Mental Health and Violence: Exploring the Link

This assignment delves into the intricate connection between mental health disorders and violence. It requires students to analyze research articles, press releases, and news reports to understand how various psychological conditions, such as Trichotillomania, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and the influence of substances like cannabis, can contribute to violent behavior. The analysis should encompass both individual and societal impacts of this complex issue.

Running head: BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Biological determinants of behaviour
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Introduction
Biological psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with the study of genetic,
psychological and developmental mechanisms in human behaviour. Behaviour is affected by
various biological factors that arise from genetic makeup and physical environment. The
biological approach to behaviour is a consequence of genetics as well as physiology. This
approach in psychology examine the feelings, thoughts and behaviour from a biological
perspective and hence, physical point of view (Gross, 2015). Various factors affect the body,
feelings and thoughts like stress, psychological disorders, and memory and sleep patterns in turn
influencing behaviour. These health conditions mediate the behavioural responses as the
biological perspective focuses on the physical side of the human nature. Therefore, the following
discussion involves the various determinants of behaviour, the effect of stress and psychological
disorders on behaviour, reductionist approach through press articles and how knowledge of
underpinning psychobiological factors lead to happier and more fulfilling lives.
Discussion
From a psychological point of view, neurotransmitters process information through
chemical messengers that flow to brain plays an important role in human behaviour, feeling,
learning and sleep patterns. The physiology and working of nervous system and hormones, brain
functioning, structure changes and function affect behaviour (Hnasko & Edwards, 2012). The
neurotransmitters in the form of chemicals transmit messages from one nerve cell to another. The
inhibitory and excitatory types that make nerve impulse travel from one nerve to another.
Excitatory type neurotransmitters like glutamate stimulate the brain, and inhibitory types create
balance and calm the brain-balancing mood. Among the neurotransmitters, epinephrine is

2BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
reflective of stress excitatory that is elevated in long-term periods of stress making its level low
or depleted. In today’s world, stress has become a normal part of human life that affect behaviour
making people react and adjust to experienced stress (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2015). When a
person experiences stress, they feel nervous or frustrated, and stress hormones are released
triggering the flight or fight response. The stress hormone, cortisol and adrenaline are released by
adrenal glands that increase the heart rate and affect behaviour that can result in social
withdrawal, drug or alcohol abuse or eating disorders. Stress also influences the cognitive
processes related to the elevated cortisol levels, in turn, influencing brain functioning. There is
interference with judgment skills that make people make wrong decisions. People also find
difficulty in handling situations that make them feel threatened. Stress also makes people
distracted, as they are unable to concentrate and leave them frustrated, anxious or angry. This
result in social exclusion as they feel rejected, unable to interact with others and feel stressed.
Stressed individuals may try to avoid difficult situations and withdraw from the outside world.
Their confidence and self-esteem are affected, become fragile, and they are no longer able to
deal with social situations that lead to withdrawal (Liu & Miller, 2014). To cope with stressful
situations, such people get addicted to smoking, alcohol, drugs and unhealthy eating habits. They
get highly addicted and fail in resolving stressful situations. There is sudden development of
risk-taking behaviour that shows that individual is suffering from stress. Behaviours like reckless
driving that are prone to accidents are manifested in individuals who suffer from stress. Suicidal
behaviour or talks are also witnessed in people suffering from stress as they experience low self-
worth and self-esteem and feel helpless. Therefore, the above discussion explains that stress
affects behaviour that interferes with the daily life activities.

3BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Apart from stress, psychological disorders also affect behaviour. The disorders like mood
disorders, PSTD, anxiety disorders affect behaviour where the individual experience an
uncomfortable feeling of dread or fear. In this, the thinking pattern of a person is affected due to
depressive thoughts. There is also low mood and feelings of worthlessness that are characterized
by delusions, hallucinations, illogical thoughts and unusual behaviour. There is a major change
in behaviour or personality that can result in disorganized behaviour or speech, mood extremities
like depression, delirium or confusion (Turecki & Brent, 2016). There is a disorganized
behaviour where a person behaves abnormally and experience trouble in performing the daily
activities. The psychological disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or PSTD
affect brain that induces self-harming or suicidal behaviour. They cannot make life decisions and
have difficulty maintaining healthy relationships. For example, in bipolar disorder, people
experience irritability or elation, talkativeness, racing of thought, difficulty in sleeping and lack
of energy. There are episodes of abnormal behaviour that create confusion or staring affecting
behaviour in people suffering from psychological disorders. In PSTD, there is delayed reaction
to a traumatic event that is accompanied by intense emotions, nightmares or flashbacks. People
experience anxious thoughts that make them restless, decreased sleep and stress. Similarly,
depression affects behaviour where a person experiences feelings of hopelessness and
abandonment. There is reduced appetite or weight gain, irritability or agitation, thoughts of
suicide or death and difficulty in concentrating or making important decisions. This shows that
psychological disorders also affect behaviour being a behavioural determinant and quality of life
(Armour, Műllerová & Elhai, 2016).
In recent times, many articles published in press talk about the unusual behaviour that
people exhibit due to stress and psychological disorders. In an article published in Business

4BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Insider (2017), it was reported that people exhibit compulsive hair pulling or trichotillomania
when they are in stress (businessinsider.in, 2017). It is not an innate behaviour; however, it was
developed in response to stress as a coping mechanism. People reported that they get the urge to
pull their hair as a mechanism to manage stress or anxiety. They find it harmless and
psychologists have to teach people about alternative behavioural mechanisms like habit reversal
and to compete for a response so that they are relieved from stress and stop pulling the hair out.
Hair pulling is a body-focused behaviour that helps them in stress management for some people.
In another article published by News.com in Australia also reported trichotillomania is a coping
mechanism for people under stressful situations (news.com.au, 2017). A girl named Imogen has
this body-focused-repetitive behaviour (BFRB) (hair pulling) in response to stress. She reported
that she finds it a useful behaviour that helps her to hack and control her stress. The article
reported that people get an urge to pull their hair when they are under stressful situations and
project anxiety. Psychologists reported that a combined approach in the behavioural therapy
could be helpful in fixing this unusual behaviour. They recognize the moment when people get
the urge to pull their hair and when they act on that urge. The third article published by The
Stuff, New Zealand reported that high school teenagers exhibit self-harming behaviour due to
stress and anxiety (Thomas, 2017). The author of the article reported that self-harming or self-
punishment attitude are seen in teens due to stress or high anxiety levels according to a five-year-
long study. In the article, a 17-year-old boy reported that he harmed himself when he felt stressed
or worked up, as he believed that hurting oneself is the way to get something out of it. This study
highlighted that self-harm in teens is highly prevalent in New Zealand. They are less equipped to
manage their emotion and stress levels, so they cope through self-injury. It provides relief to the
teens in managing their emotions from unwanted stress that are highly intolerable to them.

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The fourth article published by The Medical Express reported the study carried out by
Public Foundation for the Integration of People with Mental Illnesses (FAISEM) in collaboration
with the department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Seville in determining the
main factors that drive a person towards violent and criminal behaviour (medicalxpress.com,
2017). The article reported that psychological disorders prevalent among the Andalusian prison
population have a strong association with the criminal behaviour. The mental illness prevalent
among this particular prison population acts as a risk factor that increases the chances of their
committing violent crimes. The psychologists involved in the study reported that marginalization
and stigmatization, because of social failure explains their committing of violent crimes. The risk
factors like psychological disorders and alcoholism are the best predictors of violent crimes in
the prison population. The fifth article published by The Conversation (2017) reported that
among the psychological and personality disorders, dissociative identity is the most intriguing
mental illness for exhibiting criminal behaviour (theconversation.com, 2017). In this, people
exhibit two or more personality traits that display identified differences in the behaviour. They
exhibit gaps in memory or find difficulty in recalling the events dwelling in two or more
personality states. This dissociative identity affects behaviour as they dwell in more than one
personality. Finally, the article by The Cosmos Magazine in Canada reported that mentally ill
people consume marijuana, which acts as a strong indicator in exhibiting violent behaviour
(cosmosmagazine.com, 2017). The mentally ill people have habitual cannabis use that is strongly
linked to violent behaviour. Psychological disorders are greatly linked with cannabis use that has
a detrimental effect on their health driven towards violent behaviour. The authors of the article
also reported that with persistent treatment, the violent behaviour fades with time and by
consistent support from the family and friends.

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These articles are somewhat reductionist, as they have tried explaining the main point of
the discussion and are highly relevant to the topic. The authors conducted studies and explained
that factors like stress and psychological disorders affect human behaviour; however, it did not
explain the actual complex phenomenon. Articles over-simplified the concept of stress and
psychological disorders influence associated with disruptive behaviour like violent behaviour;
they neglected the complexities of body and mind-affecting behaviour (Kirmayer & Gold, 2012).
To explain the complex phenomenon of human behaviour, the constituents need to be reduced
into elements by explaining the complex parts into simplest forms (Zilio, 2016). These articles
explained the biological approach where the stress and psychological problems require treatment
like a disease and are treatable by drugs. On the contrary, the articles did not explain the source
of the mental illness to be the result of chemical imbalances in the brain lacking reductionism.
Reductionism can be explained at two levels: lowest level offering a physiological explanation of
behaviour in regards to genes, neurochemical and brain structure (Ponterotto, 2014). However,
the author explained the highest level of reductionism based on sociocultural factors that
influence human behaviour. Mentally ill people are prone to stigmatization and marginalization
due to their psychological condition, and so they exhibit violent behaviour like criminal or self-
harm behaviour. This illustrates that the articles are reductionist to some extent as they explained
that as the mentally ill people are subjected to discrimination, they exhibit violent or self-
harming behaviour. For example, in two articles, it was explained that when people are under
stress, they are subjected to hair pulling or trichotillomania (TTM) behaviour. Reductionism is a
scientific approach that explains the complicated components of human behaviour broken down
into small parts; however, the articles did not explain the scientific basis of human behaviour that
lacks validity from the reductionist point of view. Therefore, the best explanation of

7BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
reductionism that could be demonstrated is to understand the mental disorder from the cognitive,
physiological and socio-cultural point of view. Such approaches would be helpful in explaining
the effect of stress and psychological disorders on human behaviour.
Conclusion
The consumers of these articles would lead happy and fulfilling lives if they knew the
psychobiological underpinnings of behaviour. When people know the underlying cause of their
behaviour, they can manage the episodes of disruptive behaviour effectively. They can judge
their behaviour and encourage themselves to seek support for quitting the behaviour. The
underpinning knowledge also helps to create awareness among the consumers and helps others to
seek support for their unusual behaviour. When people know the reason for their behaviour, they
feel happy, contended, and find better link between the functional neuroautonomy of the
behaviour and its contribution to happiness and well-being (Zipf, 2016). Therefore, from the
above discussion, it can be concluded that biological determinants affect behaviour and factors
like stress and psychological disorders influence behaviour in many ways. The articles were
somewhat reductionist in explaining the social factors and biological factors underpinning
human behaviour, however, lack basic scientific explanation.

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References
Armour, C., Műllerová, J., & Elhai, J. D. (2016). A systematic literature review of PTSD's latent
structure in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV to DSM-
5. Clinical Psychology Review, 44, 60-74.
Butcher, J. N., Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, S. M. (2015). Abnormal psychology. Pearson Higher
Ed.
Gross, R. (2015). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour 7th edition. Hodder Education.
Hnasko, T. S., & Edwards, R. H. (2012). Neurotransmitter corelease: mechanism and
physiological role. Annual review of physiology, 74, 225-243.
Kirmayer, L. J., & Gold, I. (2012). Critical neuroscience and the limits of reductionism. Critical
neuroscience: A handbook of the social and cultural contexts of neuroscience, 307-330.
Liu, R. T., & Miller, I. (2014). Life events and suicidal ideation and behavior: a systematic
review. Clinical Psychology Review, 34(3), 181-192.
Ponterotto, J. G. (2014). Best practices in psychobiographical research. Qualitative
Psychology, 1(1), 77.
Thomas, R. (2017). About a third of high school teens are self-harming, long-term study
finds. Stuff. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/97726318/about-a-third-of-high-school-teens-are-
selfharming-longterm-study-finds

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Turecki, G., & Brent, D. A. (2016). Suicide and suicidal behaviour. The Lancet, 387(10024),
1227-1239.
www. cosmosmagazine.com, (2017) Cannabis and mental illness link to violence | Cosmos.
(2017). Cosmosmagazine.com. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/cannabis-and-mental-illness-link-to-violence
www.businessinsider.in, (2017) This psychological disorder makes people pull out their own
hair. (2017). Business Insider. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
http://www.businessinsider.in/This-psychological-disorder-makes-people-pull-out-their-
own-hair/articleshow/61029342.cms
www.medicalxpress.com. (2017) Psychosocial factors, psychological disorders and violent
crime. (2017). Medicalxpress.com. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-psychosocial-factors-psychological-disorders-
violent.html
www.news.com.au. (2017). ‘I pull out my hair when I’m stressed’. NewsComAu. Retrieved 11
October 2017, from http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mind/i-pull-out-my-hair-
when-im-stressed-so-i-asked-two-psychologists-what-to-do/news-story/
988674d8dbd86197a0b451502c4bea96
www.theconversation.com. (2017). Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of
childhood trauma. The Conversation. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://theconversation.com/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-
childhood-trauma-85076

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Zilio, D. (2016). On the autonomy of psychology from neuroscience: A case study of Skinner’s
radical behaviorism and behavior analysis. Review of General Psychology, 20(2), 155.
Zipf, G. K. (2016). Human behavior and the principle of least effort: An introduction to human
ecology. Ravenio Books.

11BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Appendix
Press article 1: www.businessinsider.in, (2017) This psychological disorder makes people pull
out their own hair. (2017). Business Insider. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
http://www.businessinsider.in/This-psychological-disorder-makes-people-pull-out-their-
own-hair/articleshow/61029342.cms

12BIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR
Press article 2: www.news.com.au. (2017). ‘I pull out my hair when I’m stressed’. NewsComAu.
Retrieved 11 October 2017, from http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mind/i-pull-out-
my-hair-when-im-stressed-so-i-asked-two-psychologists-what-to-do/news-story/
988674d8dbd86197a0b451502c4bea96

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Press article 3: Thomas, R. (2017). About a third of high school teens are self-harming, long-term
study finds. Stuff. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/97726318/about-a-third-of-high-school-teens-are-
selfharming-longterm-study-finds

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Press article 4: www.medicalxpress.com. (2017) Psychosocial factors, psychological disorders and
violent crime. (2017). Medicalxpress.com. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-psychosocial-factors-psychological-disorders-
violent.html

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Press article 5: www.theconversation.com. (2017). Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the
result of childhood trauma. The Conversation. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from
https://theconversation.com/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-
childhood-trauma-85076