Chapter 12 Normailty, Mental Health & Illness Flashcards
6 approaches to describe mental health and behaviour
Socio-cultural approach Functional approach Historical approach Situational approach Medical approach Statistical approach
Socio-cultural approach
Thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are appropriate or acceptable within a particular society or culture.
•Eg laughing at a funeral
functional approach
Thoughts, feelings and behaviours are viewed as normal if the person is able to cope by living independently (and function) within society
•Eg. able to clothe & feed yourself, find a job
Historical approach
What is considered normal or abnormal depends on particular cultures/society’s era or time when the judgement is made
•Eg severely smacking a child in the 1950’s (normal) Vs. severely smacking a child in 2012 (abnormal & possibly illegal)
Situational approach
Within a society or culture, thoughts, feeling and behaviour may be considered normal in one situation and abnormal in another
•Eg coming to school weaning Pj’s Vs wearing Pj’s to bed
Medical approach
Abnormal thoughts, feelings or behaviour viewed as having an underlying biological cause and can usually be diagnosed and treated
•Eg schizophrenia – delusional thoughts
Statistical approach
Any behaviour , thought or characteristic in a large group is distributed in that particular way – called the ‘statistical average’ eg normal to laugh when tickled
•Any behaviour , thought or characteristic shared by a small minority of people – called ‘statistical extremity’ eg hating to get tickled.
Normality
patterns of thoughts, feelings or behaviour that conform to a usual, typical or expected standard.
- depends on many variables
Abnormality
a pattern of thoughts, feelings or behaviour that is deviant (differ from social norms), distressing (to the individual or those around them) or dysfunctional (interfere with ability to live and complete everyday activities)
Mental health
the capacity of an individual to interact with others and the environment in ways that promote a subjects wellbeing, optimal development and effective use of cognitive, emotional and social development and abilities through out the life (this is a sliding scale were all elements interact rather than have or do not have)
Mental health problem
when the difficulties experienced by a person are mild, temporary and able to be treated within a relatively short period of time
Mental illness
describes a psychological dysfunction that usually involves impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life, distress and thoughts/feelings/behaviour’s may be inappropriate within their culture.
•Mental illness can sometimes be referred to as a psychological dysfunction or mental disorder experienced by an individual and usually involving :
Emotional distress
Impairment in the ability to cope with everyday life
Thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour that are not typical of the person or appropriate within their society and/or culture
Classification and the types
Classification – organising items into groups based on their shared characteristics
categorical and dimensional
What are the classifications differences
Categorical approach-used to classify the symptoms
Dimensional approach-used to determine the severity of these symptoms
Categorical approaches
Organises and describes mental conditions and disorders in terms of different categories and sub-categories, each with symptoms and characteristics that are typical of specific mental conditions and disorders.
Categorical approaches are based on a number of underlying key principles and assumptions
Symptoms are considered characteristics of disorders to looking at these enables diagnosis
