defining abnormality

Question 1

What are the 4 definitions of abnormality?

Answer 1

1. deviation from social norms
2. deviation from ideal mental health
3. failure to function adequately
   4.statistical infrequency

Question 2

what is deviation from social norms?

Answer 2

A person is considered abnormal when their behaviour does not follow the social norms

Question 3

deviation from social norms
1 strength
2 weakness

Answer 3

strength: minimises harm to others. when people deviate from social norms they can start causing harm to members of society. classifying such people as abnormal means we can treat people and prevent them causing harm to others.

weakness 1: social norms vary based on culture. meaning people from one culture might be judged by social norms on another culture. this might cause people from one culture to be misdiagnosed as having a mental disorder.

weakness 2 : social norms change over time. this means classification of mental disorders has to be constantly updated. this means they lack reliability because they are not consistent over time

Question 4

what is deviation from ideal mental health?

Answer 4

A person is considered abnormal when they fail to indicate behaviours that are ideal mental health

Question 5

what is jahodas 6 criteria of ideal mental health?

Answer 5

1. positive attitude
2. independent
3. self actualisation
4. resistance to stress
5. accurate perception of reality = see the world how everyone else sees it
6. environmental mastery= being able to adjust to changes comfortably

Question 6

What are deviations from ideal mental health strength and weaknesses?

2 weakness
1 strength

Answer 6

Criteria of ideal mental health is far too idealistic. evidence comes from maslow who argued that only a few people can reach self actualisation and the criteria includes self actualization. If this is true most people will define as abnormal because self actualisation is hard to obtain

What is considered “ideal” is historically and culturally specific. For e.g being independent may not be valued in collectivist cultural where value is placed on group activity this suggest that definition may not work on all cultures.

Gives people a list to follow so people know what they need to improve about themselves and reach self actualisation.

Question 7

What is failure to function adequately?

Answer 7

a person is abnormal when they are unable to cope with demands of everyday life.

Question 8

failure to function adequately evaluation
1 strength
2 weaknesses

Answer 8

strength: behaviours can be easily observed and measured so that doctors can identify and treat those with mental disorders.

weakness: fails to identify people who have a mental disorder but do cope with everyday demands of life.

weakness: some maladaptive behaviour causes us to fail to cope with demands of everyday life but they are not signs of mental disorder

Question 9

What is statistical infrequency?

Answer 9

According to this definition a person is seen abnormal if its rare or uncommon.

Question 10

statistical infrequency
2 strengths
1 weakness

Answer 10

• relies less on the doctor’s interpretation of the patient means doctor is less likely to display personal bias and will be more objective as the data would be analysed mathematically
• fails to account for behaviours that are statistically rare but desirable such as having a very high iq
• clear definition of what is normal and abnormal which based on rarity of the behaviour