psychopathology

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Abnormality
A psychological or behavioral state leading to impairment or distress to others.
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Deviation from social norms
Behavior violating accepted social rules
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strengths of the definition of norms
Helps people, Social Dimension, Situational norms, Developmental norms, Distinguishes between normal/abnormal , protects society
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Helps people
society giving itself the right to intervene in abnormal peoples lives can be beneficial as people that need help may not be able to get it themselves.
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Social Dimension
gives a social dimension to the idea of abnormality which offers an alternative to the isolated 'sick-in the head' individual
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Situational norms
the definition considers the social dimensions of behavior; a behavior seen as abnormal in one setting is regarded as normal in another
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Developmental norms
It establishes what behavior are normal for different ages
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Distinguishes between normal/abnormal
gives a clear indication of what is and isn't seen as normal behavior
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protects society
seeks to protect society from the effects an individual's abnormal behavior can have on others
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Limitations of the definition
subjective, changes over time, individualism, ethnocentric bias in diagnosis, cultural differences
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subjective
Social norms are based on the opinions of ruling elites within society rather than majority opinion. Social norms are then used to control those seen as a threat to social order.
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Change over time
norms defined by society often relate to moral standards that vary over time as social attitudes change
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Individualism
those who do not conform to social norms may not be abnormal but merely individualistic and not problematic in any sense
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cultural differences
social norms vary within and across cultures and so it is difficult to know when they are broken
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Failure to function adequately
An inability to cope with day-to-day living . Sees individuals as abnormal when their behaviour suggests that they cannot cope with everyday life
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Cultural relativism
The way in which the function and meaning of a behavior, value or attitudes are relative to a specific cultural setting. Interpretations about the same behavior may therefore differ between cultures.
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Strengths of the failure to function adequately definition
Matches sufferers perceptions, assesses degree of abnormality, observable behavior, checklist, personal perspective
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Matches sufferers perceptions
Most people seeking clinical help believe that they are suffering from psychological problems that interfere with the ability to function properly, it supports the definition
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assesses degree of abnormality
As the GAF is scored om a continuous scale, it allows clinicians a degree to which individuals are abnormal and thus decide who needs psychiatric help
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observable behavior
It allows judgement by others of whether individuals are functioning properly as it focused on observable behaviours
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checklist
provides a practical checklist individuals can use to assess their level of abnormality
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Personal perspective
it recognizes the personal experience of sufferers and thus allows mental disorders to be regarded from the perception of the individuals suffering them
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Limitations of failure to function adequately definition
abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction, subjective nature of the feature of dysfunction, normal abnormality, distress to others, personally rewarding abnormality, cultural differences
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abnormality is not always accompanied by dysfunction
psychopaths can cause great harm and still appear normal e.g Harold Shipman the English Doctor who murdered at least 215 of his patients appeared to be a respectable doctor
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Subjective nature of the feature of dysfunction
Although GAF measures levels of functioning it does not consider behavior from an individual perspective. What is normal for an eccentric may be abnormal for an intrvert
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Normal abnormality
There are times in peoples lives when it is normal to suffer distress, like when a loved one dies. Grieving is psychologically healthy to overcome loss. The definition does not consider this.
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distress to others
behavior can cause distress to other people and can be regarded as dysfunctional while the person in question feels no distress
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Personally rewarding abnormality
an individuals apparently dysfunctional behavior may actually be rewarding
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Cultural differences
what is considered "normal functioning' varies from culture to culture and so abnormal functioning of one culture should not be used to judge people's behavior from other cultures and subcultures
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Deviation from the ideal mental health definition
This is the failure to meet the criteria for what is described as the perfect psychological well being
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Strengths of deviation from the ideal mental health definition
Positivity, targets areas of dysfunction, holistic, goals setting
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Positivity
it emphasizes positive achievements rather than failure and distress and stresses a positive approach to mental problems by focusing on what id desirable, not undesirable
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Targets areas of dysfunction
Allows targeting of which areas to work on when treating abnormality.
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Holistic
considers an individual as a whole person rather than focusing on individual areas of their behavior
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Goal setting
permits identification of exactly what is needed to achieve normality allowing creation of personal goals to work towards
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Limitations of deviation from ideal mental health
over-demanding criteria, subjective criteria, contextual effects, changes over time
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Over-demanding criteria
most people do not meet all the ideals e.g few people experience personal growth all the time. Therefore according to the definition most people are abnormal
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subjective criteria
many of the criteria are vague and difficult to measure
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contextual effects
mental health criteria are affected by context. Spitting while jogging is quite normal but is not considered normal in the college criteria
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changes over time
perception of reality changes over time
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statistical infrequency definition
behaviours that are seen are statistically rare should be seen as abnormal. Statistics are gathered that claim to measure certain characteristics and behaviors with a view to showing how they are distributed throughout the general population
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strengths of statistical infrequency definition
can be appropriate, objective, no value judgement, evidence for assistance, based on real data
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can be appropriate
it can define abnormality in many situations
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objective
once a way of collecting data about a behaviour and a cut off point has been agreed it becomes an objective way of deciding who is abnormal
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no value judgement
no judgments are made
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evidence for assistance
statistical evidence that a person has a mental disorder can be used to justify requests for psychiatric assistance
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based on real data
relies on real, unbiased data and so again is an objective means of of defining abnormality
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

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Deviation from social norms

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Behavior violating accepted social rules

Card 3

Front

strengths of the definition of norms

Back

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Card 4

Front

Helps people

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Social Dimension

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Preview of the front of card 5
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