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PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - Coggle Diagram
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY
deviation from social norms
: created by a group of people in a society where standards are acceptable behaviour - classified as abnormal if not socially banging normal. eg. homosexuality
EVALUATION=
P:
what's socially acceptable now may not be in 50 years
Ev:
Homosexuality is acceptable in most countries, however in the past it would've been considered a disorder
Ex:
there is a real danger in creating definitions based on prevailing social morals & attitudes
P:
judgment on deviance are often related to context of behaviour
Ev:
person on beach earn next to nothing is normal, but in a classroom would be abnormal
Ex:
social deviance on it's own cannot offer a complete definition of abnormality - related to both context and degree
P:
defintion does distinguish between desirable/undesirable behaviour (not ins statistical infrequency)
Ev:
takes into account effect that behaviour has on others
Ex:
offers a practical and useful way of identifying undesirable & potentially damaging behaviour, alert others to the need to secure help for the person concerned
P:
social norms are defined by the culture
Ev:
classification systems = dominant in Western culture
Ex:
shows it's possible to address the issue by including cultural differences in diagnostic systems
statistical infrequency:
(mean, median & mode) - descriptive statistics as a way to represent the typical value in any set of data, statistics inform us about things that are most typical
EVALUATION:
P:
some abnormal behaviors are desired
Ev:
few people have an IQ over 150, but it's desirable. some normal behviours also seen as undesirable
Ex:
we are able to distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviors
P:
fact cut off are subjectively determined
Ev:
we need to decide where to separate normality from abnormality.
Ex:
such disagreements mean it's hard to define abnormality in terms of SI
P:
some say it's appropriate to use SI to define abnormality
Ev:
intellectual disability defined in terms of the normal distribution using the concept of standard deviation to establish a cut off point for abnormality.
Ex:
suggests SI is only one of a number a tools
P:
culture may have different statistics
Ev:
a symptom of schizophrenia is to hear voices- however this is common in some cultures
Ex:
no universal standards/rules for labelling a behaviour as abnormal
failure to function adequately:
people are judged on their ability to go about daily life. also experiencing distress could be considered a sign of abnormality
EVALUATION:
P:
who decided if someone is failing to function adequately
Ev:
people may be unaware they're not functioning adequately, too stressed to get help
Ex:
the limitation in the approach is that the judgement depends on who is making the decision & is therefore subjective.
P:
limitation = some apparently dysfunctional behavior can actually be adaptive/functional for the individual
Ev:
ED/depression may lead to extra attention = rewarding = functional for the individual
Ex:
failure to distinguish between functional & dysfunctional means definition is incomplete
P:
does recognize the subjective experience of the patient
Ev:
allows us to view mental disorder form the point of view of the person experiencing it - judge objectively because we can list behaviors & they thus judge abnormality objective
Ex:
has a certain level of sensitivity and practicality
P:
limited by being culturally relative
Ev:
different diagnosis when applied to people from different cultures
Ex:
so this model is limited by cultural relativism
deviation from ideal mental health:
abnormality defined in terms of mental health, behaviorsaszsociated with competence and happiness, positive attitude towards the self resistance to stress & accurate perception of reality
EVALUATION:
P:
according to this, most of us are abnormal
Ev:
also difficult to measure - how many need to be lacking before it's abnormal
Ex:
may be an interesting concept, but not useful when identifying abnormality
P:
tried to apply principles of physical health to mental health
Ev:
mental disorders can have physical causes - consequences of life experiences
Ex:
unlikely we could diagnose mental abnormality in the same way that we can distinguish physical abnormality
P:
focus's on +'s not -'s
Ev:
offers an alternative perspective on mental disorder that focuses on the idea, what's desirable
Ex:
a strength: positive outlook, and influence on humanistic approach
P:
cultural
Ev
:self actualization is relevant to members of individualist cultures but not collectivist where people promote needs of groups and not themselves
Ex:
limits usefulness of this definition to certain cultural groups