Individuals who are described as abnormal are not that different from the rest of us To
Any definition of abnormality depends on an initial concept of what is normal as, by definition, abnormality is ‘deviating from what is normal or usual’. ... Moreover, how can any definition be applied in order to distinguish between ‘normal and abnormal individuals’? ... This perspective slowly evolved into a more scientifically based one but, in the post-war era, still considered pregnancy outside of wedlock as abnormal. Nowadays abnormality can be defined by any of several different approaches, the first of which involves looking at the statistical prevalence of behaviour. ... Any results which are at either extreme, or appear more than two standard deviations away from the mean, can be considered statistically infrequent and therefore abnormal. When applied to a scale such as IQ it is possible to see that a score of 70 or less is statistically rare or abnormal. However, a score of 130 or greater is also infrequent and so by this definition alone is also abnormal. Thus this approach is limited to communicating only partial meaning of a-typical behaviour as it does not take desirability into account. Returning to the example to IQ it is clear that a score below 70 is undesirable but the same is not true for results at the opposite end of the spectrum. ... So the question is raised as to how much someone must deviate from the norm to be considered abnormal. As a final negative criticism it is important to note that any curve of normal distribution is peculiar to the population sample from which it was taken. Cultural standards are not universal and something that is considered strange in one context may not be so in another. However, one positive comment about this approach is that, unlike other definitions, it does not require nor take into account value judgements. Missing from the statistical approach is the consideration of the individual’s behaviour impacting on others. A second classification, which looks at the deviation from social norms, deals with this aspect by regarding those who behave in a socially deviant and apparently incomprehensible manner as abnormal. ... In application we see that many people who would be clinically considered as abnormal have socially deviant characteristics, such as those suffering from anti-social personality disorders who lack conscience and therefore behave aggressively. Unfortunately social deviance is measured from certain moral standards, which are subjective and rely upon qualitative judgements. ... Another problem that arises from the use of social deviance is that it is defined by the context in which it is existent. While certain actions are acceptable in given situations they may not be so in other settings. ... This problem is closely related to the issues arising from cross-cultural comparisons.