Cultural Survival Skills

Avoid Causing Abnormal Behavior!

But first: What is Abnormal Behavior?

Abnormal behavior is a very general term that includes troubles with the way a person sees or perceives the world,  thinks and believes, has  emotions, and/or how a person behaves or acts. For example abnormal behavior might include seeing insults and slights where there are none; hearing voices or seeing visions that do not exist in the external world; thinking someone is trying to hurt them when they are not; feeling fear and anxiety when there is nothing to be fearful of; or abusing drugs and alcohol in ways that destroy relationships with others. Other psychological disorders can have to do with individual’s inability to be loving and trusting with others, have a conscience or feel guilt, control angry/aggressive impulses, conform to rules, and control sexual impulses. Others disorders may involve not be able to inhibit anxiety and worry, manage feelings of sadness and depression, avoid or control suicidal thoughts and actions, or to generally behave in stable and responsible ways.

General Rules-of -Thumb

The following are some informal and helpful rules-of-thumb to use when trying to judge if someone’s behavior is abnormal according to some general guidelines. The questions you should ask yourself are: is the person’s behavior patterns, within particular settings:  deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, or dangerous. Yes, we need to frequently evaluate the answers to these questions about ourselves, as well as others.

Deviance: Every culture establishes general norms (expectations and guidelines) for the behavior of its population. It is clear that norms can be very different across different sub-cultures and cultures and they can change (evolve) to be very different over time within any one socioculture. Norms are a force that shapes the perceptions, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of individuals within a population. Norms both reflect cultural expectations and they shape cultural expectations. Within any socioculture, norms can be very different depending upon age, contexts, and subcultures.

We all use our own informal “personal norms” derived from personal experiences that are unwritten and perhaps unstated rules of our own personal conduct and expected conduct for others. We continually judge and evaluate our own thoughts and behavior, and those of others, based upon these norms. For better, or for worse, our own personal norms may or may not be similar to those of our culture at large. It is tempting to conclude that having personal norms that reflect one’s cultural norms is always a good thing, but this may not always be so—think of Hitler’s Germany. It may be tempting to conclude that personal norms that are at odds with one’s cultural norms is always a bad thing, but this may not always be so—think about Martin Luther King’s struggle in America, or the work of other bold leaders that you may have admired.

Statistically Standardized norms (gained from statistical measured samples of a population) are much more concrete and specialized. They provide written rules, or standards, for comparing someone’s performance to a larger population.  Examples of such statistical norms are those that are used in intelligence, achievement, or personality tests that are constructed and used by psychologists. These formal comparisons are based upon mathematical relationships of an individual’s score on some test to “standardization samples” of the population to which they will be compared. These are called norm-referenced tests. Standardized norm-referenced tests are capable of good precision in describing and predicting an individual’s characteristics and likely performance or behavior patterns.

Scoring or behaving very different from standardized norms is called deviance. The word deviant is not used as an insult to anyone, it is simply a statistical idea. For example, psychologists give tests that have been standardized and normed upon on a representative sample of  peers to determine if someone significantly more or less depressed, anxious, suspicious, law and rule abiding, alcohol or drug abuse prone, impulsive, or more withdrawn or outgoing than others. Someone may be given an achievement tests to determine if they have learned the math or reading skills, etc.,  expected for one’s grade level. An individual may take an intelligence test and be identified as borderline, mildly,  moderately, severely, or profoundly retarded in comparison to their peers. In this case, their scores deviate, or are deviant, from their peers.

Our personal  norms will be generally less well defined and less accurate predictors than standardized norms of who is showing real indications of abnormal behavior. However, in spite of the complexities and inaccuracies involved, our personal norms can be useful guides to consider. We do this automatically all of the time, But hopefully, we use considerable caution when we do so.  For example, other cultures may behave in ways that would seem deviant to most of us. There have been many cross-cultural examples in history: a male visitor is invited to sleep with one’s wife (to refuse would have been bad manors); loud burping during a meal is taken as a complement to the host; males paint their faces and wear lip coloring to attract females; females gash their heads with sharp stones during their husbands funerals, etc. Such actions when placed within their unique contexts would not be diagnosed as abnormal behavior. The same may be true of the different actions of those who belong to various subcultures within a larger culture (different forms of dress, music, art, entertainment, etc.).

In spite of these complexities, the field of abnormal psychology has learned to distinguish most  behaviors that are simply odd or idiosyncratic from those that are judged to be examples of abnormal behavior across nearly all cultures.

Distress: Individuals may show psychological problems because they are in too much distress, or too little distress for a particular situation. For example, for no identifiable reason, someone may be so sad that they cry almost constantly and cannot take any pleasure from their favorite activities. Another individual may be able to kill or severely injure an innocent stranger and, feeling no guilt pangs, relax and have a good meal shortly afterwards and then enjoy a good nights sleep.

Sometimes a person’s distress is understandable, but it is still so extreme that diagnosis and treatment is important. For example, a divorce, business loss, or the natural death of a loved one can lead to lasting mixture of depression and anxiety. It is not uncommon for an individual traumatized by a personal assault or other near-death experiences to feel jumpy, nervous, irritable, and have sleep difficulties for days, weeks,  months and sometimes years–Even when they are in a safe environment. There are many psychological problems that can be recognized by extreme distress in individuals.

Dysfunction: Dysfunction is what it sounds like it is: Someone is not able to function effectively and do the many things needed to take care of themselves, care for others, and stay out of trouble within their culture. For example, it would be dysfunctional to not go to work or repeatedly lose jobs. It would be dysfunctional for a mother to repeatedly invite a man into her home who abused and sexually molested her children. I would also be dysfunctional to never bath so others are driven away by body odor; to gamble away the money needed to pay rent, car, and medical bills; to repeatedly become drunk, drive, have accidents and be punished and so on.  We all probably all have a few minor behaviors that are “dysfunctional” or self-defeating. But, if such actions become a strong pattern of behaviors that interfere with living life effectively, they then enter the realm of abnormal behavior

Danger:  Some individuals are a danger to themselves (suicide, excessive risk taking, and incapacitation or near lethal drug abuse, etc.). There are people who may be a danger to others (homicidal, physically aggressive, abusive or neglectful parents, etc.) Such actions are more easily identified as abnormal behavior.

It is important to be able to judge abnormal behavior in ourselves, friends, and loved ones. We will then be in a better position to get professional help for our selves, or encourage others to do so.

Judging normal from abnormal behavior is an important survival skill for living the good life during these complex and stressful modern times.

VTM, 10/18/09