Definition of abnormality

• What is cultural relativism?

  The belief that all cultural practices and beliefs should be understood and evaluated within their own cultural context.
• What is abnormality as a statistical infrequency?

  • Behaviour is abnormal due to statistical nature.
  • Assuming behaviour is equally distributed, people who are 2 standard deviations below or above the mean are abnormal
  • Extreme 2.145%.
• Are all the evaluations for every definition negative or positive?

  Negative
• Negative evaluation of statistical infrequency regarding desirability?

  • Does not take into account the desirability of a certain behaviour.
  • Desirable is high iq and low anxiety, it is beneficial but we do not want to term it as abnormal.
  • Some are frequent like depression but we have to class them as normal.
• Negative evaluation of statistical infrequency regarding reliability of data?

  • Statistical data can be unreliable - depending on accurate data.
  • Gender bias reflects male and female socialisation rather than the true reflection of a disorder.
  • Females are more likely to consult but males bottle up their feelings.
  • Bennet believed that socialisation created alienating masculine stereotypes.
  • This is flawed.
• What is abnormality as a deviation from social norms?

  Society has rules about what is acceptable like beliefs or values. It is abnormal if it is different from what is “proper” or “acceptable”
• Negative evaluation of deviation from social norms regarding changing moral standards?


  • It is related to moral standards that can change over time as a consequence of prevailing social attitudes.
  • For example, it was not acceptable to have a child out of marriage or to be gay, it was considered a mental illness until in 1973 in the DSM.
  • Therefore, in using this definition we are inconsistent and the meaning of abnormality can change over time.
• Negative evaluation of deviation from social norms regarding ddiffernece of cultures?


  • Cultural relativism - social standards change from culture to culture, one culture’s norms should not be used to define another’s norms.
  • The Sun Dance ceremony requires native Indians piercing their skin with skewers as a sacrifice for tribute.
  • Other people in other countries would view birth control, one spouse and bottle-feeding infants as abnormal.
  • It uses incorrect diagnosis of abnormality 
• What is abnormality as a failure to function adequately?

  • These are behaviours preventing from performing everyday tasks of everyday life such as working or motivation for hygiene are abnormal.
  • One of the ways to assess this is the global assessment of functioning scale.
  • This is a scale from 0-100 where 100 is superior functioning
  • 10 is persistent danger of self harm
  • 60 is moderate symptoms with moderate difficulty in social functioning e.g few friends, conflicts with peers
• Negative evaluation failure to function regarding ethical issues?


   

  • It involves making subjective judgements as to what makes failure to function.
  • Who makes the judgement?
  • There are ethical issues with this regarding doctors making subjective judgements about people’s functioning and they end up labelling the patients as well.
  • However, individuals may not be able to decide either, for example, schizophrenics will deny they have a mental disorder
• Negative evaluation of failure to function regarding lack of coping?

  • Some ‘normal’ people will fail to cope with demands in life at certain times like before a stressful exam.
  • If a person does cope, we may deem them abnormal.
  • The definition is flawed as there are situations when not coping is not abnormal. 
• What is the abnormality of deviation from ideal mental health?

  • Abnormal behaviour deviates from the ideal of how people should behave.
  • According to Jahoda (1958)  - ideal mental health has 6 sets of criteria
• What are the 6 sets of criteria for deviation from ideal mental health by Jahoda (1958)?

  1. Positive attitude towards oneself 
  2. Ability to self-actualise
  3. Ability to resist stress
  4. Personal autonomy 
  5. Accurate perception of reality 
  6. Ability to adapt to one’s environment
• Negative evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health regarding the demanding nature of the criteria?


  • Criteria are so demanding for mental health that everyone would be considered abnormal.
  • Very few people reach self-actualisation.
• Negative evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health regarding cultural relativism?

  • It only uses individualistic cultures
  • In collectivist cultures, personal autonomy is thought to be far from ideal and even unhealthy as people are expected to work together.
  • Perceptions of reality are dependent on cultural and religious beliefs as well.
  • Trobriand islanders believe in flying witch that must fuse with the spirit of woman to be pregnant.
  • We would see these as an inaccurate perception of reality and diagnose mental illness.
  • This may result in incorrect diagnosis of abnormality
• Negative evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health regarding depressive relativism?

  • Accurate perception of reality is not a characteristic of normal people.
  • Taylor (1989) reports they see the world more accurately than clinically normal people - ‘depressive realism’.
  • People create positive illusions to protect themselves from reality.
  • They make much more accurate assessments of the world.
  • Accurate perception as an ideal mental health is flawed
• Negative evaluation of deviation from ideal mental health regarding "changing knowledge"?


  • Perceptions of reality change with new knowledge.
  • Flat Earthers thought they were correct but anyone who challenged it was seen as abnormal.
  • Abnormality would change over time and be inconsistent