typical vs atypical

• Cultural Perspective


  • Standards determined by a specific culture
  • What the culture perceives to be appropriate
  • No universal agreement, differences within cultures
  • Conflicting ideas within countries
  • Differentiate between atypical and unconventional behaviour
• Social Norms


  • Shared standards or beliefs about what is normal
  • Provide order and predictability
  • Informal understandings (facing door in elevator)
  • Formal rules and laws (wearing a seatbelt while driving)
  • No universal agreement
  • Social norms change over time (historical change)
• Statistical Rarity


  • What is statistically frequent (normal or typical) or infrequent (atypical)
  • Atypical behaviours deviate from mean or average
  • Typical behaviours are common, what most people do
  • Both ends of the curve are rare, but they are in opposite directions, so one is not seen as desirable
  • Cutoff point is subjective, who makes decision on what is atypical
• Personal Distress


  • Whether a specific behaviour causes someone personal distress
  • If it does, behaviour is atypical
  • Distress = unpleasant and upsetting emotions
  • Even though behaviour is maladaptive and unhelpful, it may not cause someone distress
  • Personal distress is not sufficient to declare haviour to be atypical, comes down to severity and duration of stress
• Maladaptive Behaviour


  • Unhelpful, dysfunctional and nonproductive behaviour that interferes with the ability to adjust to an environment
  • Unhelpful = atypical and maladaptive
  • Hard to quantify (subjective and opinion based)
  • Clashes with statistical rarity because maladaptive behaviour can be very common
  • Culture determines adaptiveness
  • Whether something is maladaptive depends on the situation
• Normality = patterns of behaviour that are typical and expected or conform to standards of what is acceptable. Behaviour being consistent with an individual's usual way of behaving.
• Abnormality = behaviours that are unusual, bizarre, atypical, out of the ordinary, deviating form normal behaviour.
• Typical = patterns of behaviour that are expected of an individual or that conforms to standards of what is acceptable in the situation.
• Atypical = patterns of behaviour that are not expected, deviate from the norm, can be harmful.
• Neurotypical = individuals with standard and typical brain functioning, processing and behaviours.
• Neurodiverse = every human has a unique nervous system with a different combination of abilities and needs.
• Nuerodiversity

  
  

  Differences in our thinking accounted for by difference in culture or life experiences, and by the fact that everyone's brains are wired differently.
• Adaptive


  Emotions, behaviours and cognitions that enable us to adjust to our environment appropriately and cope most effectively.
• Maladaptive


  Emotions, behaviours and cognitions that interfere with our ability to adjust to our environment appropriately and effectively.
• Neurodiversity: The concept of neurodiversity explains differences in our thinking that are accounted for by differences in culture or life experiences, and by the fact that everyone's brains are wired differently.
• Neurodivergent – refers to people whose brains function differently to others.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder


  • Affects how a person thinks, feels, interacts with others, and experiences their environment
  • A lifelong disability that starts when a person is born and stays with them until old age
  • Poor communication skills across different social contexts (familiar and unfamiliar)
  • Lacks the ability to understand emotional and social cues, which can range from struggling to hold a normal conversation, to an inability to respond to social interactions
  • Poor non-verbal communication skills, such as a lack of eye contact, using the wrong gestures or not understanding them, and has reduced facial expressions
  • Struggles to form and maintain relationships, which can include difficulty adjusting behaviour for different social contexts, struggling to make friends and having a lack of interest in their peers
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder


  • An ongoing pattern of inattention and or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning and development
  • Inattention means a person may have trouble staying on task, sustaining focus, and staying organized
  • Hyperactivity means a person may seem to move about constantly, including in situations when it is not appropriate, or excessively fidgets, taps, or talks
  • Impulsivity means a person may act without thinking or have difficulty with self-control
  • Symptoms must be excessive for the developmental age, present before age 12, persisted for longer than 12 months, and contribute to impairment across multiple settings
• Cognitive Variations


  • Deficits in executive function, including organising, prioritising and activating tasks, focusing, sustaining and shifting attention to tasks
  • Difficulty dealing with visual and spatial information and/or processing auditory information
  • Alertness issues, including being under-alert or having problems with alertness
  • Tendency to overestimate even very short time intervals
• Aim


  • Statement outlining the purpose of the investigation
  • Should be written as a succinct and straightforward sentence that clearly helps to narrow the parameters of the investigation
• Independent Variable


  What the researcher is changing, what is being manipulated (controlled, selected or changed)
• Dependent Variable


  What is being measured, and the changes it may experience because of the independent variable
• Hypothesis


  • Testable prediction about the outcome of an investigation
  • Must be operationalised
  • Must Include - IPAD (Independent and Dependent variable, Population, And Direction)
• Case study


  In-depth investigation of an individual, group, or particular phenomenon that contains a real or hypothetical situation. Useful for gathering highly detailed, in-depth information about an individual or small group.
• Case studies are done on a real situation or role play, helping us to understand and learn as much as possible so we can generalise this information to the wider population.
• There is no manipulation of variables, just a study of behaviour and data collection.
• Correlational study


  Nonexperimental study in which researchers observe and measure the relationship between two or more variables without any manipulation between them. Unlike experiments, the variables are only measured, not manipulated.
• Positive correlation


  Variables change together in the same way, both increase or decrease as the other does.
• Negative correlation


  Variables change in opposite directions, as one increases, the other decreases.
• Controlled experiment


  Allows a researcher to strictly manipulate variables of interest (independent variables) in a controlled environment and measure their effect on the other variable (dependent variables.) This allows them to infer a more casual relationship between variables, including a control group and experimental group.
• Experimental group


  Group of participants in an experiment who are exposed to a manipulated independent variable (a specific intervention or treatment.)
• Control group


  Group of participants in an experiment who receive no experimental treatment or intervention in order to serve as a baseline for comparison.
• Within Subjects Design (Repeated Measures)

  Experimental design in which participants complete every experimental condition.
• Between Subjects Design


  Experimental design in which individuals are divided into different groups and complete only one experimental condition.
• Mixed Design


  Combines elements of within-subjects design and between subjects' designs.
• Random Sampling


  Uses a procedure that ensures every member of the population has the same chance of being selected. A random generation on names is used to select a sample.
• Random Sampling


  • More representative than convenience sampling
  • Reduces experimenter bias in selecting participants
  • Fairly representative if the sample is large
• Random Sampling


  • May be time consuming to ensure each member has equal chance
  • May not create entirely representative sample when the sample is small
• Convenience Sampling


  Involves selecting readily available members of the population, rather than using a random or systematic approach.
• Convenience Sampling


  • Most time and cost-effective method
  • Most likely to produce an unrepresentative sample, making it harder for researchers to generalise results