Normality & Abnormality

1. Normality & Abnormality

2. What is normal behavior
 The common pattern of behavior found among the general majority is said to be the
behavior of the normal. Normal people exhibit satisfactory work capacity and earn an
adequate income. They conform and adjust to their social surrounding.
 They are capable of establishing, satisfying and acceptable relationships with other
people and their emotional reactions are basically appropriate to different situations.
Such people manage to control their emotions.
 Their emotional experiences do not affect their personality adjustment though they
experience occasional frustrations and conflict. These people who adjust well with
themselves, their surroundings, and their associates constitute the normal group.
 The normal group covers the great majority of people. According to Coleman (1981)
consistent with the long-term well-being and progress of the group. normal behavior will
represent the optimal development and functioning of the individual
 Thus, people having an average amount of intelligence, personality stability, and social
adaptability are considered as normal.

3. Meaning and concept of abnormality
 The concept of abnormality is defined as the simple exaggeration or
perverted development of normal psychological behavior. In other words, it
deals with the usual behavior of man. The unusual or maladapted behavior
of many persons which do not fit into our common forms of behavior is
known as abnormal behavior.
 Abnormality refers to maladjustment to one’s society and culture which surrounds him. It is the deviation from the normal in
an unfavorable and pathological way.
 According to Brown (1940) abnormal psychological phenomena are simple exaggerations (over-
development or under-development) or disguised (i.e., perverted developments) of normal
psychological phenomena.
 It is expected, for instance, that a normal human being would react to a snake by immediately withdrawing from it. But if the
person, on the contrary, plays with the snake very happily, it is a sign of uncommon behavior which may be considered
abnormal provided that past experience or training does not play a part here.

4.  A person who has been by profession trained from the very childhood to deal with snakes will not be
afraid of a snake and if he does not withdraw from a snake, will not be considered abnormal.
 Coleman (1981) holds that deviant behaviors are considered as maladaptive because they are not only
harmful to society, but to the individual. Maladaptive behavior impairs individual and group well-being
and it brings distress to the individual. It also leads to individual and group conflicts.
 Page (1976) views that the abnormal group consists of individuals marked by limited intelligence,
emotional instability, personality disorganization, and character defects who for the most part led
wretched personal lives and were social misfits and liabilities.
 Thus, abnormality and normality can only be defined in terms of conformity to the will and welfare of
the group and in the capacity for self-management.
 A close analysis of various types of abnormal behavior indicates that abnormal behavior circumscribes a
wide range of maladaptive reactions like psychoneuroses, psychoses, delinquents, sexual deviants, drug
addicts, etc.

5.  Thus, the same kind of biological, social, and
psychological maladjustment affects the
functioning of the individual in a society. The
abnormal deviants who constitute about 10
percent of the general population are
classified into four main categories; such as
psychoneurotic, psychotic, mentally defective,
and antisocial.

6. Models of understanding abnormal behaviour
 Models in the study of psychopathology. Models are analogies that
scientists use to describe things they cannot directly observe. Among the
models that psychologists use is the medical model, which portrays
psychological disorders as diseases. Other models are also used, and it is
unlikely that the definitive model will ever be developed. The case of
Steven V. is presented, which describes a college student suffering from
depression and violent fantasies.
 Models of abnormality are general hypotheses as to the nature
of psychological abnormalities. The eight main models explain
psychological abnormality. They all attempt to explain the causes
and treatments for all psychological illnesses, and all from a
different approach.t what has been learned can be unlearned

7. Biological Model
 Biological models. The biological model suggests that abnormal behavior is caused by
biological factors, especially involving genetic material and the brain.
The human brain is composed of billions of neurons (nerve cells) that receive and transmit
information. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, each controlling the opposite side of the
body. The brain structures most relevant to abnormal behavior include the thalamus,
hypothalamus, reticular activating system, limbic system, and cerebrum. Other structures in the
midbrain and hindbrain manufacture chemicals that are correlated with mental disorders.
Biochemical theories suggest that chemical imbalances underlie mental disorders. Neurons are
composed of dendrites, which receive signals from other neurons, and axons, which send the
signals to other neurons. At the end of the axon is a gap called the synapse, into which
chemicals called neurotransmitters are released. Imbalances in neurotransmitters are associated
with many mental disorders. Certain medications can reduce symptoms of abnormal behavior by
blocking or facilitating neurotransmitter activity.

8. Biological Model
 Genetics also plays an important part in explaining the development of disorders. A
person’s genotype (genetic makeup) interacts with the environment to produce physical or
behavioral characteristics (the person’s phenotype). The Human Genome Project has mapped
the location of all genes in the nucleus of a human cell and has completed its sequencing to
provide a basic blueprint of the entire genetic material found in each cell of the human body.
While single cells have been found to be responsible for a few diseases, most diseases are the
result of many genes interacting with hormones, electrical signals, and nutrient supplies
internally plus physical and social environments.
The biological model overemphasizes internal causes, equates organic dysfunction with a
mental dysfunction, and assumes that biochemical differences are the cause of disorder when
they may be the result. Diathesis-stress theory argues that people can inherit a vulnerability to
developing an illness, but this tendency must be activated by environmental forces for the
disorder to occur.

9. Psychodynamic model
 Psychodynamic models. Sigmund
Freud’s psychodynamic
model emphasizes early childhood
experiences. Anxiety results from
unconscious conflicts and threatens
us; in dealing with those threats, we
develop symptoms. Psychoanalysis is
the therapeutic technique that asserts
unconscious conflicts must be aired
and understood by the patient to
eliminate abnormal behavior.

10. Psychodynamic model
 Personality structure. Personality is a dynamic process resulting from three interacting components: the id,
the ego, and the superego. The id operates on the pleasure principle, a need for immediate gratification. The
ego is influenced by the reality principle. The superego is composed of the conscience and the ego ideal.
Personality develops through five psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital). Fixation at
any of the stages affects emotional development.
Anxiety is at the root of psychoanalytic thinking and takes three forms: realistic, moralistic, and
neurotic. Defense mechanisms protect the individual from anxiety. These include, among others, repression,
reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, undoing, and regression.
In psychoanalysis, therapists induce ego weakness so that unconscious material can be brought to the
surface. These insights help patients understand their inner motives. Post-Freudian perspectives take
Freud’s ideas in new directions. They emphasize freedom of choice and future goals, ego autonomy, social
forces, object relations, and treatment of seriously disturbed people.
Psychoanalysis has been criticized for basing its evidence on case studies, which are subject to distortion.
Psychodynamic theory is biased against women and cannot be applied to a wide range of disturbed people.

11. Behavioural Model
 Behavioral models. The behavioral models emphasize learning. The classical conditioning model involves the
pairing of a neutral (conditioned) stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that automatically produces certain
responses called the unconditioned response. After repeated pairing, the conditioned stimulus alone can
produce a weakened version of the response, call the conditioned response. Classical conditioning in
psychopathology. These concepts can be said to explain the development of phobias and deviant sexual
behavior. However, the passive nature of associative learning makes it a limited explanatory tool.
The operant conditioning model stresses the consequences of voluntary and controllable behaviors
called operant behaviors. According to Thorndike’s law of effect, these behaviors are more likely when they
produce positive consequences and less likely when they produce negative consequences. Operant conditioning
principles help explain such forms of psychopathology as self-injurious behavior. As in classical conditioning,
operant concepts can be applied to treatment as well.
The observational learning model suggests that an individual can acquire new behaviors simply by watching
other people perform them through the process of vicarious conditioning or modeling. Observational learning in
psychopathology assumes that exposure to disturbed models helps produce disturbed behavior.
Behavioral models have made significant contributions to both the understanding and treatment of disorders.
However, they are criticized for diminishing the importance of inner determinants of behavior.

12. Cognitive Model
 Cognitive models. The cognitive models assume that thoughts modify our emotional states and behavior.
People differ in their mediating processes, which determine our reactions, behaviors, and self-evaluations.
Our schemas (how we interpret events) influence our experiences.
Cognitive theorists focus on irrational beliefs (Ellis) or dysfunctional automatic thoughts (Beck). Becks’ work
on depression helped him identify a hierarchy of cognitive content. Ellis describes an A-B-C theory of
personality in which A is an event, B is a belief, and C is a consequent behavior or emotion. Beck describes
six types of faulty or distorted thinking: arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization,
magnification and exaggeration, personalization, and polarized thinking.
Cognitive approaches to therapy have clients monitor their thoughts; recognize the connections between
thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; examine the evidence for their assumptions; and substitute more reality-
oriented interpretations.
Some behaviorists warn that cognitions cannot be observed and therefore are not the stuff of science.
Humanistically oriented psychologists object to reducing human beings to the sum of their cognitions. Others
object to confrontative cognitive therapy methods.

13. Humanistic and existential approaches
 Humanistic and existential approaches. The humanistic and existential approaches emphasize
the need to appreciate the world from the individual's vantage point. They also highlight freedom
of choice and the wholeness of the individual.
Psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow suggested that people are motivated by the
actualizing tendency to enhance the self (self-actualization). The development of abnormal
behavior occurs when society imposes conditions of worth on people so that their self-
concept and actualizing tendency become incongruent. This incongruence produces behavior
disorders. In Rogers’s person-centered therapy, people are free to grow toward their potential.
The therapist uses the reflection of feelings and acceptance rather than advice to help the client
actively evaluate his or her experience.
The existential perspective is not a systematized school of thought but a set of attitudes that is
less optimistic than humanism. It views the individual within the human condition and focuses
more on the responsibility to others. Both approaches lack scientific grounding, are vague, and
apply therapies that are ineffective with severely disturbed clients.

14. The Family Systems Model
I. The family systems model. Unlike the biological, psychodynamic, and behavioral models,
which stress the individual, the family systems model emphasizes the influence of the family
on individual behavior.
II. Family treatment approaches see abnormality as a symptom of unhealthy family dynamics,
including communication problems. Three family therapy approaches are (1) communications,
as defined by Virginia Stairs’ conjoint family therapy approach (teaching message
sending/receiving skills to all family members); (2) strategic, which sees therapy as a power
struggle between the client and therapist where the identified patient is in control, so the
therapist must devise strategies to help the family change the balance; and (3) the structural
family approach that sees a need for restructuring family relationships, which are typically
either too involved or too uninvolved with each other.
Criticisms of the family systems model include difficulty defining it from different cultural
viewpoints and its confusion of cause and effect over the issue of family abuse.

15. Models of diversity and psychopathology
 Models of diversity and psychopathology. As European Americans become a
numerical minority in the United States, there is a growing awareness of cultural issues
in psychopathology. Early models viewed cultural minorities as genetically inferior or
culturally deprived relative to white middle-class culture. Multicultural models of
psychopathology argue that culture is central to all theories of pathology, that European-
American concepts must be balanced by non-Western perspectives, and that human
development includes cultural context.
The DSM-IV-TR includes cultural considerations. Bias may help explain apparent
cultural differences in psychopathology; Europeans emphasize individuality in ways
other cultures do not, but some critics argue that a disorder is a disorder regardless of
cultural context. The multicultural perspective has been criticized for lacking empirical
validation.

16. An integrative approach to models of
psychopathology
 An integrative approach to models of psychopathology. It is useful to
compare and contrast the different models of psychopathology. However, few
practicing clinicians use them rigidly and most see value in an eclectic
approach: we are all biological, psychological, and cultural beings.
A tripartite framework for understanding abnormal psychology includes the
individual level, the group level, and the universal level.