Psychopathology is a bit of a weird word will we break it down psycho means the mind and pathology is the study of disease so of course in this Psychopathology video series we're going to be looking at a range of mental health conditions and these are OCD depression and phobias for each of these psychopathologies we'll consider their explanation and treatment using a different psychological approach the behaviorist approach applied to phobias the cognitive approach applied to depression and the biological approach applied to OCD but before we start with that we need to consider how to actually Define someone as mentally abnormal and it turns out not to be as easy to come up a clear definition for abnormality as you might think this is a definition that includes everyone would like to support while not including people we wouldn't want to Define as mentally abnormal so in this definition abnormality video we're going to look at four competing definition of abnormality and the strengths and weaknesses of each boost.com over 170 videos to help you with your qualification and Patron supporters can access bonus resources tutorial videos and the Discord Channel statistical and frequency our first definition statistical and frequency is likely the most obvious someone is mentally abnormal if their mental condition is very rare in population how common or rare behavior is can be judged objectively using statistics for example we can use a normal distribution curve to show the average spread of a certain characteristic across a population most people will be around the middle but as we move away from the center fewer and fewer people will have those values if we want to compare an individual's Behavior to the rest of the population we can use this data to identify those individuals who are most unusual one characteristic of interest to psychologists is intelligent if we measure intelligence according to IQ the average IQ is 100 and it's at the highest point of this graph we can argue someone has two standard deviations away from the average is abnormal in this low intelligence bracket we would include just over two percent of the population we could argue this is an objective way of measuring hoop falls into the category of low intelligence and importantly who is in most need of support we can phrase this as a positive evaluation we can say that those people who fall into the bottom end of the curve have been objectively measured to have low IQ the Judgment of who received support and who doesn't isn't dependent on the potentially subjective opinion of a clinician however we can criticize statistical infrequency by pointing out the place the psychological Community says low intelligence ends and normal intelligence starts is a subjective decision and will affect a large number of people it could be that someone has an IQ score just one IQ Point higher than the cutoff and is denied treatment deciding where to split low and normal IQ has real world implications on those people it effects also not all statistically infrequent traits are negative for example this definition includes those people with low intelligence were also people at the higher end of intelligence this is just as statistically rare but of course we wouldn't want to Define someone with high intelligence as having a psychopathology and in need of additional support another valid criticism of statistical and frequency is that some psychopathologies are quite common two examples of common mental health conditions are depression and anxiety it is surveyed by the NHS about one in six adults so 17 of those people surveyed met the criteria for a common mental health disorder so this definition of statistical and frequency doesn't match the high incidence of mental health disorders in society failure to function adequately the previous definition Compares an individual Against The Wider population this definition failure to function adequately considers the individual's ability to cope in their daily lives including their ability to interact with the world around them and meet the challenges they encounter some individuals may struggle to meet those requirements rosenhan and Seligman have outlined several features of failure to function these are maladaptive behavior is where an individual behaves in ways that goes against their long-term interests this could include self-harm or unhealthy patterns of eating or interacting with others in ways that damage relationships for example if you work in a shop it might be in your best interest to be nice to customers you know that your long-term best interests like keeping your job are best served by not being hostile sarcastic or aggressive towards customers personal anguish so this is where we can see the individuals suffering from anxiety and distress as a result their inability to cope with day-to-day life they may want to interact with the world but struggle to even get out of bed and ready Observer discomfort is where an individual's Behavior causes distress to those around them examples of this include poor personal hygiene are not respecting other people's personal space a rationality is where we find it difficult to understand the motivation behind someone's behavior and this is linked on predictability and unexpected Behavior these issues can give the impression that these individuals cannot fully control their behavior unconventionality is when someone's Behavior goes against what is typically expected in society this could include inappropriate behavior at work an unusual sense of dress or behavior that simply doesn't match or would expect from a person in a given situation one criticism of the failure to function definition of abnormality is that the decision about whether someone's coping or not is subjective and based on the opinion of observers this means that two observers might not agree on whether someone's coping or not another issue is that the definition only includes people who are unable to cope which excludes some people who would be considered abnormal such as psychopaths psychopaths are often able to function in society in ways that make them successful such as lower empathy which can make it easier to make decisions that are helpful in business and politics however while I feel no distress themselves psychopathy often has negative implications for the people around them another criticism is that not all mild after behavior is an indication of mental illness taking part in extreme sports or smoking and drinking alcohol or risk the individual's health so arguably maladaptive but we wouldn't want to diagnose these people with a mental illness one positive aspect of the failure to function definition of abnormality is that it respects individual and their own experience which is something that other definitions such as statistical and frequency and deviation from social norms cannot do deviation from social norms a social Norm is an Unwritten expectation of behavior that can vary from culture to culture and change over time even what is acceptable in one context might not be acceptable than another and people who deviate from these expectations may be seen as abnormal or social deviants for example the differences in social norms between the context of a nightclub in a classroom if someone were to use a social norms of a nightclub in classroom they would quickly be seen as abnormal one important point to consider when discussing deviation from social norms is that these Norms are dictated by an individual's culture one might be considered acceptable in one culture might not be seen as acceptable than another example this can vary greatly between cultures such as the acceptance of homosexuality face and hair covering except all food and how to eat it level of modestine clothing choices and public displays of emotion when evaluating deviation from social norms one positive aspect might be that respects cultural differences between societies it does not impose a set definition of abnormality that could for example impose a western view of abnormality or an Eastern culture therefore it could be said that deviation from social norms is not ethnocentric one issue of using deviation from social norms as a definition of abnormality is it can be difficult to apply when people from One culture move to a different culture with different norms for example people from an afro-caribbean background living in the UK are seven times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than people living in the UK or people from afro-caribbean Nations living in afro-caribbean Nations this is due to something called category failure where a western definition of mental illness is applied to individuals who are not acting according to Western cultural norms in afro-caribbean cultures hallucinations and conversations of angels may be considered part of a normal religious experience so a doctor in the West Indies would be less likely to diagnose schizophrenia based on these symptoms however in the UK they may be more likely to do so another criticism of this definition of abnormality is it can be seen as punishing people who are trying to express their individuality or repressing people who do not conform to cultural norms deviation from ideal mental health marijuoda's deviation from ideal mental health definition comes from a humanistic perspective this means it doesn't focus on dysfunction or deficit but instead on ways to improve and become a bad person jehoda identifies six features of Ideal Mental Health according to jehoda deviation from these features May indicate abnormality environmental Mastery refers to the ability to adapt and thrive in new situations autonomy is the ability to act independently and Trust in one's abilities resistance to stress refers to the internal strength to cope with the anxiety caused by daily like self-actualization is the ability to reach one's potential through personal growth our positive attitude towards oneself is characterized by high self-esteem and self-respect Acura perceptive reality is the ability to see the world as it truly is without being distorted by personal biases while the limitation of this definition comes from its basis in humanistic psychology which may reflect a western perspective of Mental Health this can be seen as an example of an emit construct where a perspective from one culture in this case an individualistic American culture is incorrectly applied to all people as a universal construct in many cultures people may not place value on autonomy as it's not part of their cultural norms and personal freedom is not seen as a necessary or positive aspect of life instead in collectivist societies many people value playing a role in supporting a family or group not focusing on individual success another criticism of this definition is the strictness of the criteria for what defines mental health it's very difficult for most people to achieve all the criteria for idea of mental health at any one time which means that this definition would Define most people as abnormal at least at some point in their lives a positive evaluation of this definition is it's a positive and holistic approach to mental health that takes into account multiple factors in diagnosis and provide suggestions for personal development this definition does not simply State what's wrong but also provides hints about how to fix problems additionally there's definition respects individual and their own experience audience which is something that other definitions such as statistical and frequency and deviation from social norms don't I want to thank everyone over on patreon for supporting the channel because of you I've been able to teach part-time meaning I can make site boost on YouTube for everyone and a special thank you to cat posnick and Ahmed Romani for supporting at the developer level I do have extra resources that are exclusive to my patrons so if you decide to sign up you can grab those over my website and these include over a hundred exam questions tutorial videos of course including questions on the Psychopathology unit I hope this is helpful and I will see you in the next psych Boost video