Clinical & mental health definitions

Deviation from ideal mental health

Abnormality is the absence of criteria for good mental health

-Positive self view

-Autonomy

-Accurate view of reality

-Resisting stress

-Environmental mastery

Who came up with deviation from ideal mental health?

Marie Jahoda

Strengths of deviation from ideal mental health

Holistic - shows the whole picture

Looks at the entire person & their experiences

Gets the patients own understanding

Gives a more valid definition

Limitations of deviation from ideal mental health

Too demanding

Requires people to always meet all criteria

Unhelpful as many functioning people would be labelled as abnormal

Cultural bias

Who believed normality was the absence of normality?

Rosenhan and Seligman

Deviation from social norms

Every society has standards of acceptable behaviour, deviating is considered abnormal

Strengths of deviation from social norms

Real world application

Professionals & society will judge illness based on wether someone meets social norms

Some disorders are characterised by deviating from the norms

Can be used day to day

Limitations of deviation from social norms

Social norms vary between situations and culture

Could technically label someone from a different culture as abnormal

Difficult to judge deviation based on context

Failure to function adequately

• From individuals point of view

• Not being able to cope with everyday tasks

• Can cause distress for victim & others

Strengths of failure to function adequately

• It has validity

• Matches the persons own perception & must be truthful

• If someone feels they cannot cope, they will seek support

• Patients often agree with the diagnosis

• It is observable

Limitations of failure to function adequately

• Some disorders allow full functioning

• Assumes all disorders are debilitating

• E.g narcissistic personality disorder does not interfere with patients life

• Cannot be used as a sole measure of poor mental health

• Can be normal in some situations

Statistical infrequency

• If something is statistically rare, it is abnormal

• Depending on the normal distribution of a graph is what is rare

• Usually 5% of the population

Strength of statistical infrequency

• It is objective

• No bias or opinion as it is just looking at numerical values & criteria

• Intellectual personality disorder requires an IQ in bottom 2%

• Doesn’t rely on psychiatrists own views

Limitations of statistical infrequency

• Unusual characteristics can be positive

• Just because something is infrequent doesn’t make it undesirable

• IQ above 130 is rare but doesn’t require treatment

• Can only be part of defining mental illness