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Age and Normal/Abnormal Behavior
When defining and classifying what is normal and abnormal behavior, age itself can become challenge and make it difficult to come up with a proper classification. Many aspects of the definition of age itself, makes it nearly impossible to assign its very presence to normality. Who is it the makes the rules and guidelines to determine what is appropriate behavior given a certain age? Does one expectation from one person at a certain age guarantee that it will be applicable to other individuals at that age within a social and cultural construct? Age is a factor that influences the definition of normal and abnormal behavior, but it is also one that makes it the most difficult to analyze.
Age makes it challenging when classifying what is normal and abnormal behavior on both sides of the spectrum, both when individuals are young, and when they are elderly (Link et al., 2004). Focusing on the youngest side of the spectrum, it is difficult when trying to decide what is normal and abnormal behavior in children. Toddlers grow at such a rapid pace and all develop such varying characteristics, that trying to decide what is normal and what is abnormal is pretty difficult when trying to fit all children into just one category. A child...
Children who defy orders are classified as acting out of the norm, abnormally, but is that not part of growing up, learning from one's actions what it right and what it wrong? Trying to define a normal range of behavior could also be difficult within that age, and without considering situational factors, such as home life, parental relationships, etc., that could affect the normality and abnormality in behavior in all children alike.
Trying to classify abnormal and normal behavior in teenagers must be one of the most difficult tasks at hand. Teenagers, just like children, end up with their personalities and trying to fit them under just one classifications is nearly impossible (Frick & Viding, 2009). Teenagers are naturally moody, aggressive, and defiant, but does that necessarily make their irrational behavior abnormal? The teenage years make it one of the most difficult times to diagnose an individual with a mental illness because their bodies and brains are changing at such a rapid pace, and they are experiencing emotions that within themselves are pretty typical of…
References:
Frick, P.J. & Viding, E. (2009). Antisocial behavior from a developmental psychopathology perspective. Development and Psychopathology 21:1111-1131.
Kushnir, J. & Sadeh, A. (2010). Childhood fears, neurobehavioral functioning and behavior problems in school-age children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 41:88-97.
Link, B.Q., Yang, L.H., Phelan, J.C., & Collins, P.Y. (2004). Measuring mental illness stigma. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30(3): 511-541.
Fomby, P., Mollborn, S., & Sennott, C.A. (2010). Race/ethnic differences in effects of family instability on adolescents' risk behavior. Journal of Marriage and Family. 72(2): 234-253.
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