Definitions of Abnormality Flashcards
What are the four definitions of abnormality?
- Statistical infrequency
- Deviation from social norms
- Failure to function adequately
- Deviation from ideal mental health
What is the ‘statistical infrequency’ definition of abnormality?
Behaviour is abnormal if it is statistically uncommon amongst the population
What is the evaluation for the strength of the statistical infrequency definition?
Real life application
* Real life application in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder
* An IQ of two standard deviations either side of the mean is considered rare, and those two S.Ds below is classed as intellectual disability disorder
* All assessments of patients with mental disorders includes some sort of comparison of severity to statistical norms
* Therefore, this definition is useful in clinical assessment
What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of the statistical infrequency definition?
Cut off point is subjective
* The point in which normality ends and abnormality starts is completely subjective
* If normality is defined by statistical infrequency, then it needs to be decided the specific cutoff point
* For example, one symptom of depression is difficulty sleeping. Some people may think 6h is the right amount, some may think 5h
* Such disagreements may lead to difficulties in defining abnormality in terms of statistical infrequency
Some abnormal behaviours are desirable
* There are many abnormal behaviours that are actually desirable
* Some behaviours are statistically abnormal, yet are classified as desirable (e.g an IQ of 150 being rare to most of the population)
* Equally, there are some ‘normal behaviours that are statistically frequent and they may be undesirable
* It is more beneifical to identify behaviours by being infrequent and undesirable, as many frequent behaviours are undesirable and vice versa
Cultural relativism
* One further issue is that many behaviours are statistically infrequent in one culture, but are statistically frequent in another
* For example, a symptom of schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices, but this is a common experience in some cultures
* There is no universal standard or rule for abnormal behaviours so the findings cannot be generalised for all cultures
What is the ‘deviation from social norms’ definition of abnormality?
Behaviour is abnormal if someone deviates from social norms (Unstated rules about how people ought to behave in society)
What is the evaluation for the strength of the deviation from social norms definition?
Distinguishes between desirable and undesirable
* This feature is absent from the statistical infrequency definition
* Deviation from social norms definition takes into account the effects upon others
* Deviance is described as a transgression of social rules, seeing abnormality as behaviour that damages others
* This offers a practical and useful way of identifying undesirable and potentially damaging behaviour, in order to alert others of the need for help
What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of the deviation from social norms definition?
Social norms change over time
* Whether you are classed as abnormal in one time period may change with society’s definition of abnormality
* What is socially acceptable now may not be acceptable in the future. For example, homosexuality is acceptable in most countries now but, in the past, was classified as a mental illness in the DSM
* Some may say the concept of mental illness was a way to exclude non-conformsits from society
* Therefore, there is a danger of creating a definition based on prevailing social morals and attitudes
Deviance is related to context and degree
* Another limitation is that abnormality is also related to context and degree of behaviour
* For example, someone wearing a swimsuit on a beach is normal, yet if they wore one in a classroom, it would be seen as normal and possibly indicating a mental disorder
* Shouting loudly in public is deviant behaviour but not necessarily indicative of a mental disorder
* Deviating from social norms on its owwn cannot always offer a complete definition of abnormality because it relates to the context and degree of behaviour
Cultural relativism
* Social norms are defined by culture but also sometimes bound by the culture
* In many Western countries, it is considered rude to leave food on your plate. In China, it is rude to eat everything as it implies the portion size was not enough
* Therefore, some things considered normal in one culture may be considered abnormal in another
* This means that this definition does not consistently produce an accurate definition of human behaviour, and varies depending on where you are in the world
What is the definition of the ‘failure to function adequately’ definition for abnormality?
Someone is abnormal if they cannot cope with everyday demands
What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of the failure to function adequately definition?
Who makes the judgement?
* OIne big problems is deciding who chooses if someone is failing to function adequately
* If a person is experiencing personal stress and unable to get work and regular meals, they may recognise this is undesirable and seek help themselves
* However, the indiviual may be content with the situation or unaware they are not coping. It may be that others around them are uncomfortable and judge behaviours as abnormal (e.g early stage schizophrenia have no insight into their disorder)
* Therefore, the judgement depends on who is making the decision and is therefore subjective
Behaviours may be adaptive
* A further problem is that some apparently dysfunctional behaviour can be adaptive and functional to the individual
* Some mental disorders such as eating disorders may lead to extra attention needed. Such attention is needed and therefore is functional rather than dysfunctional, and helpful and adaptive rather than maladaptive
* A further example is cross-dressing, which is in the DSM and classed as a disorder, yet this may not cause personal distress and act as a source of income, therefore showing the behaviour is adaptive
* This failure to distinguish means that the definition is incomplete
Cultural relativism
* An important issue is that the definition is limited by being cilturally relative
* Something seen as adequate functioning is related to cultural ideas of how one’s life should be lived. So what is seen as adequate functioning in one culture may be viewed differently in another
* Therefore, failure to function criterion is likely to result in different diagnoses when applied to people from different cultures due to differing standards
* This means that the use of the model is limited by cultural relativism and we are not able to obtain a global definition
What is the evaluation for the strengh of the failure to function adequately definition?
Subjectivity recognised
* A major advantage of the definition is that the subjective experience of patient is recognised
* It allows us to view mental disorder from the point of view of the person experiencing it
* In addition, failure to function is also easy to judge objectively because we can list behaviours such as ‘can dress self’ and ‘can prrepare meals’ and judge abnormality objectively
* The definition has a certain sensitivity and practicality
What is the ‘deviation from ideal mental health’ definition of abnormality?
Abnormality is categorised by the abscense of 6 categories
What psychologist gave the ‘deviation from ideal mental health’ definition? What did she theorise?
Mary Jahoda, who theorised that mental illness should be compared to physical illness, determining illness by the abscense of the signs of good health
What are the 6 criteria for ideal mental health?
Positive attitude towards the self (good level of self esteem that means the person is happy with themselves)
Self-actualisation (state of contentment where you feel you are the best you can be)
Autonomy (independence and self reliance, not being codependent)
Resistance to stress (handling stressful situations competently)
Environmental mastery (adapting well to new situations and being at ease in all situations within life)
Accurate perception of reality (the individual has a similar perception to majority of the population, and determining mental illnesses through distortions experienced by others with the same mental illnesses)
What is the evaluation for the strength of the deviation from ideal mental health definition?
Positive approach
* Focuses on positives rather than negatives
* Offers an alternative perspective on mental disorder that focuses on the ideal which is positive and desirable, as opposed to the negative and undesirable
* Jahoda’s idead were never taken up by health professionals, but they have had influence and agree with the ‘positive psychology’ movement seen in the humanistic approach
* Therefore, strength lies in its positive outlook and influence on humanistic approaches
What are the evaluations for the weaknesses of the deviation from ideal mental health definition?
Problems with the criteria
* According to the criteria, most of us are abnormal
* Critics argue the crtieria that Jahoda presented is restrictive and would be very difficult to have someone fulfill every one of them
* It is not clear how many must be missing for a person to be deemed abnormal
* The criteria are difficult to measure (e.g how easy is it to assess capacity for personal growth?)
* The definition is not really useful when it comes to identifying abnormality
Unlikely we can diagnose mental and physical illness the same
* Tries to apply the principle of physical health to mental health
* Physical illnesses have a physical cause such as a virus, making them quite easy to detect and diagnose
* Some mental disorders also have physical causes but many do not, as they occur due to life experiences
* Unlikely that we can diagnose mental abnormality in the same way as physical
The criteria are culture-bound
* Most if not all critera of ideal mental health are culture-bound
* For example, the goal of self-actualisation and autonomy are relevant to members of indiviualistic cultures but not collectivist cultures which focus on promoting needs of the group
* If we apply these criteria to people from collectivist cultures we will find a more instances of abnormality, which is untrue
* Limits usefullness of this definition to certain cultures
