Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 104

One of the main themes of evolution is the manner in which organisms are in close connection with their environment. It is this close connection that allows for change to take place, including the turning on and off of genetic processes. In humans, there is another layer of complexity involved in the process. Part of this complexity comes from the fact that humans are born less fully developed at birth than many other species and thus are sensitive to changes in their environment as they continue to develop. This includes our relationships with our family and others with whom we initially come in contact. As humans, we also develop societal and cultural perspectives. These perspectives become the backdrop of our environment. Unlike animals that live within nature, we as humans largely live within the backdrop of our culture. Thus, we are influenced by our culture and pay close attention to it.

Human infants are helpless at birth.

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Many species are able to function on their own shortly after birth.

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Another part of our complexity as humans is our ability to reflect on ourselves and our world. In this way, a layer of thought can be injected between the person and the environment. This allows for expectation and imagination to play a role in human behavior and experience. Some have even suggested that humans may be the only species to imagine the world and themselves differently from how they appear. In this sense, our inner world of thoughts and feelings becomes another environment in which we live. For example, you can tell yourself you are wonderful or you are stupid, and there is no one inside you to dispute this. One positive aspect of this is that your inner world allows you to plan future actions and reflect on past ones, but it can also be experienced as distress when your internal thoughts reflect such states as anxiety or hopelessness. Our internal thoughts at times may lead to interpretations of the environment or ourselves that may not be productive. This adaptive human ability to reflect, which should lead to successful survival, sexuality, and social relations, sometimes leads instead to interactions that reduce the close connection between the individual and his or her internal and external environment. As we will see, this lack of connectedness lies at the heart of psychopathology.

As noted in Chapter 1, humans not only consider themselves but also consider others. A positive side of this is the ability to understand the internal experiences of another. This allows us to experience empathy. We can also consider how we appear to others and other questions of self-image. One aspect of this is related to sexual processes. That is, we can say or do things that make us more attractive to a potential mate. In terms of self-preservation, humans also have a personal history that allows each individual to learn from the past and develop strategies for living. These strategies tend to protect us and may even have saved our lives in exceptional cases. However, it is also possible for the strategies that work in one environmental situation not to work in another. When a person loses contact with the current environment and applies strategies that worked perhaps in an earlier time, then unsuccessful adaptation is the result.

This lack of connectedness to our environment may take place on both an external and an internal level. On an external level, the person finds herself different from the group or even seeks to be separate from others. This is not our historical experience, since individual humans have never lived in isolation. As a species, we have always lived in close contact with other humans, which has led to the development of societies and cultures. In fact, many of the specific abilities of humans are geared to social interactions on a variety of levels. When they no longer have the connection with the group, many individuals experience a sense of loss. This loss typically carries with it the experience of negative affect and depression and often a need to withdraw from contact with others and even themselves. On an internal level, humans frequently have the need to explain to themselves the events that have just occurred, which may include anger, distorted perceptions, or a genuine plan for recovery. The extreme cases we refer to as psychopathology.