Failure to Function Adequately

• ROSENHAN AND SELIGMAN

  • Unpredictability - impulsive, uncontrollable
  • Maladaptive behaviours (not adjusting adequately or appropriately to the environment or situation) - going against accepted standards
  • Personal distress - excessive emotional responses
  • Irrationality - unreasonable thinking and behaviour
  • Observer discomfort - causing others to feel uncomfortable; things like too much eye contact, or too little
• The global assessment for functioning scale (GAF) can be based on anything, from interviews to questionnaires. Ranges from 0 to 100, where the lower scores are more severe.
• 90 to 81 - Absent or minimal symptoms - can function appropriately, any symptoms we do feel (like exam stress) are normal and expected.
• 50 to 41: Serious symptoms (e.g. suicidal ideation, obsessional rituals, persistent shoplifting) OR moderate difficulty in social, occupational or educational functioning.
• 30 to 21: Behaviour is influenced by delusions, hallucinations OR serious impairment in communication or judgement (inappropriate behaviour, incoherent speech) OR inability to function in almost all areas, such as sleeping, eating and maintaining relationships.
• 10 to 0: Persistent danger of severely hurting self or others (e.g. recurrent violence) OR persistent inability to maintain minimal personal hygiene OR serious suicidal act with clear expectation of death.
• WHO JUDGES? THE THEORY IS SUBJECTING

  • It might be that the patient is experiencing distressing symptoms, but sees them as acceptable
  • In which case the observer is making a life changing decision based on their outsider opinion
  • Some schizophrenics like Peter Sutcliffe are a danger to society, but how can we determine that about others?
• THE BEHAVIOUR MAY BE FUNCTIONAL

  • Some dysfunctional behaviours might be adaptive for the individual
  • Eating disorders might get attention, a positive reward
  • Transvestism is regarded as a mental disorder, but can be liberating, and profitable, for the individual
• THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SUFFERER

  • While most definitions of abnormal behaviour are decided by observers, FFA prioritises the patient's perspective, and how much they are suffering.
• OBJECTIVE

  • Symptoms such as hallucinations, eating disorders and obsessional rituals are all easily measurable
• CULTURAL RELATIVISM

  • Self actualisation is defined through the lens of individualist cultures, not collectivist cultures.
  • The Survey of Black and Minority Ethnic Groups revealed that 49% of depression cases were found in ethnic minorities (2013)
  • FFA still relies on what cultures define abnormal behaviour as