These hidden issues influence our conscious decisions. So, people may have both conscious and unconscious reasons for behaving as they do. People might be able to give what seem like rational reasons for behavior. Someone who sets fires might say he or she enjoys seeing the flames and likes watching the fire department put the fire out. Those may be the factors the individual is conscious of, but a psychologist might find that there were other reasons driving the person's behavior as well.
One of the things that often makes it hard for one person to understand another person's actions is that we have only observable behavior to go on. We can't examine the internal mental processes that take place. This makes it easy to judge people as acting in ways that suggest a moral flaw or lack of character. A woman who...
In addition other disorders may have both observable behaviors and internal mental processes, such as substance abuse. These problems could also be related to the other two topics talked about here - nature vs. nurture and conscious vs. unconscious behavior. There may be a genetic predisposition to alcoholism, but not everyone who has an alcoholic parent (or two) goes on to become alcoholic. If they do become an alcoholic, observation of surface behavior will suggest that they simply lack restraint and so drink when they know they should not. Internal processes, however, may make it extremely difficult for that person to make a conscious choice to not drink.
