Psychology Assignment

MENTAL HEALTH & ILLNESS
PERSPECTIVE ON HOW MENTAL HEALTH IS CAUSED AND TREATED
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
1.1     Explaining the Difficulties in Defining Normality and Abnormality    3
Definition of Normality    3
Definition of Abnormality    3
Various Perceptions and Approaches Related to Cause as well as Treatment of Mental Illness    4
Issues in Defining Normality and Abnormality    4
Impact of these Issues on Understanding Causes and Treatment of Mental Illness    5
Conclusion    5
References    6
Introduction
The perspective of every human being differs due to the diverse range of social, cultural and personal influences shaping the mental functionality. As every human is different, the evaluation of everyone’s actions and perspective of life is a very difficult task. Based on the actions a person performs and the perspective a person ventilates, determines the categorisation of his or her normality and abnormality. Being a very illusive and individual based aspect, the line that distinguishes the normal persons from abnormal ones, is very thin and often creates confusion. In the current assignment, the difficulties faced during the identification and determination of normal-abnormal behaviour of a person is discussed in detailed to shed light on the underexplored aspects.
1.1 Explaining the Difficulties in Defining Normality and Abnormality
Definition of Normality
In simple terms, normality is the state where a person behaves in way that is stereotypically considered normal and commonplace. As stated by Ridley et al. (2018), normalcy is a vague term, which means different type of behavioural patterns for different contexts. On the other hand, Kesner (2018) says that normalcy is not a vague term; it is a term, which has wider implication and alignment with social and humane expectations. A normal person is generally considered to be rational, well behaved, socially aligned and most importantly has a similar way of behaving in a particular society.
Definition of Abnormality
The term ‘abnormality’ is very complex for assessment, as it generally refers to a person whose behaviour does not meet the general characteristics of expected mental responses. As assessed by Stein (2018), when a person indulges in acts that are not socially considered as common and rational, the person’s activities are categorised as abnormal. Abnormality is the state, in which a person exerts his or her feelings in an extreme manner that does cross the boundaries of normal behaviours. As emphasised by Matthews (2018), abnormality is not madness, it is something that the social stereotypes does not approve of and therefore, requires in depth comprehension of a person’s behaviour before treatment.
Various Perceptions and Approaches Related to Cause as well as Treatment of Mental Illness
There are three common perceptions that broadly categories the causes of mental illness and their provided treatments....