Lesson 2: Failure To Function Adequately Flashcards
What is the failure to function adequately model
This is a model of abnormality based on the fact that the person is unable to cope with day to day life such as having a job, or interacting well with others because they are experiencing psychological distress and discomfort. This will impact on their personal, social and occupational life.
Who made the failure to function adequately model
Rosenhan and Seligman
What is the GAF scale
Psychologists use the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF) to assess rates of social, occupational and psychological functioning. It measures how much a person’s symptoms affect their day-to-day life on a scale of 0 to 100.
What does they failure to function adequately model encompass
The failure to function adequately model encompasses 7 criteria that can help define mental abnormality. When several of the criteria are present together at the same time, then the person could be classed as abnormal.
The higher the number of criteria, the more abnormal the person is (7 is the highest)
The lower the number of criteria, the more normal the person is (0 is the lowest)
This model allows psychologists to think in terms of the degree to which someone is abnormal/normal.
Name the seven criteria of the failure to function adequately model
Suffering,
unpredictability and loss of control,
maladaptiveness
observer discomfort
Vividness and unconventionality,
irrationality and incomprehensibility
violation of moral and ideal standards
SUMOVIV
Explain each of the seven criteria of failure to function adequately
Suffering is when A person might be psychologically or physically suffering because they have a psychological abnormality that is having a negative effect on them
Unpredictability and loss of control is when abnormal individuals are usually very variable, an uncontrolled and is also inappropriate. However, sometimes people may act this way like binge drinking.
Maladaptive nurse prevent someone from achieving major life goes such as enjoying good relationships with other people are working effectively, but this could also be due to the lack of skills and knowledge, like withdrawal, anger, or delusions
Observer discomfort is window to see the unspoken rules of social behaviour being broken by own others often experience some discomfort. However, this could we do to cultural differences e.g. Michelle Lotito
Vividness and unconventionality is an abnormal individuals may react to behave in a different way to how most people behave. However, some is also done by nonconformists, for example, a strange way of speaking of being scared to eat if you’re anorexic.
Irrationality incomprehensibility is when it isn’t clear why anyone would choose to behave this way e.g. Michelle lotito
Violation of Moral and ideal standard or when behaviour violates establish moral standards, for example, murder, or robbery
Explain two disadvantages of the failure to function adequately model
1) A disadvantage of using Failure to Function Adequately as a definition of abnormality is that abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction. Some people do have a psychological abnormality, but they still appear to lead a normal life and do not possess any of the 7 criteria proposed by Rosenhan and Seligman. An example is that Harold Shipman committed many murders, but still appeared to function adequately and normally in everyday life. On the other hand, some people might appear to not be functioning adequately at all, but they might actually be quite normal and just might be having a bad day! Therefore failure to function adequately might be an inaccurate definition of abnormality. (-)
2) The 7 criteria used in this definition can be very problematic as they are very difficult to measure and analyse. For instance how can we really judge if someone is suffering or not? How much suffering should they be experiencing? The model is very subjective and lacks being scientific and objective which means that psychologists need to be cautious when using the model to define abnormality. There might also be occasions when some of the criteria should be adhered to because it would be the normal or right thing to do. An example is that if a close relative passes away, then it would be acceptable for people to show signs of suffering rather than not (-)
Explain two advantages of the failure to function adequately model
1) An advantage of this model is that using the GAF scale (Global assessment of functioning scale) means that psychologists can accurately assess the degree of abnormality and how well the patient is/or is not coping with their daily life. If the patient appears to not be coping very well in their social/occupational life then it could be concluded that the patient is not functioning adequately and is therefore abnormal. (+)
Another advantage of adequately model is that we can use the scores of other patients to compare with someone who has been acting abnormally in similar ways. Moreover, if we are able to accurately assess the degree of abnormality, then we can give higher priority to that patient or provide them with stronger medication and it is easy to assess the consequences of failure to function adequately in order to measure the level of psychological functioning for examples, people being absent from a great deal of work or homework
