HEALTHY ME-NORMAL

ME
Mental health continuum
Summary
 Characteristics of mentally-healthy
individuals
 Characteristics of mentally ill individuals
(Criteria for abnormality)
 Perspectives on abnormality
 Challenges faced by adolescents
Well-adjusted individuals
 Realistic expectations
 Openness to experiences
 Emotional intelligence
 Healthy relationship
Criteria of well-adjusted individuals
Realistic expectations of self and others

 well adjusted individuals accept the world as it is

without having unrealistic expectations from others.
 Their relationships are more easy going, comfortable
and conflict free.
 They are aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
 They have realistic perception of themselves and their
world.
 They can use their strengths for betterment and they
can modify or accept their weaknesses.
 As a result, they develop deeper capacity to deal with
their life more effectively. So life becomes more
manageable for such individuals.
 Example 1
 Rahul is a good speaker. He has won many prizes in elocution
and debate competitions. In one state level prestigious
competition he failed to get the first prize. But he did not get
upset by it since he knew that in the real world, winning or
losing is part of the game. It is impossible to
 Example 2
 Mahjabeen and Sheena were good friends. Mahjabeen placed
a lot of trust in Sheena. However Sheena betrayed her.
Mehjabeen felt very sad about it and was upset for quite
some time. However, she soon realised that the world is full of
different kind of people and things will not necessarily happen
as she wishes. She realised that while trusting somebody can
be her choice, nobody can guarantee that the other person
will reciprocate.
Openness to new
experiences
 An individual who can try new things, who can deal
normally with strangers, is confident in voicing honest
opinion fits in this criteria.
 Such individuals try out new things like new fashion,
explore new places and reach out to different people
comfortably.
 Well-adjusted individuals are more open to new
experiences.
 They don’t mind trying new things.
 They dare to take risks regarding unknown experiences.
 They have confidence in themselves to explore and try
new things.
 Example 3
 Jenni works in a marketing firm. Recently,
she and her colleague were told to travel
to some of the remote rural parts of the
state for some office work. Her colleague
developed cold feet at the thought of
travelling to remote and unknown villages
and interacting with the people there. But
Jenny was open to the task and even
looked forward to meet different people.
Emotional intelligence
 is the ability to perceive one’s own and
others emotions, to discriminate among
them and to use that information to
guide one’s thinking and action.
Components of emotional intelligence

 Self awareness : Are you aware of your strengths and weaknesses? Can you describe them?
Can you describe your efforts to overcome your weaknesses and enhance your strengths? This
ability is called as Self-awareness. It is the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions.
Well adjusted individuals are aware of their actions, moods and emotions.
 Self-regulation : Just imagine, you are with strangers and you feel like crying aloud. Have you
ever controlled yourself in such situation? Have you ever controlled your laughter just because
you felt that the other person would feel bad? Self- regulation is controlling the expression of our
emotions. It is the ability to express ourselves appropriately at right place and right time.
 Self-motivation : Ist is one’ motivation to change. Have you ever gone for a trek? Or helped
out a physically challenged person just because you wanted to? Self motivation is doing a
particular thing just because you want to. You are setting the goal and try to seek it without any
external reward. You enjoy that task so much that you forget your inhibitions.
 Empathy : Have you ever cried when your friend had a bad experience? Do you feel like helping
those who are poor and needy? Have you ever shared your books and notes to a student who is in
need of help? This is Empathy. Empathy is putting yourself into someone else’s shoes. It is
understanding the situation from that person’s point of view. It is the ability to understand how
exactly others are feeling in a given situation.
 Social skills : Have you ever worked co-operatively in a team? Social skills is the ability to
interact well with others. Some important social skills include active listening, verbal
communication skills, nonverbal communication skills, leadership, and persuasiveness.
Healthy relationships
 These are some ways to
maintain healthy
relationships.
 Every relationship is a
dynamic living experience.
 It occurs when we honour
differences and accept others
as they are. It includes
respecting personal space.
 Such individuals express
their concern for others and
don’t blame others for their
mistakes.
 They do forget and forgive
mistakes of others and move
ahead with the flow of life.
Abnormal behaviour
 Let us understand what abnormal
behaviour is. Abnormal behaviour is
defined as a behaviour that is disturbing
(socially unacceptable), distressing,
maladaptive (self defeating) and often is
a result of distorted thoughts for a long
period of time.

Criteria for abnormality-
Deviance
 Generally when a particular behaviour is performed or
displayed by majority of people, it is considered as
normal behaviour. So any person who does not follow such
behaviour which is harmful to self as well as others is
considered as abnormal.
 But this criteria is insufficient to explain abnormality. For
example : taking bath is normal behaviour in India, but
does that mean those who don’t take bath for four days
are abnormal? Even according to cultural norms,
something which is considered as normal in one culture
can be considered as abnormal in other culture.
 E.g. Being homeless is considered as abnormal in some
cultures where as it may be considered completely normal
in some other cultures.
Personal distress
 Personal distress refers to subjective feeling of an
individual in response to persons and events
creating extreme discomfort.
 Look at the example of Shehnaz. Shehnaz can
perform her day to day duties well. There seems to
be no problem in her performing the tasks.
However She feels extremely low inside.
 Many times individuals do not pay attention to
their psychological symptoms. They take problems
like depression, social withdrawal etc. casually.
They are not aware of the problems their families
face due to this.
Impaired functioning
 This type of abnormality means that
people cannot fulfil appropriate and
expected roles in family, social and work
related situations (Ustun and Kennedy,
2009).
 Being sad after a traumatic experience
for a few days is normal but if it is
continued for more than six months it is
abnormal and can lead towards
depression.
Perspectives in abnormal
behaviour
 Biological perspective : This
perspective focuses on biological and
physiological factors as causes of
abnormal behaviour.
 Abnormal behaviour is treated as a
disease, or mental illness, and is
diagnosed through symptoms and cured
through treatment.
 Hospitalization and drugs are often
preferred methods of treatment rather
than psychological interventions.
 Sociocultural perspective : Abnormal
behaviour is learnt within a social
context which ranges from family,
friends to the society.
 Cultural aspects are acquired through
learning about particular social norms
which are believed to be important in
producing abnormal behaviour. e.g.
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia are found
mostly in western culture, where they
give more importance to thin female
 Behavioural perspective : They
believe that abnormal behaviour is
developed from ineffective learning and
conditioning.
 Treatments are designed so to reshape
maladaptive behaviour with the help
of principles of reinforcement and
punishment.
 Evolutionary perspective : A central
claim of evolutionary perspective is
that the brain evolved to solve problems
encountered by our ancestors.
 This perspective suggests that these
mental processes exist to serve an
evolutionary purpose i.e. survival and
reproduction.
 Humanistic perspective : Those who
believe in humanist perspective focus on
the ways that human beings are driven
to grow, change, and develop to their
fullest possible potential.
 Psychoanalytic / psychodynamic perspective : This
view of psychology emphasizes the role of the unconscious
mind, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal
relationships to explain human behaviour and to treat
people displaying abnormal behaviour with the help of this
information.
 It holds that psychological disorders are the consequence
of anxiety produced by unresolved, unconscious conflicts.
Treatment focuses on identification and resolution of these
conflicts.
 It emphasizes the role of unconscious mind and conflicts
that can be traced back to the childhood.
 to Freud unconscious motives / conflicts have base of
primitive sexual and aggressive instincts.
 Cognitive perspective : According to this
perspective, people engage in abnormal behaviour
because of their recurrent maladaptive thoughts
and behaviours that are often based upon their
false assumptions.
 Treatment involves helping the maladjusted
individual to adapt to new thinking process.
Therapy is a process of unlearning maladaptive
thinking and replacing with more adaptive one.
 This area of psychology focuses on mental
processes such as memory, thinking, problem-
solving, language, and decision- making.
Stress diathesis model
 According to this model,
disorder is a result of both
biological and genetic
factors (nature) and life
experiences (nurture).
 Those who are genetically
predisposed towards a
particular disorder and
experience environmental
stress are more likely to
show abnormal behaviour.
 The word “diathesis” refers
to vulnerability of an
individual towards a
particular disorder.
Biopsychosocial model
 The term Biopsychosocial refers to the interaction
of biological, psychological and sociocultural
factors in the development of abnormal behaviour.
 It means that if a person is exposed to worst
environmental conditions during early childhood
will make him more vulnerable for the abnormal
behaviour.
 Contrary to this, if a person is living in a protective
environment where he is loved, cared and
accepted, there are less chances of developing of
abnormal behaviour even if he has biological
predisposition towards abnormality.
Problems faced by
adolescents
 Adolescence is called as the period of ‘storm and stress’ as they experience
lot of physiological and psychological changes during this phase. Adolescents
are in search of ‘self-identity’ as they are neither children nor adult. In this
phase, they experience many challenges as they have to constantly adjust
with these challenges.
 Some adolescents face difficulty mixing with others, have an inferiority
complex about themselves and feel excessively shy. There could be many
different reasons behind this.
 Some adolescents lack self confidence. They have negative opinion about
others. These behavioural changes may occur because of hormonal changes
in Puberty. They may become awkward and conscious about their body shape,
they experience mood swings which make them more diffident. They may be
more conscious about their physical appearance. They may be concerned
about various issues like their skin colour, height, weight, body proportions
etc.
 Adolescents may also have expectations from themselves to perform better,
to achieve better grades irrespective of their capacity which creates tension
for them. They may tend to think that even if they try hard they will remain
failures.
Sexual orientation
 Some adolescents get attracted towards
the same sex person or towards both
men and women.
 Sexual orientation refers to an
individual’s pattern of physical and
emotional arousal towards other person.
 Sexual orientation refers to an
individual’s pattern of physical and
emotional arousal towards other person.
Gender identity
 Gender identity is a perception of one’s own
gender which may or may not be corresponding
to their birth sex.
 It is affected by gender role expectations from
the society.
 Some adolescents may show traits typically
thought to be of the other gender.
 For example, some boys may display some
feminine traits whereas some girls may display
some masculine traits. Such adolescents may
have problems dealing with their gender identity.
 In 1974, Bem developed a test to assess gender
identity.
 Those who are high on masculinity show traits like
assertiveness, boldness, dominance, self-sufficiency
and instrumentality.
 Those who are high on femininity show traits like
nurturance, expression of emotions, and empathy.
 Those who display both masculine and feminine traits
are called as androgynous.
 If an adolescent is inhibited from behaving in a way
that is natural for him / her under the pressure of social
expectations or stereotypes, he / she may either
become rebellious or timid.
Bullying
 Some adolescents get constantly humiliated and taunted by others or
fall victim to other people’s aggression because they have less power or
prestige.
 They are not weak but they are not able to stand up for themselves.
They become the target of continuous attacks.
 Bullying is very common all around the world.
 Almost all bullies are also victims and vice versa.
 Bullies and victims are generally low in self-esteem. To improve their
self-esteem, they tend to get aggressive. They accept ruthless
manipulative approach to life. They don’t trust others and they think
that they can easily break their promises and take unfair advantage of
others. (Andreou, 2000). They are more likely to respond to stress with
aggression (lashing out at someone physically or mentally) or by
engaging in self destructive behaviour.
 Boys generally indulge into bullying to gain power and be a part of
powerful groups.
 Girls indulge into bullying when they are depressed.