The Concept of Abnormality
“There are controversies surrounding the concept of abnormality.” With reference to this statement, discuss the concepts of normality and abnormality.
There are controversies surrounding the concept of abnormality. With reference to this statement, discuss the concepts of normality and abnormality
Psychologists are posed with a difficult task: it is difficult to define and therefore diagnose abnormality because it is, to a large extent, based on the symptoms people exhibit or report. This paper will uncover the controversies surrounding the concepts of abnormality by evaluating the statistical infrequency, and deviation from social norms and failure to function adequately.
To determine abnormality, statistical infrequency is used to presume that most people don’t stray from the norm. Researchers take a statistical approach to assess how characteristics are distributed into the general population which is a bell shaped curve where most people score around the average in any given population. This is in respect to the normal distribution which tells us where a percentage or a population falls within the spread of scores, called the standard deviation. In psychology, behavior and personality traits can be measured in terms of population distribution – they assume that individuals are normal if they do not deviate far from the average (IQ) and very high or low score would be considered abnormal. However, all statistical frequency does not give a method for measuring abnormality and moreover, it does not suggest what types of behavior or personality are linked to abnormal behavior. Also it is difficult to determine where to draw the line – it is hard to define the cut off point using the statistical approach because there is no agreed point on the scale at which behavior can be classified as abnormal. Also there are many discrepancies with common disorders; depression and anxiety are classified as psychology disorders but in statistical terms, they are not that
There are controversies surrounding the concept of abnormality. With reference to this statement, discuss the concepts of normality and abnormality
Psychologists are posed with a difficult task: it is difficult to define and therefore diagnose abnormality because it is, to a large extent, based on the symptoms people exhibit or report. This paper will uncover the controversies surrounding the concepts of abnormality by evaluating the statistical infrequency, and deviation from social norms and failure to function adequately.
To determine abnormality, statistical infrequency is used to presume that most people don’t stray from the norm. Researchers take a statistical approach to assess how characteristics are distributed into the general population which is a bell shaped curve where most people score around the average in any given population. This is in respect to the normal distribution which tells us where a percentage or a population falls within the spread of scores, called the standard deviation. In psychology, behavior and personality traits can be measured in terms of population distribution – they assume that individuals are normal if they do not deviate far from the average (IQ) and very high or low score would be considered abnormal. However, all statistical frequency does not give a method for measuring abnormality and moreover, it does not suggest what types of behavior or personality are linked to abnormal behavior. Also it is difficult to determine where to draw the line – it is hard to define the cut off point using the statistical approach because there is no agreed point on the scale at which behavior can be classified as abnormal. Also there are many discrepancies with common disorders; depression and anxiety are classified as psychology disorders but in statistical terms, they are not that