16: Psychological Disorders - The Scope and Nature of Psychological Disorders

Question 1

The Scope and Nature of Psychological Disorders

Question 2

What is “Abnormal”?

Abnormal behaviour

Answer 2

Behaviour that is personally distressful, personally dysfunctional, and/or culturally deviant

Question 3

What is Abnormal?

Three Criteria that govern decisions about abnormality:

Answer 3

1. Distressing – we are likely to label behaviours abnormal if they intensely distress an individual
2. Dysfunctional – most behaviours that are abnormal are dysfunctional for the individual or society
3. Deviance – abnormality of a behaviour is based on society’s judgments of the deviance of it