Outline and evaluate attempts at defining psychological abnormality

(a) Outline 2 attempts to define abnormality (6 marks) Statistical infrequency is an approach that attempts to define abnormality. It suggests that most human personality and behavioural traits fall within a normal distribution with most people crowding around the middle of the distribution (the norm). Any characteristic that is statistically rare according to this distribution is considered abnormal. A further attempt at defining abnormality is the deviation from ideal mental health approach. This likens mental health to …

…disorders can rarely rely dependently on the sub-culture of the individual. E.g. women experiencing depression are more vulnerable to this than men, due to the role of hormones, in conjunction with pre menstrual stress. Furthermore, the attempts to define psychological abnormality are very much influenced by different cultures and underlying factors. Therefore we cannot say that one definition is correct as they all differ and are not precise in the way they measure abnormality.