INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

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INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

• DEFINING ABNORMALITY
• MODELS OF ABNORMALITY
• EATING DISORDERS

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WHAT IS ABNORMALITY?

• ABNORMAL means deviating from a standard.
• NORMAL means conforming to a standard.
• But how (and who?) do we establish this standard?

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4 POSSIBLE APPROACHES

• STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY
• certain behaviours are statistically rare
• 2. DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS
• behaviour which is socially deviant
• 3. FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY
• the inability to function in ones social
  group
• 4. DEVIATION FROM IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH
• an alternative view would be to define what is
  
• mentally healthy and judge abnormality by its
• absence

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STATISTICAL INFREQUENCY

• People who score very low or very high on a
  psychological test e.g. anxiety are statistically
  rare.
• Most people will score around the middle,
  according to the normal distribution p.184
• So those with very low anxiety (psychopaths) and
  those with very high anxiety (neurotics) will be
  statistically rare

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LIMITATIONS OF STATISTICAL APPROACH

• Some traits, e.g. IQ, are statistically rare, but
  also desirable. So this definition overlooks
  desirability
• A cut-off point between normal and abnormal has
  to be decided
• Different cultural groups may apply different
  cut-off points
• Behaviour differs between different age groups,
  e.g. temper tantrum
• It is less affected by value judgements than
  other definitions
• Rare behaviour can become normal at different
  points in time, e.g. Killing during peace and war

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DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS

• A social norm is a standard of behaviour accepted
  by a society. Examples?
• People who behave in a socially deviant way can
  be regarded as abnormal
• Deviating from these norms is undesirable and
  abnormal.
• So deviation from social norms examines behaviour
  which does not follow socially accepted patterns
• Read case studies
• Simon p.160/185 and Sarah p. 161/186

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LIMITATIONS OF DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS
APPROACH

• Social deviance relates to moral standards.
  These vary across cultures and across time, e.g.
  giving birth outside wedlock was socially deviant
  in Britain100 years ago, and still is in many
  cultures
• Russians who disagreed with the Communist
  government were seen as deranged and sent to
  mental hospital

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DEVIATION FROM SOCIAL NORMS AND CONTEXT

• Social deviance is defined by the context in
  which it occurs, e.g. wearing a bikini in the
  high street is deviant
• CULTURE The Kwakiutl Indians burn blankets to
  cast shame on rivals. This would be deviant in
  another culture
• SUB-CULTURES different religious groups have
  different norms, e.g. Mormons believe it is
  acceptable to have several wives

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KWAKIUTL INDIANS

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IS SOCIAL DEVIANCE A BAD THING?

• Not necessarily. Think of the Germans who
  deviated from the Nazi regime
• If people never deviated from social norms, our
  norms would not change and society would not
  evolve.
• Homosexuality was considered a deviant behaviour
  and gays were given behaviour therapy to cure
  them.
• Today it is no longer considered deviant

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DEVIANCE

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FAILURE TO FUNCTION ADEQUATELY

• Most people who seek psychiatric help are
  suffering psychological distress
• If people are not contributing to society then
  they are described as failing to function
  adequately
• Rosenhan and Seligman identified 7 factors
• which define FFA

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7 CHARACTERISTICS OF FFA

• SUFFERING most abnormal individuals report that
  they are suffering. However, normal people do
  too in times of loss
• MALADAPTIVENESS the person cannot adapt to
  situations, e.g. find fulfilling relationships or
  satisfying work. But this may be due to lack of
  skills

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FFA CHARACTERISTICS

• 3. UNCONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOUR abnormal people
  behave differently. But so do non-conformists
• 4. UNPREDICTABILITY abnormal people are often
  unpredictable and out of control. But so are
  normal people when they are drunk

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UNCONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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FFA CHARACTERISTICS

• 5. IRRATIONALITY abnormal behaviour does not
  make sense to others. But it probably does to
  the individual
• 6. OBSERVER DISCOMFORT it is disturbing for
  others to watch abnormal behaviour. But this may
  reflect cultural differences

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FFA CHARACTERISTICS

• 7. VIOLATION OF STANDARDS people are considered
  abnormal if they do not conform to accepted
  social practice. But minorities frequently have
  different sets of moral practices, e.g. religious
  groups.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE FFA APPROACH

• It relies on subjective judgement, e.g. one
  person might experience observer discomfort but
  another may not
• There are no clear objective measures of the 7
  characteristics
• People who suffer mental disorder are not always
  aware of their failure to function
• FFA can help us to assess a persons
  dysfunctional behaviour

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DEVIATION FROM IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH

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DEVIATION FROM IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH

• If abnormality is lack of a contented existence,
  then this approach looks to define what ideal
  mental health is, and then measures the degree to
  which people depart from this ideal
• The humanists proposed a state called SELF
  ACTUALISATION, to describe the state where a
  person fulfils his/her potential

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THE HUMANISTS

• Carl Rogers (1959) founded
• client centred therapy.
• He believed that maladjustment
• was caused by a child receiving
• conditional love (I will love you if)
• rather than
• unconditional love(I will love you whatever)
• from its parents

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CARL ROGERS

• If a parent gives a child unconditional love,
  Rogers said that the child will grow up to have
  positive self regard, i.e. they will like
  themselves. So their self concept will be close
  to their ideal self ( the person they would like
  to become)

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CARL ROGERS

• If a parent gives a child conditional love, the
  child will feel they are good enough only if they
  behave in the way demanded by their parents.
• This may lead to them never feeling good
  enough, with a large gap between their self
  concept and ideal self. This would lead to low
  self esteem (Im not good enough)

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ABRAHAM MASLOW

• He devised a hierarchy of needs p. 164/189
• We can only move up the hierarchy once the basic
  needs are met.
• The highest motive we all aspire to is self
  actualisation
• Abnormality is the inability to strive for these
  goals

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CRITERIA FOR IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH

• JAHODA proposed 6 characteristics related to
  good mental health
• SELF ATTITUDE high self esteem and a strong
  sense of identity
• PERSONAL GROWTH a personal sense of development
• INTEGRATION ability to cope with situations

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CRITERIA FOR IDEAL MENTAL HEALTH

• 4. AUTONOMY a persons degree of independence
• 5. PERCEPTION OF REALITY living with an
  undistorted sense of reality, showing empathy for
  others and social sensitivity
• 6. ENVIRONMENTAL MASTERY an individuals success
  at living, including loving, working and playing.
  Being able to meet situational requirements

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EVALUATION OF THE IMH APPROACH

• It focusses on positive characteristics, on
  health rather than illness
• The criteria are hard to define, abstract and may
  be culture bound
• Collectivist societies strive for the good of the
  community rather than the individual
• The criteria are hard to measure
• Hardly anybody reaches self actualisation

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CULTURAL RELATIVISM

• All the definitions are limited because they are
  culturally specific, i.e. do not apply to all
  cultures
• So what is normal in one culture may be
  considered abnormal in another

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CULTURE-BOUND SYNDROMES

• DHAT- this is a sex neurosis found in Indian
  males. They blame feelings of exhaustion on the
  presence of semen in the urine
• Psychologists have diagnosed these patients as
  suffering from depression

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HOMOSEXUALITY

• Before 1980, homosexuality was classified as a
  mental disorder
• In DSM III, it was removed, and overnight a
  segment of the population was no longer
  considered mentally ill or deviant.
• So historical factors, as well as cultural ones,
  determine our understanding of mental health

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UNIVERSALITY

• However, some conditions are undesirable in all
  cultural and historical contexts, e.g. failure to
  eat,
• chronic depression,
• fear of going outside,
• antisocial behaviour
• So there are some universal indicators of
  abnormality