Abnormality - deviating from what is normal.

Suffering-This is a key feature to abnormality but yet almost all normal individuals endure suffering, for example losing a loved one.

Maladativeness- This behavior prevents the individual of making major life goals, for example creating a good relationship with another or unable to work efficiently.

Vividness and unconventionality of behavior- This behavior is aimed at when an individual behaves differently in situations to those surrounding them.

Unpredictability and loss of control- Abnormal individuals behavior is often uncontrollable.

Observer discomfort-This is even the observer fells uncomfortable with another individuals behavior. This concept of behavior may differ between other cultures.  

Violation of moral and ideal standards-this behavior concerns the established moral standards within a population, but the majority of people may fail to maintain those standards.

A major problem with this structure is that judgment has to be made by certain individuals, which becomes a problem with some behaviors such as schizophrenics that deny anything is wrong with them thus arguing against that they are abnormal.  However the model does concludes the individuals mental state, but the judgment of mental health is influenced by ‘social and cultural beliefs and biases’, so what could be seen as abnormal in on society, could be seen as being normal in another.

Another attempt to define abnormality is ‘Deviation from Social Norm’, this takes a complete different approach to that of statistical infrequency, and it states that people who behave in a socially deviant and apparently incomprehensible way should be regard as abnormal.  The advantage to this is that we are able to include desirability into our conclusion of some abnormal behaviors within individuals or a society as a whole.  The term deviation from social norm means behaviors that are abnormal or undesirable.  People whom are clinically abnormal behave in a social deviant way, meaning that anti-social personality disorder concludes that the individuals are lack a conscience and behave aggressively towards others, as they don’t feel guilt.  There are, however, many limitations, such as social deviancy as it sets a standard but in which serious abuse to human rights can occur as individuals can be wrongly seen as being abnormal, also social deviancy is not necessarily a bad thing as some people chosen to live a non-conformist lifestyle, and also Nazi Germany were as ‘deviants’ spoke out against the atrocities that were being committed.

Nearly all the definitions of abnormality have faults in them, and that also goes for these two definitions. They seem to struggle in defining abnormality as a whole and leaves to many spaces in describing what is abnormality, it also seems to identify that it is individuals whether there the observers or not that decide whether an individual is abnormal, which is a major fault as it is in human nature for us to not be perfect so we can never always make perfect conclusions of someone’s mental state.