Definitions of Abnormality

• Psychopathology is the study of mental health conditions such as OCD, depression, and phobias.
• Psycho refers to the mind and pathology is the study of disease.
• In the Psychopathology video series, different psychological approaches are used to explain and treat mental health conditions: the behaviorist approach for phobias, the cognitive approach for depression, and the biological approach for OCD.
• Abnormality is a complex concept that can be defined in different ways.
• Statistical and frequency is a definition of abnormality that considers someone as mentally abnormal if their mental condition is very rare in the population.
• Intelligence can be measured using IQ, with an average IQ of 100 and two standard deviations away from the average being considered as low intelligence.
• Statistical and frequency includes those people with low intelligence and those at the higher end of intelligence, which is statistically rare.
• Failure to function adequately is a definition of abnormality that considers an individual's ability to cope in their daily lives, including their ability to interact with the world.
• Resistance to stress refers to the internal strength to cope with the anxiety caused by daily life.
• Self-actualization is the ability to reach one's potential through personal growth.
• A positive evaluation of the deviation from ideal mental health definition is that it's a positive and holistic approach to mental health that takes into account multiple factors in diagnosis and provides suggestions for personal development.
• Using deviation from social norms as a definition of abnormality can be difficult to apply when people from one culture move to a different culture with different norms.
• Category failure is a term that refers to the application of a western definition of mental illness to individuals who are not acting according to Western cultural norms in Afro-Caribbean cultures, hallucinations and conversations of angels may be considered part of a normal religious experience, making it less likely for a doctor in the West Indies to diagnose schizophrenia based on these symptoms.
• The deviation from ideal mental health definition comes from a humanistic perspective, focusing on ways to improve and become a better person.
• People from an Afro-Caribbean background living in the UK are seven times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than people living in the UK or people from Afro-Caribbean Nations living in Afro-Caribbean Nations.
• The definition respects individuals and their own experience, something that other definitions such as statistical and frequency and deviation from social norms don't.
• Autonomy is the ability to act independently and trust in one's abilities.
• Environmental Mastery refers to the ability to adapt and thrive in new situations.
• Jehoda identifies six features of Ideal Mental Health according to Jehoda, deviation from these features may indicate abnormality.
• Deviation from social norms is not ethnocentric.
• Personal anguish is when individuals suffer from anxiety and distress as a result of their inability to cope with day-to-day life.
• Unconventionality is when someone's behavior goes against what is typically expected in society, such as inappropriate behavior at work or an unusual sense of dress.
• A criticism of the failure to function definition of abnormality is that the decision about whether someone's coping or not is subjective and based on the opinion of observers, which means that two observers might not agree on whether someone's coping or not.
• Maladaptive behavior is where an individual behaves in ways that goes against their long-term interests, such as self-harm or unhealthy patterns of eating or interacting with others in ways that damage relationships.
• Deviation from social norms is when an individual's behavior deviates from an Unwritten expectation of behavior that can vary from culture to culture and change over time, and people who deviate from these expectations may be seen as abnormal or social deviants.
• Respecting cultural differences between societies is a positive aspect of the failure to function definition of abnormality, as it does not impose a set definition of abnormality that could for example impose a western view of abnormality or an Eastern culture.
• Rationality is when it's difficult to understand the motivation behind someone's behavior, which is linked to predictability and unexpected behavior.
• Another criticism of the failure to function definition of abnormality is that it respects individual and their own experience, which is something that other definitions such as statistical and frequency and deviation from social norms cannot do.
• The failure to function definition of abnormality excludes some people who would be considered abnormal such as psychopaths, who are often able to function in society in ways that make them successful.
• Observer discomfort is when an individual's behavior causes distress to those around them, such as poor personal hygiene or not respecting other people's personal space.
• Rosenhan and Seligman have outlined several features of failure to function, which are maladaptive behavior, personal anguish, observer discomfort, rationality, and unconventionality.