The learning approach

Psychologists who work within this model of
psychopathology believe that abnormal behavior is learned through past experiences.
The same principles that are used to explain the development of
normal behavior are used to explain the development of abnormal behavior.
For example, a child can learn to be a conscientious student by observing
role models who are conscientious in their work. Another child may
learn to break the rules of society by watching a parent break the same rules.
In each case, observational learning is at work, but the outcome is very different.
In another example of a learning principle, a person who is hungry
and hears someone preparing food in the kitchen may begin to salivate because
the sounds of food preparation have, in the past, preceded eating
food and food makes the person salivate. Those sounds from the kitchen are
stimuli that have become conditioned so that the person learns to have the
same reaction to the sounds as to food (salivation). This learning process is
called classical conditioning. In a different example, experiencing pain and
having one’s life threatened causes fear. A person who is attacked and bitten
by a dog might well develop a fear response to all dogs that is severe enough
to lead to a diagnosis of a phobia. Just as the sounds in the kitchen elicit salivation,
the sight of a dog elicits an emotional response. The same underlying
principle of classical conditioning can account for the development of
normal behavior as well as a disorder. There are many other principles of
learning besides observational learning and classical conditioning. Together,
psychologists use them to account for forms of psychopathology
more complex than are exemplified here. Nonetheless, there are many disorders
in which a learning approach to etiology seems farfetched. For example, no one believes that mental retardation, childhood autism, or schizophrenia
can be explained by learning principles alone. 677