As a psychology student, I learnt the importance and gravitas of these words quite early on. Individual differences often sprout from distinct combinations of unique experiences, products of temperaments, the combinations of nature and nurture alike.
These have addressed the varied questions that rise in psychopathology about the concluding diagnosis. Given the ocean of history that a client comes to you with, does the resultant behaviour- become ‘abnormal’. Knowing what we know of them, knowing the subject matter, and ‘pathology’, knowing that psychology looks at humans as a function of one’s cognition, emotion and behaviour- ‘abnormality’ has often felt more like a ruse to me.
Does this equation that psychology bases itself on, when applied to these individual differences- really make the individual a deviance from what would otherwise have been expected of them. Does the algorithm of the four Ds- Deviance, Dysfuction, Danger and Distress that guides one towards ‘abnormality’ in mental health fit the ideal of ‘individual differences’?
Let me know what you think about this is the comments section!
That’s an amazing and concise insight!
Thank you for giving this a read!
Can they define abnormalities? Perhaps. Individual differences? I don’t think so. They’re so much more and it’s meaning will keep expanding with time.