HBCM Module 1 Part 4

MODULE 1 PART 4

The Maladjusted Personality

A MALADJUSTED PERSON is an individual whose tendency temperament is extreme or whose tendencies are in conflict to the extent that tension, strain, or anxiety is characterized as such. His personality is not well integrated, and other things being equal, he will be less satisfactory in his psychosocial interactions with others whether in the family, the workplace, or the community.

The MALADJUSTED PERSON may exhibit serious behavioral and adjustment problems causing harm to the well-being of himself and others.

One may remain adjusted WHEN HIS PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS ARE SATISFIED.

When his needs are not satisfied, HE MAY BECOME MALADJUSTED.

What are the Causes of Maladjustment?

1. 1. Unhealthy Home Environment. This includes separated family, divorced family, step-parent, drunkard or drug-addicted parents, single parenting, low moral and social standard of the family.
   2. Hereditary Causes. One may feel inferior because of inherited defective mental set-up, psychological structure, the color of the skin (race as in other countries) that may lead to maladjustment.
   3. Poverty. When poor children meet rich children in school, they sometimes develop jealousy, worry, and inferiority complex which lead to emotional disturbance.

SEVEN (7) BASIC COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY

1. The Normal Component.

SELF-CONTROL is the regulatory force in man’s make-up. It helps to bring out the best that is in man by providing a check on undesirable tendencies. The stronger this component of personality, the more man becomes inclined to forms of conduct that are by nature conservative, perfectionist, serious and calm.

2. The Hysteroid Component

People with a strong degree of the hysteroid component have a great interest in acquiring wealth. They seem to judge everything and everybody in terms of material things. These people like to gamble, not just for the love of gambling but for the opportunity to make a quick wealth without working for it. All their activities seem to be characterized by a lack of a sense of fair play. Additional characteristics of this behavioral component are that people with strong hysteroid components tend to push undesirable work assignments to others.

3. The Manic Component

The third component has something to do with sociability. The need for belongingness is innate in humans. Most people enjoy milieus where social interactions occur such as in parties, dinners, and luncheons. The following are some of the descriptions of the manic component of personality:

1. 1. 1. 1. He usually had a large stock of stories and his jokes come in endless streams. He is a good entertainer and you like him because he is trying to entertain you.
         2. He is distractible by nature. He is an individual who sits in his office hoping that someone will come in and distract him. In other words, he wants to be interrupted.
         3. This person exhibits an almost inexhaustible pep and energy. He is overly sociable and prides himself on working long hours. He is a likable person, but he doesn’t get much done as he is likely to mix too much fun with work. A person of a little sociability simply lacks the ability to be friendly and cordial.

4. The Depressive Component

This person is a worrier and is very cautious and indecisive. In the extreme, he may entertain thoughts of self-destruction or suicide.

5. The Autistic Component

It is distinguished by a characteristic triad of symptoms: (1) impairments in social interaction; (2) impairments in communication; and (3) restricted interests and repetitive behavior like stacking or lining objects.  Persons with a high autistic component display an inability to understand the social communication of normal people and lack the intuition about others.

6. The Paranoid Component

The paranoid component is closely allied with the autistic component. A paranoid person has a feeling of inferiority, but he feels that he would rather die than display them. He also exhibits a disregard for authority as expressed in the attitude of “down with everything” except me.

7. The Epileptoid Component

Personality pattern that includes irritability, selfishness, aggressiveness, and being uncooperative.  An epileptoid component predisposes a person to be selfish.

THE NEED FOR PSYCHOLOGY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT

There is no intention of making a PSYCHOLOGIST out of any person in two easy lessons. But every supervisor is a manager of men and his success is primarily dependent upon his understanding of people. The same with a policeman who deals with people o a daily basis, DO YOU HAVE NOW THE CAPABILITY TO DEAL PATIENTLY WITH ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE IRRESPECTIVE OF PERSONALITY BEHAVIOR? Everyone practices psychology, whether he knows it or not, every time he deals with people.

The question that abounds is: “Do Physical Characteristics have bearing on Character”? Some researchers theorized that physical appearance is a major factor in the development of personality because people form opinions by what they see in a person physically. The person, in turn, responds accordingly to these opinions thereby fulfilling the expectations they believe others have for them.

To summarize, supervisors (in office), teachers (in the classroom), or policemen (on the street)   should be aware that the men they manage or encountered have varied personalities, temperaments, and desires. By using his understanding of psychology, the former will be able to formulate strategies on how to deal with these varied individuals and elicit the best performance from them. For crisis managers like the police, crisis situations like hostage-taking require understanding the behavior of the hostage-taker in a high-stakes situation where every second is considered to achieve a peaceful resolution of the incident.

THE INFERIORITY COMPLEX

Persons suffering from an inferiority complex are extremely sensitive to criticism. They will often try to justify their faults. They often think that any criticism is directed at them. They love praise because it gives them temporary self-confidence. They do not like competition unless they are certain to win because it hurts them too much when they lose.

In effect, ANYONE must be cautious in using criticisms against these persons because this will only add to their feeling of inferiority.

THE WORRY AND STRAIN

WHY DOES MAN BECOME PROBLEMATIC? It has been said that “IT IS NOT HARD WORK THAT KILLS – IT’S WORRY.”  Worry is a killer and worriers need help. This is true for all those who work under strain or pressure. Some techniques have been offered by various authors which may be of help when persons are faced with stressful situations, AND YOU CAN DO THIS ALSO, such as:

1. 1. Face the problem squarely;
   2. Talk the problem over with understanding and sympathetic persons;
   3. Engage in physical activity like physical exercises. Research has determined that regular exercise helped individuals cope better with stress and its adverse effects;
   4. “Living life one day at a time philosophy”. An English author, Ida Scott Taylor, aptly said: “One day at a time- this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.”
   5. Used to learn the “hourglass philosophy”. The hourglass philosophy shows that there is a small window of time between the past and the future. What happens in the present holds more bearing over the future than what happens in the past. Thus, it is futile to worry about the past.
   6. Lastly, a person’s environment contains two (2) sets of factors: (1) those which are controllable and (2) those which are uncontrollable. A person should focus on what can be controlled while exerting efforts to mitigate the effects of the uncontrollable.

MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT

MAN is the greatest creation of God as he was created through His own image and likeness. This makes a man a masterpiece of God. The man was endowed by God with three (3) faculties: The Intellect; the Will and the Soul. Through these faculties, a man was able to change his environment to suit his needs. However, this came with a heavy price as shown by the events in the last 150 years where the rapid advancement of human technology wreaked havoc on the environment such as climate change and environmental pollution.

THE FORCES IN MAN’S ENVIRONMENT

Man is in direct contact with numerous forces in his environment. These interactions must be on a balanced basis otherwise catastrophic incidents may occur. For example, the Industrial Revolution created technological advances that proved beneficial to humanity but came with a heavy prize. Climate change, mass extinctions of fauna and flora, and crop failure are only some of the prizes that man has to pay for his lopsided interaction with the environment.

These forces are lumped up into three (3) major categories:

1. 1. Biological forces – the living organism and man.
   2. Social Forces – the relationship of man with his or her fellow.
   3. Physical Forces – the material pressures surrounding a man.

Remember that all these three (3) forces will affect the attitude and behavior of men irrespective of their behavior and personality.

THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION (SOCIAL FORCES)

Individuals may not be aware that, in any social situation, a pattern of behavior is being followed and accepted by the participants. Every action of man is perceived by another wherein the latter gives meaning and interprets it according to his perception of the action. Eventually, the individual responds according to his own interpretation of the action. Generally, the individual interpretations are conditioned and determined by his own culture and the responses to this action are often influenced by the set of norms that he believed in.

1. SOCIAL INTERACTION. Social interaction is the process of defining and responding to the various actions and reactions of individuals in a social situation. Social interactions go on smoothly if the individuals interacting share a common understanding of the actions and situations where they are in. They must have a common definition of the situation and the same interpretation of the situation.
2. SOCIAL PROCESSES. The interaction may also pertain to the mutual experiences shared by individuals in their attempt to solve the problems as they strive toward the attainment of their goals. Every society sets its collective goals and defines the acceptable ways to achieve them either through mutual effort, competition, or opposition.

1. Process of Opposition: Conflict & Competition

Conflict and competition are processes that involve struggle against other people for a particular goal or value. These processes stem out from the scarcity of resources like material, intellectual and spiritual resources. The desire to attain any of these resources and the ways these will be attained is often determined by the culture of a society.

• • Competition. Competition is different from conflict in a way that in the former, the action of the group or individual is directed toward a particular goal. The opposing groups may either be aware or unaware of each other but since the emphasis is on the end goal, the group may not find it necessary to recognize and eliminate the opponent.

• • Conflict. The elimination of the opponent is an important feature and characteristic of CONFLICT. Consequently, conflict may be defined as a direct and openly antagonistic struggle of persons or groups for the same objects or end which is generally characterized by emotional and violent opposition.
  • Cooperation. Cooperation is a social process in which people work together to achieve a common goal and to share the benefits. The mutual sharing of efforts and abilities to achieve the desired end of the individual is the common feature and characteristic of this process. Thus, people applied themselves to a particular undertaking because of the belief that any endeavor would be made easier if they help each other. Cooperation starts in the family when a child is made to see and feel the importance of working together resulting in the child acquiring the cooperative behavior pattern.

• • Differentiation. As individuals interact, they carry with them their statuses or position in the social system. The status determines the role they play in social situations. The more advance the society is, the more the members are highly differentiated. The more the population increases, the more the society becomes complex.

2. Functions of Different Social Processes

• • • The competition encourages people to exert their best. It stimulates individuals to improve their skills and widens their knowledge. Efficiency is the end result. It provides avenues for the display of skills and capabilities and therefore, assigns the position of individuals in the system.
    • Conflict, on the other hand, may also promote solidarity and unity within the group. When for example an outside force threatens the group, group members have the tendency to unite and work for hand in hand to resist the enemy. Conflict may also lead to a social change. The rise of conflict is sometimes an indicator of change.
    • Cooperation. This is the most favored in the social processes as it promotes solidarity and cohesion. The mutual alliance and cooperative undertaking strengthen the bond that ties the members of groups.
    • Differentiation of roles may depend on such factors as sex, age, wealth, education, and other factors. It has both positive and negative effects depending on the beliefs of a particular society. For example, some societies still deny women equality with men especially in matters of politics and governance. On the other hand, many societies have passed legislation for the protection and preferential treatment of children, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

3. Cooperation as Social Process; Produces other Types of Process

COOPERATION, as a social process also produces other types of processes, such as:

• • • ASSIMILATION. It refers to a cultural fusion in which two groups blend their cultures so that they become one. There is a blending of cultures.
    • ACCULTURATION. When two or more persons or groups are interacting and in contact with each other, the chance is that both groups will learn and adopt some of the traits and patterns of behavior of the group. Cultural borrowing is an important aspect of acculturation.
    • AMALGAMATION. Amalgamation is both a cause and effect of acculturation and assimilation. It refers to the inter-marriage of persons coming from different ethnic groups resulting in some kind of biological and/or social fusion.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.

SOCIAL MOVEMENT refers to those activities in which people unite in an organized, long-term effort to change their society or in which they resist and express their dissatisfaction with existing orders through outright and prolonged actions.

Classification of Social Movements:

1. 1. REACTIONARY. Reactionary attempts to preserve traditional values and social relationships.
   2. CONSERVATIVE. It seeks to maintain the status quo (in politics as a party they are REPUBLICANISM).
   3. REFORMIST. It introduces a specific type of social change in different areas of life whether religious, political, economic, or social (in politics you classify them as either DEMOCRATS or LIBERALS).
   4. REVOLUTIONARY. It changes the whole social order, changing the goals and replacement of the institutionalized means to achieve the goals. This movement also believes in the use of radical and violent means to achieve goals (in the dynamics of governance this is whom you call rebels, secessionist or separatist movement).

YOUR TAKEAWAYS:

This is a group activity!

• • Based on this last module, describe now the relevance of psychology and human behavior to the police or public safety profession.
  • If some of you become a penologist, how do you consider “mass rehabilitation of prisoner”? Would you think this is effective based on what you learned regarding the behavior and personality of man?
  • Are there direct relations of the environment to the behavior of man?
  • Identify some of the common effects of the different forces in your life such as:
    • • Biological Forces – Bakit ka naapektuhan at ano ang epekto sayo ng mga bagay na may buhay sa iyong paligid (halaman, hayop at tao)
      • Social Forces – Bakit ka naapektuhan at ano ang epekto sayo ng iyong kumunidad at pamayanan. Kung ikaw ang tatanungin base sa iyong karanasan anong pwersa ang maganda at di maganda na maaaring idulot nito?
      • Physical Forces – Kung ang biological ay mga buhay na bagay, ang physical forces naman ay mga bagay na walang buhay pero nakakapagdulot ng pressure sa buhay ng tao. Anong physical forces ang kadalasan maaring makapagpabago sa isipan at ugali ng tao?
  • What do you think are the most important contributions of SOCIAL PROCESS like competition, conflict, cooperation, and differentiation? Kailangan ba talagang may ganito sa ating sosyedad (reactionary, revolutionary, etc)?

(submit your answer through PDF in my email wrberalde@gmail.com)

ENJOY LEARNING WHILE READING AND SURFING!