OUTLINE AND EVALUATE TWO OR MORE DEFINITIONS OF ABNORMALITY
Failure to function adequately refers to normal as someone’s ability to perform everyday
tasks and live a normal day to day life. Someone who cannot function adequately will show
maladaptive or dangerous behaviour that causes distress to themselves or others. Deviation
from ideal mental health refers to normal as a set of mental standards everyone should
have. Failure to meet these criteria would see someone being unable to cope with stress,
being overly harsh on themselves and have a generally pessimistic attitude. The more
criteria someone fails to meet, the more abnormal they would be.
One piece of evidence to support failure to function is that the characteristic help society to
spot abnormality early so that people may be able to get help and support sooner for faster
recovery. However, individual differences make it hard to judge abnormality because of
what seems to one person to be maladaptive behaviour, may be helpful and beneficial to
another.
One piece of evidence that criticises the deviation of ideal mental health as a definition of
abnormality is that there are a lot of points on the criteria which creates issues with validity.
This is because not many people have all of them which would mean everyone would be
classed as mentally ill and that cannot be the case. However, these standards were set as a
guide to an ideal rather than a bare minimum for good mental health.
One piece of evidence to support the deviation of ideal mental health as a definition of
abnormality is that it focuses on the desirables rather than if people failing certain things
and considers the whole person by using a holistic view. This allows for specific areas to be
worked on and goals set for personal growth. However, this definition doesn’t take cultural
differences into account as many of the criteria focus on the self which collectivist societies
don’t strive for meaning there would be an over representation
Failure to function adequately refers to normal as someone’s ability to perform everyday
tasks and live a normal day to day life. Someone who cannot function adequately will show
maladaptive or dangerous behaviour that causes distress to themselves or others. Deviation
from ideal mental health refers to normal as a set of mental standards everyone should
have. Failure to meet these criteria would see someone being unable to cope with stress,
being overly harsh on themselves and have a generally pessimistic attitude. The more
criteria someone fails to meet, the more abnormal they would be.
One piece of evidence to support failure to function is that the characteristic help society to
spot abnormality early so that people may be able to get help and support sooner for faster
recovery. However, individual differences make it hard to judge abnormality because of
what seems to one person to be maladaptive behaviour, may be helpful and beneficial to
another.
One piece of evidence that criticises the deviation of ideal mental health as a definition of
abnormality is that there are a lot of points on the criteria which creates issues with validity.
This is because not many people have all of them which would mean everyone would be
classed as mentally ill and that cannot be the case. However, these standards were set as a
guide to an ideal rather than a bare minimum for good mental health.
One piece of evidence to support the deviation of ideal mental health as a definition of
abnormality is that it focuses on the desirables rather than if people failing certain things
and considers the whole person by using a holistic view. This allows for specific areas to be
worked on and goals set for personal growth. However, this definition doesn’t take cultural
differences into account as many of the criteria focus on the self which collectivist societies
don’t strive for meaning there would be an over representation
