Definitions of abnormality

Created by

Imaan

Cards (23)

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness and mental health. It concerns the diagnosis, treatment and explanation of mental illness.
Statistical infrequency
using normal distribution rare behaviour is seen as abnormal.
two or more deviations away from the average is seen as abnormal
for exmaple, average IQ is 100. 2 or more SD away from average is seen as abnormal.
below 70 is the cut off point for what used to be called mental retardation BUT an issue with this is that a person just above the level at 71 is not considered as abnormal but will likely need help.
Evaluation - Standard Deviation
It is a useful cut off point that can form part of a clinical diagnosis for some disorders , e.g. intellectual disability disorder. It can then identify who needs help.
Evaluation - Standard Deviation
The definition does not account for the desirability of the deviation, e.g. high levels of intelligence are highly desirable
Evaluation - Standard Deviation
Not all disorders are statistically rare enough to be considered abnormal, e.g. stressm anxiety, depression
Evaluation - Standard Deviation
What is statistically abnormal in one culture may not be in another. The statistics only reflect those who have been diagnosed and have actually gone to their doctor, for e.g. depression isn't present in parts of Asia, and where it is, it is likely that if you are feeling "down" you would speak to a religious person or family.
Deviation from social norms
Abnormality is seen as behaviour that violates accepted social rules about how we should behave.
Proposes that clinically abnormal people often behave in a socially deviant way.
Rules can be explicit (policed by law) OR implicit (unstated rules about how we should behave)
Norms vary across cultures, situations, ages, generation and gender.
An e.g. of deviation from social norms is antisocial personality disorder, some features of this are aggression, impulsivity, irresponsibility and an absence of internal moral standards.
A03 - Deviation from social norms
open to interpretation
value judgements can be made about certain types of people which lead to wrongly labelling someone as abnormal
A03 - Deviation from social norms
norms change from culture to culture, e.g. a Shaman's belief that hearing voices is a ' call to becoming a Shaman' BUT in the Western world this would be diagnosed as schizophrenia
A03 - Deviation from social norms
Western social norms reflect the behaviour of the "white" population
Deviation from these norms mean that the ethnic minorities are over represented in the mental illness stats
Higher rates of schizophrenia among black people are found in Britain, but Jamaica has less similar rates. This suggests a cultural bias among British psychiatrists.
A03 - Deviation from social norms
There is an element of social control in this definition. This can lead to an abuse of someone's rights based on what society sees as abnormal, e.g. homosexuality was removed from the DSM - II in 1973 and was removed from another classification system in 1990.
Homosexuality is a good example that norms vary over time.
Failure to function adequately
An inability to cope with day to day living for e.g. not able to go to work or have interpersonal relationships.
Personal dysfunction (Rosenhan and Seligman)
Personal distress - depression and anxiety
Maladptive behaviour - behaviour that stops you attaining your goals
Unpredictability - unexpected behaviour
Irrationality - cannot be explained in a rational way
Observer discomfort - discomfort to others
Violation of moral codes - goes against morals in society
Unconventionality - displaying unconventional behaviour
A03 - Failure to function adequately
abnormality is not always accompained by dysfunction
psychopaths can cause great harm yet still appear normal
for e.g. Harold Shipman was an English Doctor who murdered over 215 of his patients over 23 years was abnormal but he did not display any features of dysfunction
A03 - Failure to function adequately
There are times in life to be distressed, for example, when grieving the loss of a loved one, it is normal to feel distressed.
A03 - Failure to function adequately
Normal functioning can vary culture to culture. When judging the normality, we should consider the place where the behaviour is occuring. What is considered vivid, unpredictable or irrational may not be to others in another culture.
A03 - Failure to function adequately

Sometimes behaviours can be helpful and even enjoyable , e.g. jumping out of a plane can incorporate vivid, unpredictable and fun for some but can be considered irrational to others
Deviation from ideal mental health
This defines abnormality as a failure to meet the criteria for a perfect psychological wellbeing.
The more characteristics that individuals fail to meet, the more abnormal they are.
Jahoda's criteria for ideal mental health:
positive attitude towards oneself (self respect and self esteem)
self-actualisation (achieving full potential)
autonomy (self reliant and independent)
resisting stress (ability to cope with stress)
accurate perception of reality (realistic perceptions)
environmental mastery (competent and flexible when dealing with change)
A03 - Deviations from ideal mental health
this is considered to be a more positive definition than the others as it has a set of criteria that is positive and focuses on desirable rather than undesirable characteristics
furthermore, it is a holistic definition, that focuses on the whole of a person rather than individual areas of their behaviour
A03 - Deviations from ideal mental health
they are incredibly hard criteria to meet
most of us are therefore not in ideal mental health and considered abnormal
the vast majority of us cannot meet this criteria
A03 - Deviations from ideal mental health
the factors focus on the individual and so it can be questioned as to how it is used in collectivist cultures.
this definition focuses on individual achievement and the collectivist cultures focus on shared goals
the definition is limited as it is more relevant to the western cultures