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Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
TABLE OF CONTENT
1- Introduction
2
2- Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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A- What is a Maladaptive Behavior?
3
B- Psychological & Personality Disorders, & Maladaptive Behavior
4
C- Diagnosis
5
D- Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
5
E- Analysis of Both Categorical and Dimensional Approaches
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3- Conclusion
9
4- References
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Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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1- Introduction
Throughout History, a countless number of scientists attempted to define different approaches in
trying to better understand maladaptive behavior and further assess its causes to come up with an
ideal treatment method.
Some were successful on certain cases, some were successful for a limited period of time, and
some knew no success at all.
The approaches currently used fall under two major schools; the categorical school, and the
dimensional school.
But are these the only schools to be considered for behavior assessment and treatment?
What is a maladaptive behavior? Are all personality disorders considered maladaptive
behaviors?
Not all psychological disorders are considered personality disorders; then are maladaptive
behaviors all psychological in nature?
Clinical and social approaches have been battling for ages; does one replace the other? Do they
complete each other? Or are they sequential?
We will try to address these issues while mainly focusing on both approaches, categorical and
dimensional, their advantages and disadvantages, choosing a preferred approach, and adding one
other possible approach worth considering.
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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2- Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
A- What is a Maladaptive Behavior?
Maladaptive behaviors are types of behaviors that inhibit a person’s ability to adjust to a given
situation. This kind of conduct is mostly used to minimize the anxiety a person might have
although the consequences are dysfunctional and non-productive (Ankrom, 2009).
For instance, when a person avoids situations because one has fears may at first minimize
anxiety; however, it is not productive in controlling the problem in the long term.
The above problem refers to other psychological issues such as suppression and repression.
Other psychologists have talked about unresolved conflict where a person ends up in a crisis
because they never addressed their anxiety at some previous stages in life. Freud also talked
about fixation whereby he mentioned the fact that there are instances where a person is made to
dwell on a particular stage such that it reoccurs later in life. All these issues anticipate an
individual person that has not attained fully fledged maturity. This is exactly what happens with
maladaptive behavior because anxieties that have been suppressed come out later in life. The
same phenomena resembles suppression of feelings whereby a person would hide them today
and tomorrow they explode and the repercussions might be very severe since they may lead to
problems related to stress, depression, and cardiac attack just to mention a few.
It is important to note that maladaptive behaviors are to be prevented by all means since they bar
people from coping with the demands of life (Ankrom, 2009).
Maladaptive Behaviors are classified as either dysfunctional or non-productive.
They are dysfunctional because they generate only short-term relief in regard to anxiety, and
non-productive if they help increase the problem of anxiety in the long-term and actually create
more catalysis to the underlying problem (Ankrom, 2009).
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
The maladaptive behaviors are listed as follows (Ankrom, 2009):
1. Avoidance
2. Substance Abuse
3. Withdrawing
4. Converting anxiety to anger
B- Psychological and Personality Disorders, and Maladaptive Behavior:
To avoid confusion, it is worth noting that psychological disorders are classified into four major
categories, and they are:
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Mood disorders
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Anxiety disorders
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Personality disorders
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Childhood disorders
Depression, mania, and bipolar disorders are all considered part of mood disorders. The causes
of mood disorders can be genetic or psychological expressed in maladaptive disorders (being
overly criticized at a young age, for example). Mood disorders can also be caused by social
factors through troubled relationships.
Phobias, panic, and obsessive-compulsive disorders are all considered part of anxiety disorders;
either the person does not know or realize why he/she is afraid or the anxiety is inappropriate to
the given circumstances.
Autistic disorder and ADHD (Attention Deficiency Hyperactivity Disorder) are considered part
of childhood disorders.
On the other hand, personality disorders are not considered as purely psychiatric disorders, and
this is while they are listed on Axis II of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders), and are most commonly referred to as “Axis II disorders”.
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Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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People who have personality disorders are inflexible and maladaptive; it is a way of thinking and
behaving that is so exaggerated and rigid at times that those people cause serious distress to
themselves and others.
They are considered disorders because they represent consistent clusters of symptoms, and have
a predictable course and response to treatment. The only reason why they wouldn’t otherwise be
considered as disorders is because they are not discrete disorders like major paranoia and
schizophrenia.
C- Diagnosis:
Genetics and social/environmental influences while growing up form a person’s personality. A
mood disorder, a neurological abnormality, a family history of personality disorder, and some
kind of trauma, early loss or abuse are all recipes for severe personality disorders.
Making a diagnosis of a personality disorder is a difficult task. It requires a lot of close
observation over stretched periods of time, and still might give a faulty result due to other
varying factors such as stress. If the person in question is under a lot of stress, he or she might
regress to a less mature state. To clarify this point, an individual diagnosed with a certain mental
illness might show traits of personality disorder if that individual was exposed to stress and has a
problem coping with it.
Diagnosis normally includes interviewing closely related people to the individual in question,
and taking a full family history is of major importance as well.
D- Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior:
Four major approaches are used to describe and define personality and maladaptive behavior.
Though we will only largely focus on the first two approaches, they four are:
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Categorical
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Dimensional
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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Prototypical
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Structured assessments of adaptive strengths & preferred defense mechanisms
In the Categorical approach, some disorders are defined similarly to mental illnesses through the
use of diagnostic criteria. Though purely clinical, this approach has its advantages; like being
consistent with the approach used by psychiatrists (DSM) to describe all other mental disorders.
This approach’s consistency makes it very useful in research; specifically for the types of
scientific research that require large and homogenous groups of people.
The Categorical approach has many disadvantages as well. It has proven very difficult to set a
separating line between what is normal and what is pathological; it is not an easy task to tell
whether the person has the disorder or not. In addition to that, and although groups of people
may be linked together by common symptoms, they may have so many heterogeneous
pathologies, which in this case makes the diagnosis have no value at all.
In short, when explaining anything related to an individual’s personality, the categorical
approach is where certain personality disorders have been defined through clinical diagnostic
standards.
In the dimensional approach, personalities are interpreted as a continuum from normal status to
one that is deviant (Krueger, Watson & Barlow, 2005). In this case, personality traits are scaled
to define a certain outcome, and the disorder is defined in terms of a statistical deviance from the
normal range of behaviors.
The dimensional approach avoids the arbitrary all-or-none decision which is reached through a
categorical approach. Its core advantages lie in the permission of great appreciation to individual
differences, which in turn makes the dimensional approach a lot more valid.
The disadvantages of this approach is that it heavily relies on statistics, and defining a normal
behaviors requires a normative sample; collecting a true normative sample which represents the
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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real range of adaptive behaviors is closer to illusion and fiction. Not to mention that the results
obtained are based on standardized tests which are vulnerable to bias by nature.
The third approach is the prototypical approach. In short, it relies on comparing an individual to
a standardized level of ideal states of health or disease.
The major disadvantage of this approach is that it highly subjective.
The fourth approach, the structured assessments of adaptive strengths & preferred defense
mechanisms, does not define any personality disorders altogether, and instead simply describes
an individual’s personality based on the psychological strengths and weaknesses.
The major disadvantages of this approach are the fact that a person’s psychological strengths and
weaknesses change over time, add to that the fact that the assessment for psychological strengths
and weaknesses largely depend on the skills of the clinician conducting the interview.
E- Analysis of both categorical and dimensional approaches:
Two different schools and practices.
Some view the categorical approach as far more scientific, and thus more valid and trustworthy.
Others find the dimensional approach as far more human, and closely related to the nature of the
science of psychology, as opposed to psychiatry.
As is the case with psychology and psychiatry, both the categorical and dimensional approaches
are closely related, and it wouldn’t be an easy task trying to weigh the advantages of one
approach against the other.
However, and according to the researcher, it has been found that both approaches are of equal
importance, irrespective of their disadvantages, and that they are sequential in nature; one
approach should follow the other.
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
After having been through this research, and having thoroughly studied both approaches, we
strongly believe that the dimensional approach should come first, and if no satisfying results
were met it should be followed by a categorical approach, but not the traditional categorical
approach as is.
Trying to combine the categorical approach with the prototypical approach, although seems
rather impossible for scientific measurements at the moment, would create the ideal setup for
eliminating any inaccuracies met during the dimensional approach.
Using the dimensional approach to establish patterns in groups of people seems unreliable at
best. Assembling a truly representing normative sample is impossible, but trying to assemble
samples of prototypes seems much easier, and could probably lead to better and more satisfying
results.
Work is already being done in order to use the findings of the dimensional approach in the
design of the new DSM (DSM-V).
This fact only proves the researcher’s aforementioned points; the most accurate and satisfying
results can only be accomplished through a combination of approaches where disadvantages
from all combined approaches would cancel each other out, and advantages would greatly
increase.
As it is right now, the categorical approach seems much more commercial than the dimensional
approach, and on a personal level the researcher would much rather stick to the dimensional
approach, simply because of its broader understanding nature and its immediate relation to the
human being as a unique individual.
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3- Conclusion
Some people think that emotions and/or stimuli that lead a certain behavior are categorized; as if
placed inside solid blocks. In other words, sadness will always result in crying and tears and
agony, happiness will always result in laughter and smiles and feelings of overjoy.
If this was true, then Human Beings are nothing more than machines that will always provide the
same answer to the same question, and this is definitely never the case.
Emotions and behaviors are not stored in solid blocks, they are closer to a river; sometimes
flowing calmly and in serenity if the external environment allows it, and sometimes flowing so
wildly that it uproots trees and destroys anything in its way, if the external environment allows it.
To make it clearer, let us ask ourselves why some people cry when they are happy, why do
people laugh and smile under stress and difficult situations? The brain is mixed up?
No, the brain is not mixed up, it’s just how we are made, it is the very essence behind our nature
as Human Beings, making us who we are and what we are.
The categorical approach is similar to those who think that everything inside a Human Being is
stored in well-defined blocks, providing answers like an Artificial Intelligence machine to a welldefined set of questions or circumstances.
The dimensional approach, however, is similar to the flow of river that we are as humans,
emphasizing our unique individuality.
Approaches to Maladaptive Behavior
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4- References
Ankrom, S. (2009). Maladaptive Behaviors Associated With Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia.
Available at <http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/symptoms/a/MalBehPD.htm> Retrieved on
12.12.2011
Anxiety Disorders Association of America. 2007 “Anxiety Disorders and Alcohol Abuse.”
Brady MD PhD, Kathleen, Tolliver MD PhD, Bryan and Verdiun MD, Marcia (2007). “Alcohol
Use and Anxiety: Diagnostic and Management Issues” Am J Psychiatry 164:217-221.
Krueger, R. F., & Bezdjian, S. (2009). Enhancing research and treatment of mental disorders
with dimensional concepts: Toward DSM-V and ICD-11. World Psychiatry, 8, 3-6.
Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., & Barlow, D. H. (2005). Introduction to the special section: Towards
a dimensionally based taxonomy of psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114,
491–493.
Longo, Lance P., MD and Johnson, Brian, MD (2000). “Addiction: Part I. Benzodiazepines-Side Effects, Abuse Risk and Alternatives.” American Academy of Family Physicians. 01 Apr.
2121-2131.
Regier, D. A. (2007). Dimensional approaches to psychiatric classification: Refining the research
agenda for DSM-V: An introduction. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research,
16(S1), S1-S5.
Tucker, C. et al., (2002). Maladaptive Behavior in African-American Children: a Self-regulation
Theory-based Approach. The Educational Forum, Vol.66