 Many challenges faced when defining
 Normal behavior
 Abnormal behavior
 Multitudes of classifications one must consider when defining abnormality
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Situational context
Culture
Ethnicity
Historical relativism
Politics
Evolving theory of knowledge
Gender and sexual preferences/practices
Mind/body
Age
Religion
Vocations
 How one defines normal and abnormal behavior
 Influenced through the situational context
 Circumstances surrounding specific behavior
 Define behavior
 Demographic contexts
 Race, culture, gender, or religion
 Continuum between normal and abnormal behavior
•Varies across cultural and historical contexts
•Example: some cultures talk to the dead
•Different perceptions account for the “culture
bound-syndromes”
•Learning affects a person’s behavior
•Experience of behavior is culturally relative
• Religion
•Influences one’s behavior through
cognition and perception
•Promotion of behavior is
subjective
•Ethnicity
•Variations in portrayal of behavior
•Various ethnicities are more prone
to psychological and sociocultural
factors that influence behavior
 Biological explanations
 Early beliefs, religious/spiritual
 Exorcism
 Trephination
 Released or removed evil spirits that caused abnormal behavior
 Transition from spiritual influences to scientific
explanations
 Evolution of classification systems
 Socio-cultural influences
 Family dynamic
 Religion
 Economic Status
 Allows one to hold specific beliefs concerning normalcy
and the world
 Discrimination
 Research
 Double blind study
 All related factors are equal
 Reductionism
 Law of parsimony
 Paradigm Shifts
 Evolutionary changes in thinking
 Gender is a striking demographic when defining abnormality
 Disproportionate in women
 Genetic and hormonal difference between men and women
 Causes abnormal behaviors through physical and emotional
symptoms
 Sexual preferences or practices
 Homosexuality used to be considered a mental disorder
 Sexual preference or practices are a variation of normal sexual
behavior
 Psychological and biological paradigm
 Interconnected
 Interdependent
 Some disorders have a primary origin that is
psychological or biological
 Most involve both factors
 Three different principles used to discern the
mind/body connection
• Behavior is reflective of
one’s age
• Behaviors and impulses
vary as one matures
•Symptoms and behaviors
are age dependent
•Example: depression
 Vocation in terms of abnormality
 Social justice and cultural relativism must be
considered
 Some work simply to survive
 Partake in practices that are abnormal
 Not within one’s own vocational aspirations
 Focus upon external measurers of work-related
success
 Adjust social contexts and internal measures of
success
 Detriments of labeling
 Can either be beneficial to understanding of behavioral issue
 Or can act as a roadblock
 Creation of a stigma
 Iatrogenic disorders
 Misdiagnosis
 Cultural changes
 Immigration
 Mixture of cultures
•Defining abnormal behavior requires a multitude of
factors
•Cultural perspectives to religious and political
influences
•Normal and abnormal definitions
•Based upon a wide range of behaviors
•Analysis of behavior dependent upon different
demographic concepts
•Race, culture, gender, religion
•Explains the continuum between normal and
abnormal behavior
Guichard, J., Metz, A.J. (2009). Vocational
psychology and new challenges. Retrieved
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Hansell, J. & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal
psychology. 2nd Edition. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley
Schumaker, J. (1992). Religion and Mental
Health. Oxford University Press.