Abnormality Mindmap
- Created by: gemshort
- Created on: 20-10-17 15:43
View mindmap
- Abnormality
- Statistical deviation
- Any relatively unusual (statistically infrequent) behaviour or characteristic can be thought of as abnormal
- Best when dealing with characteristics that can be reliably measured, e.g. IQ
- It has real-life application in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder
- Just because a behaviour is statistically infrequent, i.e very high IQ, does not mean it requires treatment to return to normal
- When someone is living a fulfilled life, there is no benefit to them being labelled 'abnormal'
- Deviation from social norms
- Behaviour is defined as abnormal if it breaks implicit or explicit social norms
- Social norms are specific to the culture we live in so there are relatively few behaviours that would be considered universally abnormal
- It has several real-life applications in the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder
- Even in the case of antisocial personality disorder, there are other factors to consider and this definition would never be used alone to make a diagnosis
- Social norms vary across cultures (they are culture-bound) and this poses problems for people from one culture living within another
- Failure to function adequately
- Someone may be 'abnormal' if they can no longer cope with the demands of everyday life and fail to function adequately
- Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) proposed some signs that can be used to determine when someone is not coping
- A person no longer conforms to interpersonal rules
- A person experiences severe personal distress
- A person's behaviour is irrational or dangerous
- it attempts to include the subjective experience of the individual
- It can be hard to say when someone is failing to function adequately and when they are just deviating from the norm
- Someone has to make a judgement that a person is failing to function adequately and this is subjective
- Deviation from ideal mental health
- Consider what makes a person normal and then think about who deviates from this
- Marie Jahoda (1958) created a criteria for good mental health
- No symptoms of distress; rational and can perceive ourselves accurately; self-actualise; cope with stress; realistic view of the world; good self-esteem and lack guilt; independent; mastery of the environment
- It is a thorough definition
- Jahoda's classification is culture-bound
- it sets an unrealistically high standard for mental health
- Labelling someone as abnormal may add to their problems
- Statistical deviation
Comments
No comments have yet been made