Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the three criteria that consider abnormality as a deviation from what is average behavior, as a deviation from an ideal, and as a sense of personal discomfort.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Due to the difficulty in distinguishing normal from abnormal behavior, psychologists have struggled to devise a precise, scientific definition of "abnormal behavior." For instance, consider the following definitions, each of which has advantages and disadvantages:

One way of viewing abnormality is as deviation from what is considered to be average behavior. To employ this statistically based approach, we simply observe what behaviors are rare or occur infrequently in a specific society or culture and label those deviations from the norm "abnormal." The difficulty with this definition is that some statistically rare behaviors clearly do not lend themselves to classification as abnormal. Similarly, such a concept of abnormality would unreasonably label a person who has an unusually high IQ as abnormal simply because a high IQ is statistically rare. In short, a definition of abnormality that rests on deviation from the average is insufficient.

Another way of viewing abnormality is as deviation from an ideal. An alternative approach considers abnormality in relation to the standard toward which most people are striving. This sort of definition considers behavior abnormal if it deviates enough from some kind of ideal or cultural standard. However, society has few standards on which people universally agree. Furthermore, standards that do arise change over time and vary across cultures. Thus, the deviation from-the-ideal approach is also inadequate.

A third way of viewing abnormality is as a sense of personal discomfort. A more useful definition concentrates on the psychological consequences of the behavior for the individual. In this approach, behavior is considered abnormal if it produces a sense of personal distress, anxiety, or guilt in an individual-or if it is harmful to others in some way. Even a definition that relies on personal discomfort has drawbacks, though, because in some especially severe forms of mental disturbance, people report feeling wonderful even though their behavior seems bizarre to others. In such cases, a personal state of well-being exists, yet most people would consider the behavior abnormal.