Lesson 1 - Review and Defining Abnormal Behaviour

Definition of Abnormal Psychology

Abnormal psychology studies the etiology and treatment of abnormal behaviour. The main problem with this, however, is that what one person considers abnormal may be considered normal by another person. Who then should decide what 'normal' is? How do scientists define 'abnormal'? In this unit, we will explore  various definitions of abnormality; the last definition is the one used throughout this course.

Please watch the video below to see how a simple definition of abnormality can be difficult.  Abnormality can mean different things to different people.  That social norm view and statistical deviation view are discussed in this video.