ETHOLOGY

Ethology is the systematic study of

animal behavior.
In 1973 theNobel Prize in psychiatry
and medicine was awarded to three
ethologists, Karl von Frisch, Konrad
Lorenz, and Nikolaas Tinbergen.
Those awards highlighted the special
relevance of ethology, not only for
medicine, but also for psychiatry.

Konrad Lorenz
Born in Austria, Konrad Lorenz is best
known for his studies of imprinting.
Imprinting implies that, during a
certain short period of development,
a young animal is highly sensitive to
a certain stimulus that then, but not
at other times, provokes a specific
behavior pattern.

 Lorenz is also well known for his study of

aggression. He wrote about the practical
function of aggression, such as territorial
defense by fish and birds.
Aggression among members of the same
species is common, but Lorenz pointed out that
in normal conditions, it seldom leads to killing
or even to serious injury. Although animals
attack one another, a certain balance appears
between tendencies to fight and flight, with the
tendency to fight being strongest in the center
of the territory and the tendency to flight
strongest at a distance from the center.

NIKOLAAS TINBERGEN
Born in the Netherlands, Nikolaas
Tinbergen,
a
British
zoologist,
conducted a series of experiments to
analyze various aspects of animals'
behavior.
He was also successful in quantifying
behavior and in measuring the power
or strength of various stimuli in
eliciting specific behavior.

 Lorenz and Tinbergen described

innate
releasing
mechanisms,
animals' responses triggered by
releasers,
which
are
specific
environmental
stimuli.
Releasers
(including shapes, colors, and sounds)
evoke sexual, aggressive, or other
responses. For example, big eyes in
human infants evoke more caretaking
behavior than do small eyes.

KARL VON FRISCH

Born in Austria, Karl von Frisch is most
widely known for his analysis of how bees
communicate with one another that is,
their language, or what is known as their
dances.
His description of the exceedingly
complex behavior of bees prompted an
investigation of communication systems in
other animal species, including humans.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN
COMMUNICATION

 A human's communicative
operations are based on two
fundamentally different
symbolization systems:
1. Nonverbal communication rests
on the analogue principle, and
2. Verbal codification rests on the
digital principle.

SUBHUMAN PRIMATE
DEVELOPMENT

 An area of animal research that has

relevance to human behavior and
psychopathology is the longitudinal study
of nonhuman primates. Monkeys have
been observed from birth to maturity, not
only in their natural habitats and
laboratory
facsimiles
but
also
in
laboratory settings that involve various
degrees of social deprivation early in life.
Social deprivation has been produced
through two predominant conditions:
social isolation and separation.

TREATMENT OF ABNORMAL
BEHAVIOR
Stephen Suomi demonstrated that
monkey isolates can be rehabilitated
if they are exposed to monkeys that
promote physical contact without
threatening the isolates with
aggression or overly complex play
interactions.

INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES
Recent research has revealed that some rhesus monkey
infants consistently display fearfulness and anxiety in
situations in which similarly reared peers show normal
exploratory behavior and play.
Long-term follow-up study of these monkeys has
revealed some behavioral differences between fearful
and nonfearful female monkeys when they become
adults and have their first infants.
Fearful female monkeys who grow up in socially benign
and stable environments typically become fine mothers,
but fearful female monkeys who have reacted with
depression to frequent social separations during
childhood are at high risk for maternal dysfunction

EXPERIMENTAL
DISORDERS

STRESS SYNDROMES
Several researchers, including Ivan
Petrovich Pavlov in Russia and W.
Horsley Gantt and Howard Scott
Liddell in the United States, studied
the effects of stressful environments
on animals.

 Pavlov produced a phenomenon in dogs, which

he labeled experimental neurosis, by the use of
a conditioning technique that led to symptoms of
extreme and persistent agitation.
Gantt used the term behavior disorders to
describe the reactions he elicited from dogs
forced into similar conflictual learning situations.
Liddell described the stress response he obtained
in sheep, goats, and dogs as experimental
neurasthenia, which was produced in some
cases by merely doubling the number of daily test
trials in an unscheduled manner.

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
The
learned
helplessness
model
of
depression,
developed
by
Martin
Seligman, is a good example of an
experimental disorder. Dogs were exposed
to electric shocks from which they could not
escape. The dogs eventually gave up and
made no attempt to escape new shocks. The
apparent giving up generalized to other
situations, and eventually the dogs always
appeared to be helpless and apathetic.

 In
connection
with
learned
helplessness and the expectation of
inescapable punishment, research on
subjects has revealed brain release
of endogenous opiates, destructive
effects on the immune system, and
elevation of the pain threshold.

UNPREDICTABLE STRESS
Rats subjected to chronic unpredictable
stress (crowding, shocks, irregular feeding,
and interrupted sleep time) show decreases
in movement and exploratory behavior; this
finding
illustrates
the
roles
of
unpredictability and lack of environmental
control in producing stress. These behavioral
changes can be reversed by antidepressant
medication. Animals under experimental
stress become tense, restless, hyperirritable,
or inhibited in certain conflict situations.

DOMINANCE
Being more dominant than peers is
associated with elation, and a fall in
position
in
the
hierarchy
is
associated with depression.

TEMPERAMENT
Temperament mediated by genetics plays a role in
behavior.
For example, one group of pointer dogs was bred for
fearfulness and a lack of friendliness toward persons,
and another group was bred for the opposite
characteristics. The phobic dogs were extremely timid
and fearful and showed decreased exploratory capacity,
increased startle response, and cardiac arrhythmias.
Benzodiazepines diminished these fearful, anxious
responses.
Amphetamines
and
cocaine
aggravated
the
responses of genetically nervous dogs to a greater
extent than they did the responses of the stable dogs.

BRAIN STIMULATION
Catecholamine
production
increases
with self-stimulation of the brain area, and
drugs that decrease catecholamines
decrease the process.
The centers for sexual pleasure and opioid
reception are closely related anatomically.
Heroin addicts report that the so-called
rush after intravenous injection of heroin
is akin to an intense sexual orgasm.

PHARMACOLOGICAL
SYNDROMES
With the emergence of biological
psychiatry, many researchers have used
pharmacological means to produce
syndrome analogues in animal subjects.
Two classic examples are the reserpine
(Serpasil) model of depression and the
amphetamine psychosis model of
paranoid schizophrenia.

SENSORY DEPRIVATION

 The history of sensory deprivation

and its potentially deleterious effects
evolved from instances of aberrant
mental
behavior
in
explorers,
shipwrecked sailors, and prisoners in
solitary confinement.

PSYCHOLOGICAL
THEORIES

 Anticipating
psychological
explanation, Sigmund Freud wrote:
It is interesting to speculate what
could happen to ego function if the
excitations or stimuli from the
external world were either drastically
diminished or repetitive. Would there
be an alteration in the unconscious
mental processes and an effect upon
the conceptualization of time?

 Indeed, under conditions of sensory

deprivation, the abrogation of such
ego functions as perceptual contact
with reality and logical thinking
brings about confusion, irrationality,
fantasy
formation,
hallucinatory
activity, and wish-dominated mental
reactions.

COGNITIVE
Cognitive theories stress that the
organism is an informationprocessing
machine, whose purpose is optimal
adaptation
to
the
perceived
environment.
Lacking
sufficient
information, the machine cannot form
a cognitive map against which current
experience is matched. Disorganization
and maladaptation then result.

PHYSIOLOGICAL
THEORIES

 The maintenance of optimal conscious

awareness and accurate reality testing
depends on a necessary state of alertness.
This alert
state, in turn, depends on a
constant stream of changing stimuli from the
external
world, mediated
through
the
ascending reticular activating system in the
brainstem. In the absence or impairment of
such a stream, as occurs in sensory
deprivation, alertness drops away, direct
contact with the outside world diminishes, and
impulses from the inner body and the central
nervous system may gain prominence.

ANTHROPOLOGY AND CROSSCULTURAL PSYCHIATRY

4.6

 Anthropology is the study of human

beings. The relationship between
anthropology and psychiatry are
mainly
limited
to
cultural
psychiatry: the definition of culture,
interaction between it and the
individual,
culture-specific
syndromes,
and
crosscultural
differences in definitions of health,
illness, and healing.

 In
psychiatry,
the
increasingly
acknowledged evidence of biological factors
has altered the view of persons as largely
determined by the outcome of relationships
shaping children's earliest years. And,
although
anthropological
cross-cultural
studies have focused on differences as well
as similarities in human beings, some
anthropologists have emphasized that people
cannot be independent of their cultures and
that even the attempt to study cross-cultural
behavior is a culturally bound viewpoint.

PSYCHOANALYTICAL
THEORY
Beginning
with
Sigmund
Freud,
psychoanalysts have applied their insights to
cultural data. In his 1913 work Totem and
Taboo, Freud described the earliest humans as
a group of brothers who killed and devoured
their violent primal father.
This criminal act and the so-called totem
meal
made
the
brothers
feel
guilty.
Consequently, they formulated rules to
prevent similar acts from occurring, and these
rules were the beginning of social organization.

MARGARET MEAD
In her Coming of Age in Samoa, published in 1928,
Mead described a society in the South Pacific in which
adolescent turmoil widely believed at the time to be
universal appeared not to exist. This was the result,
she argued, of the unusual Samoan culture that
nurtured open, nonpossessive sexual relationships
among adolescents, encouraged communal child
rearing,
and
denigrated
aggressiveness
and
competitiveness.
Her Coming of Age in Samoa (published in 1928) gave a
favorable picture of many aspects of life in a primitive
society and was influential in establishing an attitude of
cultural relativism among many scientists and thinkers.

PSYCHOSOCIAL GROWTH
The effects of early life experiences on adult mental
health and the explanations for deviance or
maladaptive behavior are still controversial issues.
Psychodynamic psychiatrists and theorists rely on
historical data about adverse experiences to explain
later behavior; but new work shows that few
experiences are irreversible. Some affection-deprived
children described by John Bowlby were able to grow up
capable of forming attachments if other experiences
later in life were favorable. Similarly, many successful
adults come from deprived or otherwise toxic homes
and appear to be, or are, invulnerable to these
stressors.

CROSS-CULTURAL
DIAGNOSIS
Jane Murphy and Alexander Leighton studied the
incidence of psychiatric disorders cross-culturally.
Certain conclusions emerged:
(1) both the general category of psychological
deviance and at least several major syndromes
appear to be characteristic of all cultures for which
information is available;
(2) some psychiatric disorders appear to be relatively
or largely culture-specific; and
(3) it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
compare incidence or prevalence of most disorders
cross-culturally.

MEDICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
The sick role, whether in relation to
psychological or physical illness,
occurs in all cultures, but carries
many
different
meanings
and
expectations.

CROSS-CULTURAL
PSYCHIATRY

Cross-cultural psychiatry as practiced by both

anthropologists and psychiatrists has consisted of three
closely related enterprises:
(1) psychological anthropology, using psychodynamic and
other psychological theory to interpret the relationship
among elements of society and culture;
(2) comparative psychiatry, using formal epidemiological or
less formal observational and clinical methods to describe
and analyze cross-cultural variations in incidence or
prevalence of syndromes and symptoms; and
(3) medical anthropology, using traditional anthropological
methods to elucidate cross-cultural variation in the social
and cultural construction of illness from disease, and in the
elaboration of healing or care-taking roles and relationships.

 The text revision of the fourth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IVTR) provides an outline for a
cultural formulation designed to assist in the systematic evolution
and treatment of patients. The formulation calls for data on
(1) the cultural identity of the patients, including ethnicity,
involvement with original and host cultures, and language abilities;
(2) the cultural explanations and idioms of distress used by
patients and their community concerning their illness or situation;
(3) the cultural factors impacting patients' social situations,
including work, religion,and kin networks;
(4) the cultural and social status differences between the patient
and clinician that may affect assessment and treatment, including
problems with communicating, negotiating a patient-clinician
relationship, and distinguishing between normal and pathological
behaviors; and
(5) the formulation of an overall cultural assessment for diagnosis
and care.

DEFINITIONS AND KEY

CONCEPTS

CULTURE
Culture is a vast, complex concept that is
used to encompass the behavior patterns
and lifestyle of a society, a group of persons
sharing a self-sufficient system of action
that is capable of existing longer than the
life span of an individual and whose
adherents are recruited, at least in part, by
the sexual reproduction of the group
members. Culture consists of shared
symbols, artifacts, beliefs, values, and
attitudes.

 Culture is learned through contact with

family, friends, classmates, teachers,
significant persons, and the media; the
term for this process is enculturation.
Adults, such as migrants or refugees, who
only in part adopt the culture of a host
society are said to be assimilated,
whereas those who assume a new
cultural identity consonant with that of
the host culture are said to be
acculturated.

SCOPE OF CULTURE
Although the manifestations of
culture are sufficiently broad to be
considered almost infinite, the noted
American anthropologist George P.
Murdock described a long list of
features considered to be universally
present in the hundreds of societies
studied by contemporary
anthropologists.

RACE AND ETHNICITY

Traditionally, race denotes human groupings that
are biologically (and, in theory, genetically)
determined. In fact, other contemporary biologists
consider race to be poorly correlated with any
measurable biological or cultural phenomenon.
Although some characteristics of a given racial
group (e.g., skin color) may appear phenotypically
compelling, the use of the race to aggregate
individuals displaying that characteristic may
convey a false sense of distinctiveness and may
imply the existence of a biological basis for such
classification systems.

 On the other hand, ethnicity, a term

increasingly preferred by crosscultural researchers, connotes groups
of individuals sharing a sense of
common
identity,
a
common
ancestry, and shared beliefs and
history.

CULTURE AND
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Culture is an all-pervasive medium for humans.
It is driven by the human brain's unique ability
to create images and symbols and structure
them into complex wholes that, in turn, can
drive brain function to produce defined
behaviors and modulate instinctually driven
ones. The ability to mediate biologicalfunctions
via symbolic (and image) representation and
manipulation is dramatically expanded in
humans by the function of awareness or
consciousness leading to the notion of the self.

CULTURAL IDENTITY
DSM-IV-TR recommends that in
assessing an individual's cultural
identity, clinicians should note the
individual's
ethnic
or
cultural
reference group.
For immigrants and ethnic minorities,
they should assess the degree of
involvement with both culture of
origin and host culture.

 The process of acculturation is once again

key to understanding the psychological
distress
and
psychopathology
of
immigrants. The three major sources of
stress in the migration experience are
(1) entry into the host society, frequently
at lower occupational and social levels;
(2)
disruption
of
interpersonal
relationships; and
(3) the acculturation process.

CULTURE-BOUND
SYNDROMES
Extreme diversity is seen among the
peoples of the world concerning the
recognition,
classification,
and
understanding
of
mental
behavior
symptoms.
Western psychiatrists classify mental
diseases according to the DSM-IV-TR and
the tenth edition of the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), which
are thought to reflect scientific categories.

 The DSM-IVTR and ICD-10 are not

universally
applicable;
psychopathological syndromes exist,
especially in non-Western cultures
that do not fit the scientific
nomenclature unless they are placed
into
the
typicalcategory.
These
syndromes are perceived to be more
influenced by culture than are most
Western syndromes and, therefore,
have been labeled culture bound.