Psychology, 5/e   Wortman, Loftus & Weaver
	Online Learning Center

Determining the Importance of Context in Identifying Abnormal Behavior

Defining behavior as normal or abnormal is a very difficult task, and one that clinical psychologists and psychiatrists face every day. Although behavior is sometimes so extreme or destructive that it is clearly abnormal, the psychiatric disorders are more often characterized by subtle aberrations of behavior. This is one reason it is inadvisable for nonprofessionals to try to determine whether or not someone is mentally ill.

This experiment is designed to demonstrate that the context in which an unusual behavior occurs has a lot to do with whether we assess that behavior as normal or abnormal.

Experimental Procedure

To do this experiment, you will need to ask six of your friends to volunteer as subjects. You may tell them the experiment will take about 5 minutes. You will also need to make three copies of Rating Form A and three copies of Rating Form B.

STEP 1 Give each of the six subjects a copy of the Rating Form for Abnormal Behavior. It makes no difference which subjects get Form A or Form B.

STEP 2 Read out loud the instructions at the top of the Rating Form. Make sure the subjects understand what they are supposed to do. Also, if your subjects are working on the form at the same time, make sure they cannot see one another's forms or answers.

STEP 3 When the subjects have completed their ratings, collect their forms and thank them for participating in your experiment.

Analyzing the Results

STEP 1 Score the subjects' circled responses on the forms as follows:

Very
abnormal  40

Somewhat
abnormal  30

Slightly
abnormal  20

Not at all
abnormal  10

STEP 2 Notice that on Form A, the situations are numbered 1, 2, 3. On Form B, they are lettered A, B, C. Also note that the behaviors of 1, 2, and 3 are exactly the same as A, B, and C, respectively. Only the situations and actors change.

STEP 3 Record each subject's numerical score for each of the situations in the tables below:

	Situation
Form B	A	B	C
Subject 4
Subject 5
Subject 6
Total score
Average score

STEP 4 Calculate the average score for each situation on Form A by adding the scores of the three subjects who worked on that form and then dividing the total by 3. Do the same for Form B.

STEP 5 Insert the average scores you calculated in Step 4 into the proper places in the table below.

Column 1	Column 2	Column 1 minus Column 2
Average A=	Average 1=
Average 2=	Average B=
Average C=	Average 3=

STEP 6 Subtract the averages in column 2 from the averages in column 1. For example, you would subtract the average for situation 1 from the average for situation A. Write the differences in the blank column at the right of the table.

Do your results show differences in the way your subjects evaluated the same behaviors in different situations? If your subjects are like most people, they will consider the circumstances surrounding a behavior when evaluating it. And most probably, the differences you calculated in Step 6 are positive numbers showing that a behavior judged normal in one context will be seen as abnormal in another. For instance, most people would not judge situation 1, a young couple hugging in an airport, as an instance of abnormal behavior. Thus it should have a lower average score than situation A, in which the identical behavior is seen in a classroom. Situation A is judged by most people as at least somewhat abnormal. Similarly, loud and aggressive behavior is not unusual at a baseball game (situation B) but may seem very abnormal at the ballet (situation 2). Finally, most people agree that depression may seem abnormal when all we know about is the unusual behavior it produces (as in situation C) , but does not seem so abnormal when we are aware of its external causes (as in situation 3).

It is possible, however, that your results are not positive numbers. If this is the case, what factors might account for these ratings? Do you think it is possible that your subjects anticipated the aim of the experiment and deliberately gave false responses?

What do these results tell us about our ability to diagnose mental illness? First, it suggests that in some situations, odd behavior may be normal. (Think of Laura's depression.) Second, it implies that most behavior is normal under ceratin conditions (even John's aggressive reaction). Third, it points out that mental illness cannot typically be diagnosed on the basis of a few situations. Patterns of behavior are much more informative than isolated incidents. Finally, it indicates that mental illness should be diagnosed only by highly trained professionals who have experience in determining how these complex factors interact.

Copyright ©1999 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
For further information about this site contact mhhe_webmaster@mcgraw-hill.com.