Abnormal Psychology

Normality vs Abnormality
In it’s history of abnormal psychology, there have been multiple
perspectives on the nature abnormality. This means that multiple
approaches to defining normality and abnormality could have co-
existed during the same time period. The following broad approaches
to defining abnormality have been most influential:
• Abnormality as a deviation from social norms,
• Abnormality as inadequate functioning,
• Abnormality as a deviation from ideal mental health,
• Abnormality as statistical infrequency,
• The medical model of abnormality.
Abnormality as a deviation from social norms
In a very general way, we define abnormality as something that falls
outside the boundaries of what is accepted in society. In other words,
abnormality is a deviation from social norms. This, however, has
problems of its own.
• First, if abnormality is defined in relation to a society, how do we
account for the fact that societies themselves are different and
changeable? Norms and rules regulating people’s behaviour are
different from culture to culture. Even with the same culture, what
was considered 100 years ago may be considered abnormal now, and
vice versa.
Contd.
• Secondly, the fact that society gets to decide what behaviours are
acceptable opens the door to using abnormality as a means of social
control. If individuals do not behave in a way that serves a group’s
interests, the group can label those people as abnormal and lock them out.
• Thirdly, some patterns of behaviours may be socially acceptable, but
potentially harmful to the individual. For example, one could claim that
there is nothing unacceptable about a person who is afraid to walk out of
his house. However, the inability to leave the house due to irrational fears
may interfere greatly with that person’s life.
• Finally, abnormality must be evaluated in a context. For example, the way
you behave in school and the way you behave at a party would be
completely different, but acceptable in the given context.
Abnormality as inadequate functioning
The definition of abnormality as inadequate functioning is based on the ideas of Rosenhan
and Seligman (1989) who proposed seven criteria that can be used to establish
abnormality:
1. Suffering – subjective experience of one’s state as wrong,
2. Maladaptiveness – inability to achieve major life goals, for example, inability to
establish positive interpersonal relationships,
3. Unconventional behaviour – behaviour that stands out and differs substantially from
that of most people,
4. Unpredictability/loss of control – lack of consistency in actions,
5. Irrationality – others cannot understand why the person behaves in this way,
6. Observer discomfort – it makes other people uncomfortable to witness this behaviour,
7. Violation of moral standards – behaviour goes against the common moral norms
established in the society.
Abnormality as a deviation from ideal mental
health
Ideal mental health as a criterion of normality was proposed by
humanistic psychologists were known for their belief that psychology
should focus on positive aspects of human experiences (health,
happiness, self-realization, and so on) rather than negative things such
as mental illness. They claimed that the excessive focus on the negative
side of human existence predominant at that time was limited and did
not allow researchers to see bigger issues lying behind problems, hence
their interest in the idea of mental health (as opposed to mental
disorders.
Contd.
Marie Jahoda (1958) identified six characteristics of ideal metal health:
1. Efficient self-perception,
2. Realistic self-esteem,
3. Voluntary control of behaviour,
4. Accurate perception of the world,
5. Positive relationships,
6. Self-direction and productivity.
Contd.
• A strength of this approach is that mental helath is defined positively,
through what a person needs to achieve. It also outlines the main
dimensions of mental health in a balanced way: it embraces interpersonal
relationships, self-perception, perception of the world, and so on. A
weakness of the approach is feasibility of mental health: it may be
impossible to fully achieve all six parameters of mental health, so most
people would probably be classified as abnormal to this framework.
Another weakness is the fact that the parameters are difficult to measure
or quantify. Finally, terms such as “efficient”, “realistic”, and “accurate”
require further operationalization (the process of defining the
measurement of a phenomenon that is not directly measurable, though its
existence is inferred by other phenomena).