Effects of Cultural Differences

Abnormal Psychology Abnormal psychology is a branch of psychology that has to do with psychopathology and abnormal behavior. It can be abnormal behavior caused by behavioral, biological, and cognitive aspects. Each person can define abnormal psychology in a very different ways, because we are not the same and our definitions of normal can be very different. As described in About.com/Psychology, there is a normal curve in society that the average person falls upon. Whenever a person is on either ends of his curve that defines them as being abnormal. Abnormal psychology has developed into a scientific discipline because of the medical definitions of it, and how this kind of behavior can be caused by mental and brain disorders. Through researches that have been done it has been discovered that abnormal behavior can be through biological causes, psychological and sociocultural. The origins of abnormal psychology can be known as coming from the Greek physician Hippocrates. He presented a theory that stated that human abnormality came from body fluids, which he thought was influenced by environmental factors. Hippocrates also believed that behavior and environment were both factors of abnormality in humans. There are many challenges to defining abnormal psychology because many factors can define it. For example gender, age, race and particular norms of certain groups can influence the understanding of what really is abnormal. Also cultural differences can cause one to feel out of the norm when put into situations that they are not comfortable with. These generations of adolescents view certain things in life as being normal where as for example their parents think it is absolutely absurd. Sometimes the understanding of abnormal is thought as a bad thing, which it necessarily is not. If a person is completely above a certain norm that we set for ourselves, they are considered to be abnormal or weird. Where an individual grows up and the environment they are used

References: Hansell, J., & Damour, L. (2008). Abnormal psychology (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Cherry Kendra. (2012). What is Abnormal Psychology. About.comPsychology. http://psychology.about.com/od/abnormalpsychology/f/abnormal-psychology.htm Crawford Oscar (2010). Psychopathology Analysis. http://voices.yahoo.com/psychopathology-analysis-6147988.html?cat=5