Approaching Abnormal Behavior

There are many ways to approach diagnosing abnormalities in a human. The behavioral learning theory makes basic assumptions and alludes to the fact that abnormal behaviors are learned. Some examples of learned behaviors are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and modeling/observation. Classical conditioning explains seemingly irrational responses to a host of neutral stimuli and targets associations made between emotions and stimuli. Operant conditioning shapes new behaviors by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing undesired behavior. With operant conditioning comes the idea of extinction in which someone can learn to eliminate a learned behavior by creating negative associations with something. Modeling/observation shows that new behaviors are learned by imitating the behaviors modeled by important people and a person who observes rewards behave accordingly to also receive rewards. Other approaches include cognitive, psychodynamic and humanistic, family systems, and emotion-focused approaches.