Discuss the failure to functon adequately defniton of abnormality. (8 marks)
Abnormality is diagnosed when a person cannot cope with the demands of everyday life
because of dysfunctonal behaviour. Rosenham and Seligman identied a list of factors that contribute
to dysfunctonn including maladaptve behaviour (such as excessive jealously,n personal distress and
observer discomfort (such as consistent invasion of personal space,. The more factors presentn the more
likely the individual is to be considered abnormaln as these factors prevent them from leading a normal
lifen e.g. forming relatonships and maintaining a job.
A limitaton of the deiniton is that dysfunctonal behaviour is not always abnormal. oor
examplen during bereavement it would be abnormal not to show behaviours such as personal distress.
Alternatvelyn many abnormal individuals are capable of functoning adequately – e.g. Harold Shipman –
and so would be unrecognized by this deiniton. The deiniton does not consider social contextn and is
therefore limited in its ability to identfy abnormality in all situatons.
ourthermoren the deiniton may be a limited tool for diagnosis as the criteria for abnormality
are subjectvee e.g. how much personal distress indicates abnormality? Acknowledging the experience of
a client during diagnosis shows empathy and failure to functon is ooen why an individual initally seeks
helpn strengthening the value of the deinitonn yet it may be appropriate to combine the criteria with
objectve measures – such as statstcal infrequency – to create a true relecton of an individual’s
psychological state.
Word count: 80 + 147
Abnormality is diagnosed when a person cannot cope with the demands of everyday life
because of dysfunctonal behaviour. Rosenham and Seligman identied a list of factors that contribute
to dysfunctonn including maladaptve behaviour (such as excessive jealously,n personal distress and
observer discomfort (such as consistent invasion of personal space,. The more factors presentn the more
likely the individual is to be considered abnormaln as these factors prevent them from leading a normal
lifen e.g. forming relatonships and maintaining a job.
A limitaton of the deiniton is that dysfunctonal behaviour is not always abnormal. oor
examplen during bereavement it would be abnormal not to show behaviours such as personal distress.
Alternatvelyn many abnormal individuals are capable of functoning adequately – e.g. Harold Shipman –
and so would be unrecognized by this deiniton. The deiniton does not consider social contextn and is
therefore limited in its ability to identfy abnormality in all situatons.
ourthermoren the deiniton may be a limited tool for diagnosis as the criteria for abnormality
are subjectvee e.g. how much personal distress indicates abnormality? Acknowledging the experience of
a client during diagnosis shows empathy and failure to functon is ooen why an individual initally seeks
helpn strengthening the value of the deinitonn yet it may be appropriate to combine the criteria with
objectve measures – such as statstcal infrequency – to create a true relecton of an individual’s
psychological state.
Word count: 80 + 147
