Human Behavior and Victimology Midterm Coverage: Development Defined

Human Behavior and Victimization

Development

• Defined as a progressive series of changes leading to maturity
• Early foundation (first two years of life) is critical for physical and emotional development
• Maturation and learning play important roles in development
• Maturation is growth determined primarily by genetic factors, while learning comes from exercise and effort
• Three facts emerge from the interrelationship of maturation and learning:
  • Variation is possible due to human capability for learning
  • Maturation sets limits beyond which progress is possible, even with favorable learning methods and motivation
  • There is a definite timetable for learning

Classifications of Human Behavior

• Habitual behavior: motorized behavior, usually manifested in language and emotion
• Instinctive behavior: generally unlearned, instinctual behaviors, such as survival instincts
• Symbolic behavior: behaviors carried out through unsaid words and body signs
• Complex behavior: combines two or more of the above classifications

Personality Traits Affecting Human Behavior

• Extroversion: characterized by interests directed toward the external environment, people, and things
• Introversion: characterized by direction of interest toward oneself and one's inner world of experiences
• Ambiversion: a balance of extrovert and introvert characteristics
• Neuroticism: persons high in neuroticism react intensely and are generally moody, touchy, depressed, sensitive, and anxious or nervous

Somatization Disorder

• An intensely and chronically uncomfortable condition, indirectly creating a high risk of medical complications
• Characterized by chronic and recurrent aches, pains, fever, tiredness, and other symptoms of bodily illness

Conversion Disorders and Somatoform Pain Disorders

• Conversion disorders: somatoform disorders characterized by serious somatic symptoms (e.g., functional blindness, deafness, paralysis) without any physical cause
• Somatoform pain disorders: somatoform disorders characterized by chronic pain without any physical cause

Dissociative Disorders

• Response to obvious stress characterized by:
  • Amnesia: partial or total inability to recall or identify past experiences
  • Brain pathology amnesia: total loss of memory that cannot be retrieved by simple means
  • Psychogenic amnesia: failure to recall stored information, still beneath the level of consciousness but "forgotten material"

Types of Dissociative Disorders

• Kleptomania: the impulse to steal
• Megalomania: the impulse for fame or power
• Pyromania: the impulse to set fire
• Suicidal mania: the impulse to take one's life

Anxiety Disorders

• Asthenic Disorders (Neurasthenia): characterized by chronic mental and physical fatigue and various aches and pains
• Phobic Disorders: characterized by persistent and unrealistic fear of specific objects or situations
• Types of Phobias:
  • Acrophobia: fear of high places
  • Agoraphobia: fear of open spaces and market places
  • Malgophobia: fear of pain
  • Astraphobia: fear of storms, thunder, and lightning
  • Gynophobia: fear of dogs
  • Claustrophobia: fear of closed places
  • Hematophobia: fear of blood
  • Mysophobia: fear of contamination or germs
  • Monophobia: fear of being alone
  • Nyctophobia: fear of darkness
  • Ochlophobia: fear of crowds
  • Hydrophobia: fear of water
  • Pathophobia: fear of disease
  • Pyrophobia: fear of fire
  • Syphilophobia: fear of syphilis
  • Zoophobia: fear of animals or some particular animals

Somatoform Disorders

• Complains of bodily symptoms that suggest the presence of a physical problem but no organic basis can be found
• Preoccupation with one's state of health or diseases

Stages of Human Life Span

• Prenatal period: conception to birth (0-9 months)
• Infancy: birth to the end of the second week
• Babyhood: end of the second week to the end of the second year
• Early Childhood: two to six years
• Late Childhood: six to ten or twelve years
• Puberty or Pre-Adolescence: ten or twelve to 13 or 14 years
• Adolescence: 13 or 14 to 18 years
• Early Adulthood: 18 to 40 years
• Middle Age: 40 to 60 years
• Old Age or Senescence: 60 to death