PSYC 2490 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Malcolm Gladwell, Normal Distribution, Jasper National Park
19 Jun 2018
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CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR?
ABNORMALITY DEFINITION
“Abnormal Psychology” is the title given to this course in most North American
universities.
Abnormal means to be exceptional, different, deviating from type. It means to be not
“normal”, which means “regular” or “ordinary”.
Being simply out of the ordinary would include in our definition of “abnormality” people
such as an IQ genius, a very rich entrepreneur such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), a
successful scientist, an Olympic gold medal winner, or someone who has climbed Mount
Everest. None of these are regular or ordinary. However, we are not about to study
these people, though they are worth studying. To learn about abnormally successful
people, there is a very entertaining popular book that I would recommend by Malcolm
Gladwell, entitled Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). “Outliers” is a term used in
statistics to denote individual scores that are far out of the ordinary, beyond the “normal
curve”.
This course is about problematic psychological deviations from normal, about difficulties
in emotions, thinking, and behaviour that people can experience. “Abnormality” in this
course essentially means the study of mental disorders, mental illness, or
psychopathology. “Mental Disorders” would be a more straightforward title for this
course. Most professionals prefer the term “disorders” to “mental illness”, but not all.
However, others would argue that we should not at all label as pathological (meaning
“diseased”) many of the behaviours we are about to study. So we will stick with the safer
and more neutral concept of “abnormal psychology” as the title for our course.
This does lead us to consider a key point of chapter 1, and a key point to consider
throughout the course. When is behaviour to be considered as abnormal?
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WHEN IS BEHAVIOUR ABNORMAL?
In considering abnormality, we must consider the combination or several determinants
of abnormality
1. Is the behavior common?
2. Does the behavior violate social norms?
3. Do the individuals themselves experience the behaviour as a problem and are
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Document Summary
Abnormal psychology is the title given to this course in most north american universities. Abnormal means to be exceptional, different, deviating from type. However, we are not about to study these people, though they are worth studying. To learn about abnormally successful people, there is a very entertaining popular book that i would recommend by malcolm. Gladwell, entitled outliers: the story of success (2008). Outliers is a term used in statistics to denote individual scores that are far out of the ordinary, beyond the normal curve . This course is about problematic psychological deviations from normal, about difficulties in emotions, thinking, and behaviour that people can experience. Abnormality in this course essentially means the study of mental disorders, mental illness, or psychopathology. Mental disorders would be a more straightforward title for this course. Most professionals prefer the term disorders to mental illness , but not all. However, others would argue that we should not at all label as pathological (meaning.
