Definitions of Abnormality 1 Flashcards
(11 cards)
1
Q
Statistical Infrequency:
A
An individual has a less common characteristic.
2
Q
Deviation from social norms:
A
Behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a society.
3
Q
IQ:
A
- The majority of people’s scores will cluster around the average, and that the further we go above or below that average, fewer people will attain that score. Normal distribution.
- The average IQ is a 100. Those that score below 70 are ‘abnormal’.
4
Q
Social Norms:
A
- They vary between cultures and generations.
2 Very few that are considered universally abnormal, on the basis that they breach social norms.
5
Q
Antisocial personality disorder:
A
- A person with APD (psychopathy) is impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible.
- According to the DSM-5, an important symptom is the absence of internal prosocial standards that are associated with failing to conform to lawful behaviour.
- We are making a social judgement that a psychopath is abnormal because they don’t conform to our moral standards.
6
Q
E: Real-life Application (SI)
A
- The statistical definition has RLA in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder.
- Statistical infrequency helps define what are normal and abnormal behaviours and characteristics.
- All assessment of patients with mental disorders includes some kind of measurement of how severe their symptoms are as compared to statistical norms, not social norms.
- Useful part of clinical assessment.
7
Q
E: Unusual characteristics are not always negative (SI)
A
- IQ scores over 130 are just as unusual as those below 70, but we wouldn’t think of it as an undesirable characteristic that needs treatment.
- The fact that a few people display the characteristic does make it statistically abnormal, but it doesn’t mean it requires treatment to make it normal.
- This is a serious limitation to SI and means that it would never be used alone to make a diagnosis.
8
Q
E: Not everyone benefits from labels (SI)
A
- If someone is living a happy and fulfilled life, there is no benefit to them being labelled as abnormal regardless of how unusual they are.
- A person with a very low IQ, but who wasn’t distressed, would not need a diagnosis of intellectual disability.
- If that person was ‘labelled’ abnormal this might have a negative effect on how others view them and how they view themselves.
9
Q
E: Not the sole explanation (D)
A
- A strength is that deviation has RLA in the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.
- Deviation from social norms helps to think about what is normal and what is abnormal.
- There are other factors to consider, for example the distress to other people resulting from antisocial personality disorder.
- In practice, deviation from social norms is never the sole reason for defining abnormality.
10
Q
E: Cultural relativism (D)
A
- Social norms vary tremendously from generations to another and from one community to another.
- This means that a person from one cultural group may label someone from another culture as behaving abnormally according to their standards, rather than the standards of the person behaving that way.
- Hearing voices is socially acceptable in some cultures, but would be a sign of mental abnormality in the UK.
- Be a problem for people from one culture living within another culture group.
11
Q
E: Can lead to human rights abuses (D)
A
- Too much reliance on deviation from social norms to understand abnormality can also lead to systematic abuse of human rights.
- For example, drapetomania was considered deviation for black slaves who ran away. There was also nymphomania for women who were sexually attracted to working-class men.
- Diagnoses were there to maintain control over minority ethnic groups and women.
- More radical psychologists argue that some of our modern categories of mental disorders are abuses of people’s rights to be different.
