Abnormal Behavior (Collection: Mental Health )

Let's forget about the 'behavior' part for a moment and just talk about what it means to be 'abnormal'. In order to understand the concept of 'abnormal', you first need to understand what is meant by 'normal'. The idea of 'normal' is statistical (mathematical) in nature, and refers to a way of making sense out of a group of things. In any group of things, you have some differences on important characteristics. For example, if you have a group of people, they vary on how much they weigh. If you wanted to have one number to describe the most common weight of your group members, you would want to find their average (or mean) weight. Knowing the average weight of the group members would help you to know who was very thin, who was very fat and who was in the middle in terms of weight. This is where the idea of normal comes in. Normal tends to mean Average. Those persons who were close to the average (middle) weight would be describable as being of 'normal' weight, while those very thin and very fat persons far from the average weight on either direction, would be considered to be of 'abnormal' (or far from average) weight. Take this concept of non-normality and apply it to how people behave instead of how much they weigh. Persons who act and behave in an average, common sort of way can be described as having normal behavior. Persons whose behavior is not typical or common can be described as displaying 'abnormal behavior'. In the purest sense of the term, this is what abnormal behavior means. In actual practice, however, the term 'abnormal behavior' has become more or less synonymous with mental illness. (See also Psychopathology).

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