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Failure To Abnormal Behavior

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Behaviour is considered abnormal under this definition if it is deemed to be unacceptable in the society. This approach comes with many limitations. Social norm could be a desirability and is easily manipulated. Some societies find certain people undesirable, often the ones opposing government or religion. In USA for example, in 1950s people with communist views were sent to mental health institutions. Every society is changing with the time, change of believes and affected by other factors. For example homosexuality was classed as abnormality by World Health Organisation until 1980s, but nowadays it is normal in the Western Society, while there are still numerous societies, where homosexuality is classed as abnormal. The norms vary between the societies so significantly that a norm in them could be an opposite behaviour. …show more content…

They form part of the base for the Global Assessment of Functioning, score of which indicates if person is abnormal. This method is very useful as gives a clear checklist for assessment. At the same time this approach is also limited, as it does not define what abnormality is, but scores someone’s potential psychological problems and possible need of professional help. Secondly, any behaviour must be considered in the context, which is not reflected in the assessment. Finally, person with mental disorder in some cases is able to function adequately in day to day life, while person affected by factors, unrelated to the mental health could be failing. Deviation from Ideal Mental Health This is very different approach from others. In 1958 Marie Jahoda defined six characteristics of a person with ideal mental health. The main limitation of this approach is that extremely few people fulfil all the criteria, making most of people

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