Statistical infrequency

• Cultural relativism An issue is that behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be statistically more frequent in another. For example, one of the symptoms of schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices. However, this is an experience that is common in some cultures. What this means in practice is that there are no universal standards or rules for labelling a behaviour as abnormal.
• The cut-off point is subjective The fact that cut-off points are subjectively determined is a limitation. If abnormality is defined in terms of statistical infrequency, we need to decide where to separate normality from abnormality. For example, one of the symptoms of depression is 'difficulty sleeping' Some people might think abnormal sleep is less than 6 hours a night on average, others might think the cut-off should be 5 hours Such disagreements mean it is difficult to define abnormality in terms of statistical infrequency.