Environmental Factors In Abnormal Psychology

Throughout Abnormal Psychology, we have learned different aspects that play a role in mental abnormalities that lead one to become more symptomatic. One specific element that has been very prevailing throughout this course is environmental factors. Although, genetic factors are a major part, one 's environment also plays an almost equal effect too. When observing individuals who are susceptible to mental illnesses or even those who already portray/acquire these illnesses, one can witness that these environmental factors, in a sense, enhance or are even the reason for the increasing number of people that are considered to be on the spectrum of many mental illnesses. In support of environmental factors having a role in these abnormalities, I …show more content…
Well, according to this article, one completes tasks that are considered meaningful to oneself, which in essence, activates many brain areas associated with the cause of depression. For comprehending how these depression related regions work, one should understand how one 's brain is mapped. The starting point would be considered one 's pleasure center, also known as one 's nucleus accumbens. This brain region actually allows one to react properly to stimulus stemming from one 's environment. To have this region activated, one must utilize movement. The most crucial form of this would be our hands because “they allow us to gain control of our environment… movement—and especially hand movements that lead to a desired outcome… prevents the onset of and building resilience against depression and other emotional disorders”[100]. With knowing the multiple effects that this one particular region has, one must also see how these effects occur; which leads to the other importance of this region being its positioning in the brain. The accumbens is located in close proximity to one 's motor system ( for movements), one 's limbic system ( involved in one 's emotions and learning) and finally it extends to one 's prefrontal cortex (controls one 's thought processes; including problem solving, making decisions and planning things). All of these regions work together in order to create "a critical interface between our emotions and our actions"; Therefore creating the "effort-driven reward circuit" [101]. An example to illustrate this co-working evidence of brain regions, the author spoke upon a study done with laboratory rats. Writhing this study, there were "working rats" and "trust fund rats" to depict the different lifestyles of generations as previously described. When doing a reward revealing task, the results show that the working rats immediately started on their