Lesson 1 - Review and Defining Abnormal Behaviour

Deviation from an Ideal View of Abnormality

The term ideal is a difficult concept to define. Like the term normal, ideal is person-specific. A person may be seen as abnormal even if that person is functioning well. Some vegetarians may think that an ideal individual would avoid consuming the muscle tissue of animals. To these people, meat-eaters are abnormal. In essence, because we all have our own opinions of ideal, and because no one person can meet everyone's version of ideal we could all be considered abnormal to certain degrees.