Biological and cognitive abnormalities are some of the medical models of abnormality. These abnormalities are caused by different experiences and factor through which an individual may be exposed to, thus affecting the mental ability or the functionality of the body and the mind in general. Biological model entails the mental illness of an individual and the general diagnosing of the mind in relation to the physical illness. Biological abnormality therefore argues that since abnormal behavior is a mental disorder, it is therefore genetic and it has to be diagnosed just like a physical illness before it is being treated. The genes are inherited from the parent thus giving a blue print for the body and the brains in general. Since the inheritance is from one body to another, any gene abnormality then may result to a consequent abnormality in the brain and hence affecting a behavior. Mental illness is believed to be caused by either of the following conditions; genes, micro-organisms, chemical substances as well as neuro-anatomy to mention a few (Barlow & Durand, 2012).
Given that abnormality is genetic it means that it can be passed on from a parent to a child and therefore the only medicine to this problem is by restoring the body to its normal state of functioning as well as eliminating those cells affected as they are the root cause. Consequently, environmental factors may contribute to this kind of abnormality. This is through what a person experience in terms of the surrounding environment and the daily encounters. Personal experiences of situations like prolonged situations of stress may lead to biological reactions that in return cause a knock-on the functionality of the brain. In such cases, the person may fail to contain the ability for the mind to think and counter balance the emotional torture resulting from such stressing situations and therefore the outcome will be a biological abnormality. Similarly, such biological stress may lead to depression of a person and this can affect the day to day operational of the mind (Cardwell & Flanagan, 2005). When this abnormality is experienced by an individual, the mental health may be highly affected and depending on the medical care sort. The individual may experience a social withdrawal from the peers or friends, a disturbed sleep and loss of appetite among others thus changing the ways of operational of the mind.
Biological treatment for this abnormality may be through altering of the functioning of the neurotransmitter that could be causing a certain behavior, through the change of the cell functionality within the nervous system or removing some parts connected to the nervous. Therefore in managing the treatment for the biological abnormality, drug treatment should be employed, a psychosurgery which involves the removal of some brain tissues or the electroconvulsive therapy to manage and restore such problem.
Another model of abnormality is the cognitive model. This argues that abnormal behavior is not only perceived as a challenge but as the way one thinks. The model is based on the individual’s thoughts which may result to an emotional state or behavior due to the responses to the stimuli. It further states that when one is not thinking rationally he or she is likely to behave abnormally. Faulty reasoning such as maladaptive assumptions as well as upsetting thoughts contributes a lot to this behavior. This is simply because they distort the way through which information has to flow and this is in return indicated in schizophrenia and some other illness that disorient the mind. It can therefore result out of the way an individual meditates and the process of making a decision on the way one may cope-up with stimuli. How one perceives issues, the ability to think through and analyze whatever information that has been ingested and self evaluation in regard to whatever is experienced thus may result of this kind of abnormality. To treat this type of abnormality, some learning exercises are brought about for the victim to undergo. It can be through letting the individuals realize their thoughts by exposing them to such scenarios so as to recognize whatever the stimuli may produce in regard to different responses. When undergoing the therapy for the cognitive abnormality, the aims are to make a significant reduction in thoughts that may be negative and making a replacement with positive thoughts. Similarly, the client is made to look and make a comparison with an automated thought thus giving the ability for the client to compare the predisposing factor to such beliefs that may have lead to distorting the experiences.
Comparing the two, it is clear that Biological model suggests that an individual has no control to his or her behavior whereas Cognitive puts forward its argument and says that an individual has full control and he or she is the major determinant. The two models differ in both content and the suggestions where by an abnormal behavior could be organic or non-organic which may be due to physical conditions like the brain damage (Clark & beck, 2011). The remedy therefore is based on the change of the clients’ biochemistry without accounting for any evidence for biological explanations. The causes are more of social factors with the predisposed environmental influences besides the genetic inheritances while the cognitive involves the state of the mind as influenced by some social factors or the environment. These abnormalities have a greater impact on the functionality of the human mind in order to perform day to day activities and therefore need to be well treated for normality.
References
Barlow, d. H., & durand, v. M. (2012). Abnormal psychology: an integrative approach. Belmont, Calif, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Cardwell, m., & flanagan, c. (2005). Psychology AS: the complete companion. Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes.
Clark, d. A., & beck, a. T. (2011). Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: science and practice. New York, Guilford Press.
Horwitz, a. V. (1999). A handbook for the study of mental health: social contexts, theories, and systems. Cambridge, Univ. of Cambridge Press.
