Normality vs Abnormality
Criteria B
There have been many definitions of “abnormality.” The words in bold are those very
definitions (except for the last one).
Deviation from social norms.
●Generally, abnormality is something that falls outside the boundaries of what is
accepted by society.
●There are several things wrong with this definition:
○Society is ever-changing and they vary from culture to culture so what is
“abnormal”?
○If society chooses which behaviours are abnormal, there may be some
form of social control.
Inadequate functioning.
●Rosenham & Seligman (1989) proposed seven criteria for abnormality. I won’t
go into it but they include things like suffering, irrationality and violation of
moral standards.
Deviation from ideal mental health.
●Jahoda (1958) had six characteristics for “ideal mental health” including
positive relationships and realistic self-esteem.
●A strength is that mental health is defined positively.
●A limitation is that even the most healthy person may not have all six
characteristics. Also, how do you define words like “realistic” in this context?
Statistical infrequency.
●So think of a bell curve. Anyone beyond 99.9% would be abnormal.
So now what?
●None of these really define abnormality. What we do instead is follow a medical
model of abnormality.
●We try to create a list of symptoms for each disorder and that’s how those
disorders are defined.
●A strength is it’s very flexible. A limitation is it’s very difficult to observe things
related to mental health in patients. Especially when you have something like
self-reporting involved.
Definitions to use
