Psychology- Definitions of Abnormality
- Created by: Aperson64
- Created on: 01-02-22 10:13
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- Definitions of Abnormality
- Failure to function adequately
- When a person's behaviour is abnormal to where it inhibits them from doing daily functions
- Not all people with abnormal behaviour can't function adequately .
- Harold Shipman seemed like a professional doctor but he killed more than 250 of his patients.
- Does it matter that it doesn't cause stress to the individual but causes stress to those around them .
- This definition may not be culturally relative as what some see as functioning adequately others may not see it .
- Statistical infrequency
- abnormal behaviours are those which are very rare
- Those who outside the normal distribution are abnormal- 5% or two standard deviation points
- Some abnormal behaviors are desirable like having a high IQ or being able to run fast
- No judgments are made of the individual as it just says whether or not the behaviour is abnormal or not.
- Some normal behaviours are actually abnormal e.g. depression is fairly common
- Deviation from ideal mental health
- A psychological MOT where a person's behaviour is measured against a check list of ideal psychological characteristics
- Jahoda (1958) made 6 categories to define this.
- Autonomy, Self-attitudes, Self-actualisation,
- Accurate perception of reality, Integration, Mastery of the environment.
- It uses unrealistic criteria as most people do not do all of these at the same time so it would say most people are abnormal.
- The definition may not be culturally relative as some of the criteria would be subjective
- It uses positivity as it emphasizes on positive things instead of failures and distresses
- Deviation from social norms
- Behaviour that goes against society's norms as ideal or "normal"
- It lacks cultural relativism as some people may be considered abnormal may be considered normal
- Social norms have changed over time some things are no longer abnormal
- It distinguishes between non-desirable and desirable behaviour
- Failure to function adequately
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