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Discuss the attempts to define abnormality and evaluate the practical problems associated with them.
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Discuss the attempts to define abnormality and evaluate the practical problems associated with them There are four main ways of deciding whether someone is abnormal, theses are: * Statistical infrequency * Violation of moral standards * Deviation from expected * Personal suffering, distress and dysfunction Statistical infrequency assumes that any behaviour that is statistically infrequent is regarded as abnormal. Behaviour and personality traits can be put into a normal distribution pattern and that most people do not stray very from the norm/average. An example of this method in use is to assess mental retardation and mental genius, on the assumption it can be measured by an IQ test. Scores are plotted against the normal distribution pattern and very high and very low scores are then regarded as "special". However high scores are often not regarded as abnormal in the way low scores or mental retardation is, just as great athletic ability is not regarded as abnormal....
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