Essay On Normality And Abnormality

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Concept of normality and abnormality Psychology is generally viewed as the single most valuable and reliable source of knowledge about human behavior. This question is much harder to answer than you might at first assume, because in fact there is no hard-and-fast dividing line between behavior that is normal and behavior that is abnormal; rather, these are simply end points on an unbroken dimension. Normality- Normality is the state of being “normal”, as opposed to being deviant, eccentric or usual. Behavior can be normal for an individual. When it is consistent with most common behavior for that person. Normal is also used to describe individual behavior that confirms to the most common behavior in society. Abnormality- Abnormality refers …show more content…

One of these approaches, the biological model, emphasizes the role of the nervous system in mental disorders. This approach seeks to understand disorders in terms of malfunctioning of portions of the brain, imbalance in various neurotransmitters and genetic factors. It is clear, however, that biological factors are not the entire story where mental abnormalities are concerned. Often, such disorders occur any apparent underlying biological cause. This suggests that psychological factors, too, can be important. The psychological perspective emphasizes the role of basic psychological processes in the occurrence of mental abnormality. For instance, many psychologists believe that learning plays a key role in many disorders. The psychological perspective also emphasizes the role of cognitive factors in mental abnormality. For instance, many theories of depression suggest that long – lasting negative feelings often stem from faulty patterns of thoughts. For example, individuals may attribute positive events and accomplishments to luck and other factors beyond their control, but negative outcomes to internal factors. There is another way of sococultural factors psychologists recognize that sociocultural factors relating to the environments in which people live, including racial prejudice and cultural values often play an important role

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