Abnormal

Question 1

What is abnormality?

Answer 1

Refers to behaviour,thoughts and feelings that deviate from what is considered normal or typical within a particular society or culture.

Question 2

How is abnormality defined in psychology?

Answer 2

Typically defined using one or more of the following criteria…
Statistical infrequency
Violation of social norms
Personal distress
Dysfunction or impairment, and unexpectedness or unpredictability

Question 3

What is statistical infrequency?

Answer 3

This occurs when an individual has a less common characteristic compared to the population e.g a low score on an iq test

Question 4

What are the pros and cons of statistical frequency?

Answer 4

Pros:
-Has real life application in diagnosing intellectual disability disorder
-useful in clinical assessments
-unusual characteristics can be positive and desirable for example scoring high on an iq test
Cons:
-It can result in labels which can cause distress to people.

Question 5

What is deviation from social norms?

Answer 5

This concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a society.

Question 6

What are the pros and cons deviation from social norms?

Answer 6

Pros:
-It has a real life application in diagnosing antisocial personality disorder

Cons:
Culture relativism-what may be regarded as abnormal to one culture may be considered normal in another culture
-It can lead to human rights abuse

Question 7

What does failure to function adequately mean?

Answer 7

When someone is unable to cope with the ordinary demands of day to day life.This may cause distress to others.

Question 8

What are the pros and cons of failure to function adequately?

Answer 8

Pro:
-subjective to patient experience so considers their distress

Cons:
-difficult to measure distress

Question 9

What is deviation from mental health?

Answer 9

Occurs when an individual does not meet the set criteria for good mental health.
The set criteria
-positive self attitude
-self actualisation
-autonomy(having independence and self reliance
-resistance to stress
-environmental mastery
-accurate perception of reality

Question 10

What are pros and cons of deviation from mental health?

Answer 10

Cons:
-it sets an unrealistically high expectation of ideal mental health

-cultural relativism-jahodas criteria meet more of a western demand than other cultures.
-feasibility-makes it practically impossible to achieve so majority of population using this would be categorised as abnormal
-subjectivity-vague so difficult to measure so makes it difficult as to whether someone fulfills the criteria

pros
Positive-focused on what is helpful and desirable for the individual
Achievement of goals-clear goals are set and focused upon to achieve ideal mental health