Failure to Function Adequately

Question 1

What does a failure to function adaquately mean?

Answer 1

Means a person is unable to live a normal life, experience normal range of emotions, or engage in normal range of behaviour

Question 2

What are 5 indicators of psychological abnormality?

Answer 2

1. Disfunctional behaviour/maladaptiveness
2. Personal distress/discomfort
3. Observer discomfort
4. Unpredictable behaviour
5. Irrational behaviour

Question 3

What is dysfunctional behaviour/maladaptiveness?

Answer 3

-Negative behaviour which interferes with their ability to lead a normal life
e.g. alcoholism if prevents holding down a job

Question 4

What is personal distress/discomfort?

Answer 4

-Sometimes a sign of psychological disorder
e.g. in depression may experience disturbed sleep, headaches, tiredness

Question 5

What is observer discomfort?

Answer 5

-Behaviour can disrupt social interaction and damage social relationships
-May be found embarrassing, threatening or upsetting

Question 6

What is unpredictable behaviour?

Answer 6

Unexpected e.g. overreacting, over-enthusiastic, over-anxious

Question 7

What is irrational behaviour?

Answer 7

-If behaviour doesn’t make sense to others, if others can’t communicate with them in a reasonable way

Question 8

What are 2 examples of failing to function adequately?

Answer 8

Agoraphobia:
-Unable to hold down job, taking part in everyday activities = dysfunctional behaviour

Schizophrenia:
-Hearing voices, having visions, live in depths of depression, unable to experience normal range of emotions = personal distress

Question 9

What are 2 strengths of the failure to function adequately definition?

Answer 9

Workplace absence statistics support dysfunctional behaviour:
-Mental ill health is responsible for 72 million working days lost and costs £34.9 billion each year in UK
-Different studies estimate cost as high as £74-99 billion
-Individuals with long term mental health conditions lose jobs every year, double rate of those without, equating to 300,000 people
These statistics support the idea that individuals with mental illness struggle to function in the same way as those without mental illness

Personal Distress: Distress can be objectively measured:
-Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) measures this
-Involves 10 Qs about emotional states each with five-level response scale
-The numbers attached to patients responses are added up and total score indicates state:
-under 20 likely to be well
-20-24 likely to have mild mental disorder
-25-29 likely to have moderate mental disorder
-30 and above likely to have severe mental disorder
-13% adult population will score 20+
This questionnaire helps to make identification and diagnosis of mental illness much more objective and removes subjectivity.

Question 10

What are 2 limitations of the failure to function adequately definition?

Answer 10

Some conditions aren’t linked to dysfunctional behaviour:
-People with depression and anxiety and other mental health issues can function quite adequately and lead normal lives mostly
-According to MIND approx 1 in 4 will experience a MH issue each year, however only 1 in 5 will call in sick
This challenges the dysfunctional behaviour criterion as it shows some individuals can function despite suffering a mental health condition.

Personal distress: some disorders don’t involve personal distress:
-People with mania experience intense joy and elation
-Psychopaths (people with APD which affects 0.5-1% in UK) show a complete disregard for rights and feelings of others
-Their actions don’t appear to cause them personal distress, however their condition is classed as a mental illness
This weakens the validity of this definition of abnormality