develop when a diathesis (biological and employment problems, and rapid predisposition to the disorder) is set off by social change, put stress on most of us a stressful situation. This model has and can also lead to psychological three components. The first is the problems in some individuals. According diathesis or the presence of some to the socio-cultural model, abnormal biological aberration which may be behaviour is best understood in light of inherited. The second component is that the social and cultural forces that the diathesis may carry a vulnerability influence an individual. As behaviour is to develop a psychological disorder. This shaped by societal forces, factors such as means that the person is ‘at risk’ or family structure and communication, ‘predisposed’ to develop the disorder. The social networks, societal conditions, and third component is the presence of societal labels and roles become more pathogenic stressors, i.e. factors/ important. It has been found that certain stressors that may lead to family systems are likely to produce psychopathology. If such “at risk” persons 75 Chapter 4 • Psychological Disorders Reprint 2026-27