psychopathology

• define deviation from social norms

  standards of acceptable / expected behaviour are set by a social group

  
  

  behaviours could be explicit e.g. laws or implicit e.g. unwritten rules

  
  

  anything that deviates from acceptable behaviour is considered abnormal
• strength of deviation from social norms

  has practical applications

  
  

  can be used in clinical settings in order to diagnose disorders e.g. the term 'strange' is used to characterise the thinking, behaviour and appearance of a person with schiztypal personality disorder as it goes against 'norms' of social behaviour

  
  

  deviation from social norms is an important part of applied psychology as it can help individuals receive a diagnosis for treatment
• limitation of deviation from social norms

  could allow mental health professionals to abuse their power and can lead to human rights abuses

  
  

  defines abnormality based on what is viewed as socially acceptable behaviour

  
  

  suggests professionals could misuse the definition to classify people as mentally ill just because they 'break the rules' in society

  
  

  for example, historically, diagnoses like nymphomania have been used to control women

  
  

  it has been argued that dsn may be way of controlling non-conformists rather than a valid way to define abnormality

  
  

  in addition it is limited by cultural relativism

  
  

  different cultures have different social norms and expectations of behaviour

  
  

  for example, messages sent from spirits could be a symptom of schizophrenia in a western culture but could be classes as a spiritual gift in other cultures

  
  

  may not be appropriate to use dsn to define abnormality beyond a specific culture
• define failure to function adequately


  a person would be deemed abnormal if they cannot cope with the demands of everyday life

  
  

  for example, if a person is unable to maintain basic standards of hygiene

  
  

  rosenhan and seligman state that signs of a person failing to function adequately include - maladaptive behaviour, irrational behaviour, behaviour that is dangerous to themselves or others, and severe personal distress
• strength of failure to function adequately

  has practical applications and can be used in the real world as it represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help

  
  

  according to the mental health charity, mind, around 25% of people in the uk will experience a mental health problem in any given year

  
  

  however, many people press on in the face of fairly severe symptoms and it tends to be at the people we cease to function adequately that people seek professional help or are notices and referred for help by others

  
  

  if it is noticed that people are failing to function adequately, treatment and services can be targeted to those who need it most, meaning that ffa could be a useful measure when defining abnormality
• limitation of failure to function adequately

  whilst it is easier to identify who is not coping day-to-day, a weakness of ffa is that it can rely on subjective data

  
  

  this is because diagnosis relies on the individuals or doctors opinion of whether an individual is failing to function adequately rather than taking an objective measurement

  
  

  therefore, this definition may lead to inaccuracy when diagnosing / defining abnormality, limiting ffa's validity as a means of defining abnormality

  
  

  however, there have been attempts to make judgements of ffa more objective, for example the global assessment of functioning is a numerical scale used by mental health professionals to rate how well an individual is functioning in their daily lives; it measures how much a person's symptoms can affect their psychological, social and occupational functioning
• define deviation from ideal mental health

  jahoda defines abnormality as the absence of criteria for good mental health

  
  

  jahoda states there are six criteria that define mental healthiness

  
  

  failure to meet one or more of these criteria would suggest an abnormality, the more criteria they fail to meet, the more serious the abnormality

  
  

  1. self attitudes - high self esteem and a strong sense of identity

  2. self actualisation - the extent to which an individual works to their capabilities and reaches their full potential

  3. resistant to stress

  4. autonomy - being independent and self regulating

  5. having an accurate perception of reality

  6. mastery of environment - ability to function in your environment e.g. work
• limitation of deviation from ideal mental health

  1.

  uses a strict criteria - people may not be able to realistically meet all 6 characteristics at once for a sustained amount of time

  
  

  this could be disheartening for individuals to see an impossible set of standards to live up to

  
  

  therefore, limiting the use of deviation from ideal mental health as a definition of abnormality

  
  

  however, having such a comprehensive set of criteria for mh to work towards could be a strength of deviation from ideal mh as it might be of practical value to someone wanting to understand and improve their mh

  
  

  2.

  deviation from ideal mh is limited by cultural relativism

  
  

  different cultures will have different expectations about what is ideal mh

  
  

  for example, in collectivist cultures the concept of self actualisation would be considered self indulgent because the emphasis is on the individual and not on the group

  
  

  therefore, it may not be appropriate to use deviation from ideal mh to define abnormality beyond a specific culture
• define statistical infrequency


  suggests that we must look at behaviours that are typical of the general population

  
  

  then any behaviour which is rare is abnormal

  
  

  therefore, on a distribution curve any behaviour that is 2 or more standard deviations from the mean is statistically rare
• strength of statistical infrequency

  a strength of statistical infrequency as a definition of abnormality has practical applications

  
  

  it can be uses in the real world in clinical practice as part of formal diagnosis and as a way to assess the severity of an individual's symptoms

  
  

  for example, a diagnosis of intellectual diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder requires an IQ of below 70

  
  

  an example, of statistical infrequency used in an assessment tool is the beck depression inventory in which a score of 30+ is widely interpreted as indicating severe depression

  
  

  thus showing how statistical infrequency can be used as an imporant part of applied psychology in diagnosing and assessing mental health disorders, allowing individuals to seek treatment
• limitation of statistical infrequency

  just because a behaviour is rare does not necessarily mean it would need to be treated as an abnormality

  
  

  one issue with statistical infrequency does not differentiation between desirable and undesirable behaviour, for example, a high IQ is seen as statistically abnormal although it is desirable and it would not need to be treated to return to 'normal'

  
  

  limiting statistical infrequency as a definition of abnormality