Normality versus abnormality

The IB Say…

“There is no clear definition of what constitutes normal behaviour and, by the same token, what constitutes abnormal behaviour. Concepts of normal and abnormal change over time and are influenced by such factors as clinical biases, social norms, gender, culture and socio-economic status. It is an important consideration in diagnosis and in decisions on the treatment of disorders as well as when considering the factors that cause abnormal behaviour.”

An activity created by the brilliant John Crane from the International School of Prague:
Ranking-abnormality There is also an excellent PowerPoint on Inthinking.
GREAT video about normal versus abnormal: https://www.facebook.com/TEDEducation/videos/4897827420283243

The 4Ds of diagnosis (Davis)

The 4 Ds of diagnosis are explained in this paper by Davis (2009): the-4ds-of-diagnosis

More information about each of the 4 Ds….

DEVIANCE

DYSFUNCTION and DISTRESS

DANGER

starsExtension Work: Can you identify the 4Ds in the case of
Psychiatric diagnosis as a political device:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/sth.2009.11.pdf

Study skills: Use the Cornell technique when making notes – click here for Cornell note taking template: cornell template

Practice Assessment Questions

‘Evaluate’, ‘Contrast’ and ‘TWE’ do not really work for this sub-topic, so the only really likely question is:

  • Discuss the concepts of normality versus abnormality. (22)

Advice: Avoid a question on this sub-topic (content point) as it is not easy to integrate research studies into this topic and given that you get 6 marks for this, it is not the easiest of titles to choose; if forced to answer this question research studies that you should integrate include Rosenhan, Bolton and Luhrmann.