Cultural Diversity and Defining Abnormality

Cultural Diversity and Defining Abnormality

All ways of defining of abnormality are limited to a certain extent by

cultural variations. This makes it difficult for psychologists to be

sure that their definition technique would be effective and accurate

in diagnosing all cases of abnormality. The main issue for

psychologists regarding cultural diversity is that what may be

considered normal in one place may be abnormal in another and

therefore psychologist must consider this fact before making a

diagnosis.

Although the deviation from statistical norm and deviation from ideal

mental health definitions are affected by cultural differences as I

will discuss briefly later, it is the other two definitions which are

affected on a larger scale.

The deviation from social norms approach to defining abnormality is a

relatively basic way in relation to the other definitions however the

effects of cultural difference are probably most profound in this

approach. This approach defines abnormality by the way people behave

in relation to normal practices. Therefore this method assumes that if

a person is abnormal they will behave in a way not considered normal

by other people in that society. This approach is therefore limited by

varying cultures as what is considered as normal behaviour in one area

could be considered to deviate from the norms elsewhere. This is a

rather significant problem in that in the modern multi-cultural

societies someone may consider what they are doing is totally

acceptable but those around them may. This makes it incredibly

difficult for a diagnosis to take place totally accurately under this

method. This probl...

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more common in certain cultures.

The deviation from ideal mental health may also give an abnormal

outcome simply because factors included in this definition are not

goals strived by all cultures for a person to be normal. For example a

collectivist society would not strive for total autonomy like people

in Western society.

In conclusion, therefore, all the definitions of abnormality are

limited by cultural problems but to different extents. This cultural

division problem means that experimentation is limited to one culture

and therefore conclusions of investigations cannot be generalised

effectively to incorporate many different cultures. Therefore it is

difficult and possibly very inaccurate to judge people from other

cultures by our standards and to class them as abnormal because of

this.