not likely to come to the attention of mental health
professionals. However, when a person’sbehavior
becomes patently deviant, outrageous, or otherwise
nonconforming, then he or she is more likely to be cate-
gorized as“abnormal.”Let us consider some examples.
Both of these cases are examples of individuals
commonly seen by clinical psychologists for evalua-
tion or treatment. The feature that immediately char-
acterizes both cases is that Dmitri’s and Juanita’s
behaviors violate norms. Dmitri may be considered
abnormal because his IQ and school performance
depart considerably from the mean. This aspect of
deviance from the norm is very clear in Dmitri’scase
because it can be described statistically and with num-
bers. Once this numerical categorization is accom-
plished, Dmitri’s assignment to the deviant category
is assured. Juanita also came to people’sattention
because she isdifferent. Her clothes, appearance, and
interests do not conform to the norms typical of girls
or women in her culture.
Advantages of This Definition. The definition of
abnormality in terms of statistical infrequency or viola-
tion of social norms is attractive for at least two reasons.
- Cutoff Points: The statistical infrequency approach
is appealing because it establishescutoff pointsthat
are quantitative in nature. If the cutoff point on a
scale is 80 and an individual scores 75, the decision
to label that individual’sbehaviorasabnormalis
relatively straightforward. This principle of
statistical deviance is frequently used in the inter-
pretation of psychological test scores. The test
authors designate a cutoff point in the test manual,
often based on statistical deviance from the mean
score obtained by a“normal”sample of test-takers,
and scores at or beyond the cutoff are considered
“clinically significant”(i.e., abnormal or deviant).- Intuitive Appeal: It may seem obvious that those
behaviors we ourselves consider abnormal would
be evaluated similarly by others. The struggle to
define exactly what abnormal behavior is does
not tend to bother us because, as a U.S. Supreme
Court justice once said about pornography, we
believe that we know it when we see it.
Problems with This Definition. Conformity
criteria seem to play a subtle yet important role in
our judgments of others. However, although we must
systematically seek the determinants of the individual’s
nonconformity or deviance, we should resist the
reflexive tendency to categorize every nonconformist
behavior as evidence of mental health problems. Con-
formity criteria in fact have a number of problems.- Choice of Cutoff Points: Conformity-oriented
definitions are limited by the difficulty of estab-
lishing agreed-upon cutoff points. As noted pre-
viously, a cutoff is very easy to use once it is
established. However, very few guidelines are
available for choosing the cutoff point. For
The Case of Juanita L.
Martha seemed to have a normal childhood. She made
adequate progress in school and caused few problems
for her teachers or parents. Although she never made
friends easily, she could not be described as withdrawn.
Her medical history did not reveal any obvious signs of
physical problems. When Juanita entered high school,
changes began. She combed her hair in a very severe,
plain style. She chose clothing that was quite ill-fitting
and almost like that worn 50 years ago. She wore nei-
ther makeup nor jewelry of any kind. Although she
would have been hard to distinguish from the other
girls in her class earlier, she now stood out.
Juanita’s schoolwork began to slip. She spent
hours alone in her room reading the Bible. She also
began slipping notes to other girls that commented ontheir immorality when she observed them holding
hands with boys, giggling, dancing, and so on. She
attended religious services constantly; sometimes on
Sundays she went to services at five or six separate
churches. She fasted frequently and decorated her
walls at home with countless pictures of Christ, reli-
gious quotations, and crucifixes.
When Juanita finally told her parents that she was
going to join an obscure religious sect and travel about
the country (in a state of poverty) to bring people
Christ’s message, they became concerned and took her
to a psychiatrist. Shortly afterward, she was hospital-
ized. Her diagnosis varied, but it included such terms as
schizophrenia, paranoid type; schizoid personality; and
schizophrenia, undifferentiated type.DIAGNOSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 131