DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY Flashcards
what is statistical infrequency?
- When an individual has a less common characteristic based on statistics
what are examples of statistical infrequency?
low iq, high calorie intake per day
what is deviation from social norms?
- Behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society
examples of deviation from social norms?
- For example, people with antisocial personality disorder (characterised by impulsive behaviour), considered abnormal as it goes against society’s standards of being: being calm, considerate, kind etc
What is failure to function adequately?
- day-to-day inability to cope, distress leading to dysfunction
what are examples of failure to function adequately?
maintain basic hygiene, a job, or basic nutrition
Rosenhan and Seligman
- identified the following characteristics of a person failing to function adequately:
-
maladaptiveness, irrationality, unpredictability
and observer discomfort. - For example, a depressed person finds it difficult to get out of bed.
- This is considered abnormal as they are unable to carry out everyday tasks.
What is deviation from ideal mental health?
Occurs when someone does not meet a set of criteria for good mental health
what is considered ideal mental health? (jahoda)
- self attitudes
- high self-esteem, personal growth and self-actualization
- develops to their full capacity, integration
- being able to cope with stressful situations, autonomy.
example of deviation from ideal mental health
- For example, someone with schizophrenia would be considered abnormal as they have hallucinations which do not meet the criteria of accurate perception of reality’.
What is a limitation of statistical infrequency - unusual characteristics can be positive?
- someone with a very high iq show a rare behaviour but we wouldnt consider this abnormal,
- e.g IQ scores above 130 are just as unusUal as those bellow 70% but not regarded as undesirable.
- so this may not be a valid way of defining abnormalities as statistical infrequency can form part of assessment and diagnostic procedures but isn’t sufficient enough as a sole basis for defining abnormality
What is a limitation of deviation from social norms - cultural and situational relativism?
- social norms differ between cultures and what is considered normal in one culture may be abnormal to another,
- a person from one cultural group may label someone from another group as abnormal using their standards rather than the person’s standards such as the experience of hearing voices is the norm but a sign of abnormality in the
- means it is difficult to judge deviation from social norms across different situations and cultures
What is a limitation of failure to function adequately - not always abnormal behaviour, can lead to discrimination
- its hard to distinguish between failure to function and a conscious decison to deviate from social norms
- e.g people may decide to live of the grid as part of an alternatative lifestyle choice or take part in high-risk lesure activities.
- Can be labelled as abnormal limits freedom of choice.
One limitation of deviation from ideal mental health is that it contains culture bias.
- Some of the ideas in Jahoda’s classification are specific to Western cultures.
- For example Self actualisation and autonomy. In western, individualistic cultures this is seen to be a positive goal to strive towards, Whereas in eastern, collectivist cultures this may be seen as selfish.
- This is because they value community and group success and work together rather than independently.
- This is a disadvantage as by default anyone from a collectivist culture that is assessed will be seen as abnormal.
- Furthermore, if we use this standard for people who have immigrated from collectivist cultures we are imposing etic onto them, and they are going to be incorrectly identified as abnormal (if they don’t strive for SA + autonomy)
One limitation with defining and diagnosing abnormality is that it leads to labelling.
- For example, an employer might be less likely to employ someone who has been diagnosed as clinically depressed.
- Disadv once given a label of mentally ill, the label stays with the person.
- This is a disadvantage as it could have consequences in terms of the person’s wider life, e.g. ability to get a job, prejudice / discrimination.
- Therefore medical practitioners should consider the implications of diagnosis when applying the different definitions.
- Furthermore, there are also economic implications- if it’s harder to get a job they may simply give up- less people producing within the economy- less tax revenue for the
government
