Discontinuity Zimbardo

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A theoretical framework is presented to understand the fundamental process

of adapting to experiential discontinuities that are of personal significance to

one's self-concept. The central dynamic of this approach is the motivation

triggered by perception of a discontinuity, which is defined as a violation of

expectation in any domain of functioning highly valued by the self. Such

discontinuities may arise from the experience of failures, deficits, or

transformations in intellectual, social, sexual, sensory, physical, or career

domains. The motivation to understand the cause of a discontinuity, and to

appear rational to one's self and others, generates a cognitive search process,

while the motivation to appear normal, to be like others, generates a social

search process. A behaviorally oriented search may be generated to take actions

to suppress the arousal and deflect or ignore the distress associated with

discontinuities. Although these three search processes are variants of what

makes humans smart, connected, and functional, they may become biased in

their operation in ways that distort their typically adaptive use. When that

happens, various forms of social pathology and psychopathology may emerge in

people without evident premorbid dispositions. These pathologies are referred to

as aspects of "madness." This broad term is used to cover a continuum from

ordinary irrationality, fears, anxieties, obsessions, compulsions, addictive

behaviors, prejudice, and mass hysteria, to more extreme forms of mental

disorders such as phobia, paranoia, and depression. Direct links are posited

between the kinds of search process biases activated in some people and the

specific forms of pathology that appear as people try to make sense of, or cope

with, their discontinuity.

Copyright © 1999 by Academic Press. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

0065-2601/99 $30.00

DISCONTINUITY THEORY:

COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL

SEARCHES FOR RATIONALITY

AND NORMALITY-MAY LEADTO MADNESS

I. Overview

345

Philip G. Zimbardo

ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTALSOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, VOL. 31

Discontinuity Zimbardo

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