what is the difference between risk factors and causes of abnormal behavior?

Answer 1

Risk factors are things that we know are correlated with abnormal behavior or psychological disorders. Risk factors raise your odds of being diagnosed with an abnormal behavior. For example, family history, imbalances in neurotransmitters, major life stressors. Just because they are correlated with abnormal behavior does not mean they cause the behavior. It could be the abnormal behavior came first and is causing the neurotransmitters to be imbalanced. Or it could be some third variable is causing both the abnormal behavior and the risk factor.

We don't know the true causes of abnormal behavior. This would take an experiment to design. That is the only way we can make causal claims. Then we can prove that one factor is causing the effects in abnormal behavior. It is often unethical to do these types of studies (e.g., randomly assign some people to experience a trauma and see who gets PTSD). So instead we rely on correlational designs, which don't allow us to make causal claims.