Psychopathology

Question 1

Define Deviation from Social Norms.

Answer 1

A social norm is an unwritten rule about what is acceptable in a particular society.
Therefore if a person is seen as abnormal if their thinking or behaviour violates these unwritten rules - social norms.

Question 2

Define and Evaluate Deviation from social norms.

Answer 2

A social norm is an unwritten rule about what is acceptable in a particular society.
Therefore if a person is seen as abnormal if their thinking or behaviour violates these unwritten rules - social norms.
EV-
- One issue is that the definition of abnormality is the idea of culture relativism. Social norms differ between cultures and what is considered normal in one culture may be abnormal in another culture.
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Question 3

Define Failure to Function Adequately.

Answer 3

According to FFA a person is considered abnormal if they are unable to cope with the demands of everyday life and live independently in society.
Therefore to be classified as abnormal a person’s behaviour should cause personal suffering and distress due to their failure to cope.

Question 4

Define and Evaluate Failure to Function Adequately.

Answer 4

According to FFA a person is considered abnormal if they are unable to cope with the demands of everyday life and live independently in society.
Therefore to be classified as abnormal a person’s behaviour should cause personal suffering and distress due to their failure to cope.
EV-
-One Weakness of FFA is that the definition stems from individual differences. OCD is a good example fore this as one person compulsion may be different from another persons compulsion may be different to another persons compulsion. Therefore despite having the same psychological and behavioural symptoms, each person would be diagnosed differently according to this definition, thus questioning the validity of this definition.
-One strength of FFA is that the definition considers the subjective personal experience of the patient. This definition considers the thoughts and feelings of a person experiencing the issue and does not simply make a judgement without taking the personal viewpoint of the sufferer into consideration. This suggests that the FFA definition is a useful model for assessing psychological behaviour.