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4 Ds Assi

There are 4 D's that define abnormality: deviance, dysfunction, distress, and danger. Deviance refers to behavior that diverges from social or statistical norms. Dysfunction involves maladaptive behavior that reduces one's ability to function normally. Distress means the presence of negative feelings like anxiety that persist longer than they should. Danger refers to behavior that poses a risk of harm to oneself or others. Abnormality is defined by the presence of at least one of these 4 D's.

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Nandini Agrawal
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466 views1 page

4 Ds Assi

There are 4 D's that define abnormality: deviance, dysfunction, distress, and danger. Deviance refers to behavior that diverges from social or statistical norms. Dysfunction involves maladaptive behavior that reduces one's ability to function normally. Distress means the presence of negative feelings like anxiety that persist longer than they should. Danger refers to behavior that poses a risk of harm to oneself or others. Abnormality is defined by the presence of at least one of these 4 D's.

Uploaded by

Nandini Agrawal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4 D’s of abnormality

Abnormality can be defined as a thought or behavioral pattern which is judged to be atypical,


disturbing or unjustifiable. Abnormal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies
unusual patterns of behavior, emotion and thought which may or may not be understood as
cause/unexpectedly a mental disorder. There are 4 D's which define abnormality. Abnormality is
an abnormal feature, characteristic or occurrence.

1. Deviance - Deviance can be defined as the state of diverging from unusual or accepted
standards, especially in social behavior. There are two different types: a) Statistical deviance
means that the behavior doesn't occur often in society. b) Social deviance means that most
people in community finds the behavior to be odd. Neither of these by themselves is enough for
something to be abnormal. E.g. - Minority groups are not always judged deviant just because
they may not have anything in common with others (statistical deviance). 2nd: If one out of 1000
people howl at moon and that fact off to the abnormality (social deviance). Therefore, an
individual action are defined deviant when it is unacceptable by the culture they belong.

2. Dysfunction - This term involve maladaptive behavior (not adjusting appropriately to the
environment or situation) that reduce the individual’s ability to perform normal daily function
such as normal routine work mad prevent them from healthy lifestyle. Dysfunction across
individual’s life experience because there is a chance that dysfunction may appear. E.g. - a good
employee who suddenly show poor performance may be experiencing an environmental stress
and results in ineffective coping mechanism. Therefore it is not always caused by a disorder as it
may be voluntary.

3. Distress- any behaviour that creates an unpleasant state involves being unhappy and negative
feelings like fear, anxiety. Everyone experiences distressing situations and feelings but
abnormality is when these negative feelings occur and persist longer than they should. Any
abnormal behaviour not only causes distress to the sufferer but also to the ones around them. An
individual diagnosed with ADHD is always hyperactive which is distressing to him as well as to
this caregiver due to his disrupt sleep cycle.

4. Danger- the danger component involves two broad themes, danger to self and danger to others.
This is when the behaviour imposes a risk or threat to oneself or to others. For example being
aggressive is not dangerous but when the individual starts to aggressively throw things intending
to harm themselves or others is when we consider the behaviour abnormal.

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