Essay Example on Understanding Conflict Theory: Causes & Implications of Social Conflicts

There are different types of conflicts in any environment. For example, a conflict can be caused by cultural differences, poor communication, and unlimited resources in a working place. According to Karl Marx, the rise of conflict in a society is led by a higher competition of the available resources (Brutti & Montolio, 2019). Also, the conflict theory states that social order is highly maintained by power. Thus, there is a perception that individuals with power, as well as, wealth use them to harass the poor and powerless. Therefore, this task will review how different factors may determine a person's mindset, i.e., how mental disorder may change behaviors of a person in relation to a book of "A Brain on fire: My month of madness."

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

For many years, people have always asked this question about crime, "Why mental illness exists?" There are a number of theories that have attempted to respond to this question, but one to have a piece of clear evidence. These two theories show that the social environment is one of the factors that can cause mental illness. Also, they show that biological factors can lead to this infection due to genetic hereditary.

In the book "A Brain on fire: My month of madness," the writer clearly explains how the environment, as well as biological factors, can lead to mental illness. Susannah is one of the main characters in this particular book, and the effects of the environment have highly affected her life. The fact that Susannah attempted to jump out of a moving vehicle clearly shows that this lady was mentally affected.

According to Classical and Rogerian arguments, there two particular theories that bring the best concept as to why social and biological factors determine the behavior of a person. Also, the combination of these two factors forms a mindset to a person, and he or she can choose whether or not to engage himself or herself into criminal behavior, like becoming a drug addict. To understand how a person can be influenced mentally by the following factors;

The physical surroundings, different cultures, as well as social relationships, highly define how people interact or function in an environment. For example, Dr. Bailey, who is one of the characters in this book, insists that Susannah is affected by the fact that she withdrew from taking alcohol. Susannah is a journalist, and a lover to Stephen seems to be suffering from a mental illness due to her job stress. In reaction to this, she feels so jealous, and she starts reading her boyfriend's email messages. The social environment also influences the behavior of children in terms of values, morals, as well as beliefs at an early age. Thus, from these morals, beliefs, and values, they usually form a system which helps these individuals in decision making in their life. According to some studies, almost 61 percent of the residents living in the cities, social factors typically influence a person either directly or sometimes indirectly towards crime or violence (Blinkhorn, Lyons & Almond, 2019). For example, in most of the Urban societies in the world, the rate of crime, as well as violent, express a serious threat to young children, as they may start having criminal behavior at an early stage. Thus, a person's lifestyle contributes some individuals to criminal behaviors.

When the doctors connected this individual with a hospital machine, Susannah insisted that the hospital staff should not allow her dad to get in the room she was. Later, Susannah hallucinated that the staff in the hospitals are watching her while she is in the washroom, and she tried to escape. The following morning, Doctor Siegel and Russo examined her, and she was diagnosed with unspecified psychotic or mood disorder or even bipolar disorder. According to some studies, most of these disorders are genetically acquired. Genes of a person may affect how a person's brains usually function. For example, it may either increase or even decrease the chances of how a person may learn behavior patterns (Brutti & Montolio, 2019). There are many questions about how criminal behavior is connected to genetics. Some of the researchers have shown it clearly that this can be possible, as genetics usually play significant roles in a person's behavior. For example, the behavior of Susannah is highly affected by mental illness to a point he starts saying that the reports on she could view on Television were discussing her. Also, during the conception and development of a child, genetics highly plays a role, and there is a possibility that it may lead to illegal behaviors (Nedelec & Silver, 2019).

In some cases, mental illnesses are turned on by social, physical, and cultural factors. For example, Susannah's condition was worsening due to the fact that some individuals were not accepting her after she was discharged out of the hospital. For instance, her boyfriend's nephew was very scared of Susannah's condition when he saw her. Also, whenever Susannah would attend family parties as well as weddings, she would feel ashamed of her look, and this lead to low self-esteem. However, her mother was always there for her and made sure that her girl is fine. According to some studies, low self-esteem, as well as emotional issues can lead to mental illness and is these disorders are not treated early, it might lead to other serious problems (Blinkhorn, Lyons & Almond, 2019). For example, there are possibilities that a kid born by people who are addicts of drug substance may also become an addict later in his or her life. For instance, they can start criminal thinking of behaviors (Oberai, Jain, Khosla, Arora & Dewan, 2017).

From my perspective, Susannah's illness was there influenced by either biological factor or social environment. For example, maybe Susannah's family linage has genes connected with mental illness, or if it's a social factor, the disease can be influenced by; domestic violence, child abuse, and emotional harm. According to some researches, these factors highly impacts childhood abuse as well as neglects of violent behavior, and they may become mentally affected (Smith, 2017). Also, from these researchers, they show that adults who were physically, emotionally, or sexually abused when they were children can be more exposed to get the mental illness as compared to those non-abused adults.

Criminal behavior or traits may lead to a complicated lifestyle of mental disorder like the case of Susannah. Simply because these traits, as well as the behaviors, highly contribute to a very poor decision-making process in someone's life. For example, in the novel, there is a part whereby Susannah attempted to jump out of a car when she was being taken to the hospital. In case she was able to jump, serious injuries could have occurred or even death. However, this factor does not only exist in a social environment, but they may also be connected to biological factors.

Although mental disorders may be led by different factors, and many researchers are still trying to research what is the root cause. I can state that; biological, social factors, as well as other factors like abuse and violence, highly contribute a person to different mental disorders. On the other hand, crimes occur due to different reasons, and most of them are led by mental illness (Smith, 2017). Thus, this one of the contributing factors that cause people to develop criminal behaviors. Even if most of the researchers, as well as their projects, are showing that social media can lead to mental disorders.

Differences between individuals in an environment cause conflict issues. For example, when Susannah was taking to the hospital, the environment was not friendly, and she started hallucinating, and she even attempted to escape. The conflicts between her and the staff in the hospital made the doctors call her farther because she was very violent. According to researchers, conflicts can lead to serious impacts on someone's life or even in society. For example, criminal behavior or activities may lead to conflicts in a community. Thus, it is important for people to understand the effects of engaging in criminal activities as they can lead to mental illness or even cause death.

Conclusion

To sum up, environmental factors are highly connected to mental diseases, which can lead to criminal minds. For example, a person may develop criminal behavior as a result of mental illness. For instance, in our case, it seems as if Susannah was affected by mental disorder due to her professional position (as a journalist). Being a public figure can cause serious stress or even depression to an individual. For instance, when one is trying to fit in the public environment, it can be challenging.

Although environmental factors are viewed as the main influencer of mental infections, biological factors also contribute to this issue. Simply because genetic traits are hereditary, as are passed from one generation to the other; thus, a mental illness may be shifted to the lineage of a family. Also, they are other factors that may lead to criminal behavior in a person's life other than mental illness.

References

Blinkhorn, V., Lyons, M., & Almond, L. (2019). Criminal minds: narcissism predicts offending behavior in a non-forensic sample. Deviant Behavior, 40(3), 353-360.

Brutti, Z., & Montolio, D. (2019). Preventing criminal minds: early education access and adult offending behavior.

Park, M., Seo, J., Kim, K., Park, M., & Lee, K. (2017, October). Criminal Minds: Reasoning Prime Suspect in Russian Hacking Scandal by Perspective of Insiders. In Proceedings of the 2017 International Workshop on Managing Insider Security Threats (pp. 97-100).

Smith, R. J. (2017). The relationship between adolescent prosocial moral reasoning, risk-taking, and perceived environment to prosocial behaviors (Doctoral dissertation, Fielding Graduate University).

Oberai, A., Jain, M., Khosla, G., Arora, M., & Dewan, P. (2017). MINING OF CRIMINAL MINDSET AND GEOSPATIAL CRIME PATTERN DETECTION. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 8(9).

Nedelec, J. L., & Silver, I. A. (2019). Challenging assumptions: A genetically sensitive assessment of the criminogenic effect of contact with the criminal justice system. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 35(1), 69-86.