Apathy and Stereotypes Behavior
The effective solution of problems involves actiol!. and so does the substitute adjustments of defensive behavior. In contrnst are two other forms of adjustment characterized by inaction on the one hand and by behaving with oversimplified and fixed responses on the other. The first is apathy in which our behavior is listless and indifferent. The second is stereotyped behavior wherehy we fall back on some "programmed" set of responses which we tend to repeat. Like defense mechanisms, these are comfortable forms of adjustment. Life situations are conducive to their use even in those of us who iike to believe we are well adjusted. We get tired of fighting back, particularly when resistance makes the situation even more threatening. We learn that aggression 'or counteraggression is not always the sole or best response to frustration. We also find that our defensive plays do not always work arid that we need some virtually "automatic" behavior to keep us going. The person who bas given up smoking will say tbat he often lit a cigarette when he didn't have another way to respond ·to some stressful situation: "It took me a long. time to find out what to do with my hands when I was made to feel uncomfortable.
Apathy
We often feel that the solution to individual and social problems is hopeless, and hopelessness induces apathy. One of the difficulties we have is deciding between the calm resignation of hopelessness and the defensively maintained feeling that there is no real problem in the first place. When the odds are too great, the resolution too remote, the punishment for aggression too severe, the defensive response not on tap, apathy results. Fortunately, most of us never reach a state of complete apathy, such as has been found in studies of some war prisoners who were victims of prolonged degradation and deprivation ith the result that they became utterly indifferent to their surroundings.
An environment filled with persistent frustration can breed apathy. Through the news media. television, and from personal bservations we see so much of the negative that we tend to become ",pathetic to situations which we believe are beyond our control, and even to those capable of control. Apathy, in the extreme and at critical es, can become a threat to mental health.
Stereotyped Behavior
While the efficient problem solver keeps his behavior flexible and ~arches for new ways to attack his problems, the opposite is true of the person who behaves in a fixed, repetitive way. His responses are :ereotyped, that is, rigid, unchanged by circumstances. This type of on may try to categorize groups of people by neat labels whether these labels apply to individuals within the group or not. His behavior
become so stereotyped, so rigid, that effective alternatives no ger exist. Some people seem to program their responses so narrowin order to avoid conflict and frustration, that they do not allow selves any openness to experience. Of course, we are tempted to seek the simple solution when we become overwhelmed with probs.
