Normal people vs abnormal...?

Question

I was just wondering what really cause abnormalities and how we can define normal and abnormal? What are the major effects of being abnormal?

Answer 1

Well, this is the million dollar question that everyone seeks for....what is normal? Normal is different things to different people, cultures and groups. Really, abnormal is anything or anyone that seems different to us and what we are used to. Being "different" can cause people to be treated as outcasts, made fun of, ridiculed and put down. It's very hard to say in our society what is considered "normal". Just look around you wherever you go and you see many different types of people. Normal to them may be very different than what normal is to our lives. I say live and let live. Being treated as "abnormal" doesn't benefit anyone in any way.

Answer 2

Well...

normality is a very variable subject, it would be very difficult to answer your question without knowing exactly what you mean!

For instance, in terms of food habits, eating roaches might not be considered "normal" in the western world, but at the same time it's quite commonplace in parts of the far east!

Whereas in behavior too we have variations for abnormality - we tend to define people as "unique" to "eccentric" to "kooky" - it doesn't matter really, I don't think anyone is completely "normal", since normality and predictability go side by side, and since no one is completely predictable, it just to show that no one is completely normal.

As to what causes abnormality - I guess you could say genetics, surroundings, culture, upbringing, and that certain quality that only we possess that makes us so unique!

Answer 3

When I took Personality, Abnormal Psychology and Clinical Psychology in college (all with the same professor) the professor used a spectrum with the catigories
Normal-------Abnormal-------Sick.
Sick is easy to define. If you're sick, you're in the diagnostic manuel. Abnormal is harder to define. He compared the concept "abnormal" to pornography in that you can't readily define it but know it when you see it. We can spot when someone seems "odd" so the major effect of being "abnormal" is not fitting in with society.

Answer 4

If you mean mentally normal versus mentally abnormal:

In general, there is a set of mental characteristics/abilities and/or emotional characteristics/traits that most people have and that make things like being able to cope, having good relationships, being able to find some form of happiness at certain times, and generally meeting the definition of "mentally healthy".

There is a range - like a scale - of what is normal and what crosses over into, say, a little unhealthy and then on to very unhealthy. What may determine what's normal or not is a matter of whether a behavior or trait falls within a scale of what's considered normal and whether a trait or behavior interferes with being able to live a normal life on a day-to-day basis.

An example of a scale is the scale on which IQ's fall. It is based on the IQ that most people have (100). From there it is figured out how many people fall at what point in either direction from that center point of 100 (again, where most people fall). In other words, in any field (psychology or medicine, for example) what is determined as normal is often what most people generally do - and then allowance are made for people who vary a little in one direction or another on the scale.

What causes physical abnormalities is either injury before or after birth or sometimes heredity or sometimes illness.

What causes mental/emotional abnormalities can be heredity, brain injury before or after birth, illness, or life experiences. Imbalances of certain brain chemicals and hormones can cause abnormalities as well. At the same time, sometimes difficult circumstances can lead to changes in brain chemicals and/or hormones, which then can lead to abnormalities.

Part of being mentally/emotionally normal is sometimes a matter of being socially skilled and having what is considered normal social attitudes. In other words, someone who doesn't like anyone ever isn't normal. Most people generally like other people unless they get into a specific problem with another person here or there.

People can do different things and still be normal, though. For example, a person who wears a giant party hat to the grocery store can be normal. That person may like getting a little attention, or he may think its fun to wear a sillly hat. He can be normal, though. At the same time, if this person insists on wearing such a hat to a funeral and disregard the somber nature of the occasion, that amounts to be exceptionally uncaring about the feelings of others, which isn't necessarily normal.

Being different doesn't necessarily mean being abnormal. For example, a person can have a really high IQ but be very emotionally and socially normal. At the same time, a person with a very usual IQ can be abnormal because he may have a mental illness.

People can be abnormal when it comes to something like sex. With something like that what's normal is generally considered what's healthy or harmless and what can result in emotional or physical harm to someone. There are also general social parameters about what is normal. If a culture has a sophisticated knowledge of emotional development of, say, children, it will establish that something like sex with children is absolutely not normal.

Normal is generally about a person's body or mind (and emotions). It isn't about who likes what color or what music or whether someone likes baseball or not.

Its really not possible to make a guess about the effects of being abnormal. There are too many ways of being abnormal and degrees of abnormalities. A person with an abnormality of the heart can have life-threatening problems. A person with an abnormal fear of the dark, however, can leave lights on or else overcome it.

Look up something like "good mental health" or "characteristics of good mental health" or "signs of mental illness". Physical abnormalities are pretty self-explanatory.

Answer 5

i dont really think theres a fine line between what is normal and what is not. it depends on each person's perspective. i may think men being metrosexual is super normal. but some people might think its too gay. i may think it is super normal for people to go crazy once in a while and go dance on the street or something. cos to me, it is normal. but for some people, thats insanely weird. i think scientists are crazy people. but i'm sure they think artists (like me) are strange.

Answer 6

We can only define normal and abnormal as a majority and minority manefestation. If almost every exhibited some behavior, we'd call it normal. When only a rare few do, we call it abnormal.

Some abnormalities are biological. Caused by genetics which in turn cause brain disfunctions. These are the ones that are treated with drugs.

Now, we can take the case of a 5 year old boy that runs around wildly and makes noise. You can chalk it off as simply someone burning off steam or call it hyperactivitiy. If you call it hyperactivity you can give them a drug like Ritilan (a cousin of LSD) and they will be calm and still, but there is a side effect inside of them. They tell me it makes their brain feel like it's burning (which is an LSD side effect also, probably from them amphetemine side). As to why an ampehtemine like substance calms them down I don't know for sure and I'm not sure if the etiomology is truely known. It works on some brain center.

I've watched it in action and it works, but I don't know if I approve of it. The child without it, however, is like two kittens chasing each other around the room for hours, which can be annoying to normal adults.

Now here you have to balance out what is normal and what is abnormal. Are the adults normal or is the child normal. Are the adults abnormal for giving that child a drug to keep him or her still.

I personally view mamals as having both ying and yang inside of them at all times. A beast. Monsters from the ID if you will. The terrible two's syndrome driven to extremes by the Libido if you will. Power from the mind and body driving that nasty side of us.

Normally we contain that within a wall. In some people that wall has holes or cracks and the animal seeps through. In most people it is contained but can crumble.

When it crumbles you go through irratic behavior or even psychosis. Then it's a matter of your mind being strong enough to re-build the wall or ourside influences giving the body time to naturally rebuild or reenforce the wall.

People on substances sometimes let the inner animal out. Some become party animals and wear lamp shade. One woman I saw went from being reasonably sweet and nice to practically drawing blood on my arm from digging in her fingernails when she was drunk on booze.

So it is possible some people have a savage beast while others just have a wild beast. As to how it manifests, some say it is "psychological" and grows that way from events in your life. Being grounded. Being made to go to school. Being made to eat spinach. Some think it could be genetic. We are born with a very nasty or evil side.

Thats why I think of it in the philosophical or relgious metaphors of ying and yang or demons and angels or God and the Devil.

You can consciously choose to wall in the good side, but most people don't.

Hence we call pathological criminals abnormal. They may not technically meet the overall definition of abnormal psychology, indeed their ying and yang can be as normal as yours, but they have decided to confine the good side and let the bad side run free, which the majority considers abnormal.

The Free Will element.

This is why criminals say everyone in prision is not guilty. They view themselves as a tiger or leapord or lion, a man eating beast that roams the wild and does as he chooses. Survival of the fittest.

They CHOOSE to be this way, instead of like a tabby cat, which you are.

But even a tabby cat will steal your roast beef sandwhich if you leave it on the counter.

That's normal for a tabby cat. You can't consider that abnormal behavior.

And that's how criminals view themselves and some can pass IQ tests with flying colors, can read, do math, all "normal" things, they just like stealing roast beef sandwiches and can't understand why you CONSIDER that abnormal and lock them away in a cage for doing it.

Now, a psychotic rants and raves and is delusional. I've seen one confined in a polic padded cell. He just paced the room and screamed and ranted gibberish. Freudian first thing at comes out of his mouth with no rhym, reason or convention.

Something set him off. Something allowed his beast to burst through the walls. Before this he walked around like your neighbor. He might have been your neighor.

He probably had cracks in his walls and people and things in life might have contributed to cracking that wall.

Last night I was standing in a line at a store waiting to buy something and the line was at a stand still and there were three college aged guys with wild college or bar hopping normality and I was just standing there, at a normal standing distance in a line and one of them turned on me and ASKED ME POLITELY to step back and given him a wider birth cause I was encorcing on his back.

Now, do we define him as normal or abnormal. Is his behavior normal or abnormal. He didn't use swear words. He was laughing and not being totally confrontational.

My first inclination is he's close to bursting through his walls and getting too close (territorialism) was only helping to crack the walls.

Now how should the reply from the person behind be. In my case I had waited in two lines for 20 minutes to buy one idea and I had enough so I set my item down and just left the store.

My walls were also weaking.

Now one question we have to ask would be how the person behind deals with a confrotation such as this. The guy was fully capable of beating me up so there was no way I would ever stand my ground. Now is it ABNORMAL not to stand your ground. It's a free country, a free world and someone is bossing you around.

Some psychologists say that people who let themselves be bossed around are not exactly normal. Now, it is abnormal for a 6 foot 7 inch line backer to tell him "No. Not really. I like it where I am."

Is that abnormal behavior.

This is where our cracks come from. We envision how the hairy ape would handle that situation and we aren't a hairy ape so we meekly move back a few feet and poltiely him if that's a sufficient distance and then we brood.

In my case I had finished 9 hours of work, I was tired, hungry and wanted to get out of there and go home and that's exactly what I did. Certainly a bit miffed over that guy and the two lines in the store that went no where for 20 total minutes.

I, personally, get miffed at the 15 items or less check stand when people with a full shopping card go there and THEY TAKE THEM and I am standing there with my single package hot buffet lunch.

Is that abnormal?

Would it be abnormal for the checker to tell the person, "I will ring up 15 items and after that you're order is finished."

How does the person who waited in that quick checkout 15 items or less line feel about that after waiting 10 mintues behding four others.

We can see that defining "normal" and "abnormal" behavior in some instances is not exactly cut and dry.

Genunine abnormal behavior would be for the man in back to pull a gun and shoot the guy who said "back off" and then put the gun away and wait to be checked out.

But as I've already said, criminals in jail don't preceive that action as being abnormal. They'd say the guy in front deserved it.