abnormality

• THere are 4 definitions of abnormality
• The definitions of abnormality are: statistical infrequency, failure to function adequately, deviation from social norms, and deviation from ideal mental health
• statistical infrequency is a mathematical way of identifying and explaining abnormal behaviour
• In statistical infrequency, behaviour that is rare is assumed to be infrequent and therefore abnormal
• Statistical infrequency example: official statistics claim that 1 in 100 people develop symptoms of schizophrenia (1%) which is considered rare, therefore is ‘abnormal’.
• Statistical Infrequency: just because things are statistically infrequent it doesn't mean they are abnormal
• Things that are statistically infrequent but not abnormal: extreme record breaker, scientific understanding, multilingual, musicality.
• Statistical Infrequency strengths include: relies on data so is not subjective, can be used to assess development in children as their behaviour is usually innate, relies on tested scientific or mathematical data.
• Examples of social norms: eating with knife and forks, queueing
• social norms are expectations that a society or culture has about how to behave.