Psychology

The definition of the term abnormality or abnormal behavior has proved to be a daunting task to psychologists. There has been no single description that would capture all the aspects of an abnormal person. Definition would vary from society to society as well as from one situation to another (Sue, Sue  Sue, 2003). However, psychologists do agree on one thing that abnormality would make a person unable to live in harmony with hisher surroundings. It is sometimes referred to as behavior disorder. Therefore, many definitions have been put forward to explain different abnormal behaviors based on different situations. Some of these are based on violation of social norms, maladaptive behavior as well as statistical deviations among others (Jones, 2007).

Classification of abnormality and Situational Interpretations
The quest to explain what is abnormal has given way to classifications of behaviors that are not unaccepted. Such classifications are the BMHA (1959), DSM-III-R (1987) and the ICD 10 of 1987 (Nevid, Rathus,  Greene, 2004). These classifications have not fully identified and classified factors that would help diagnose abnormality. There are varying situations that would explain an abnormal behavior. The systems of classification have been bias to the identification of what is abnormal. The use of Medical Model which has such terminologies like diseases or illnesses confuses the description of abnormality. It is sometimes hard to explain the behavioral patterns of people as illness, because to some, the abnormal behavior is unusual or inconvenience. Inconsistency of symptoms makes it hard to gauge the mental states. Therefore, in this kind of situation, mental illness can hardly be explained as a disease, (Davidson, Neale,  Kring, 2003).
 
The description or labeling of the patients as being diagnosed in some situations may have profound effects on the patients as well as people around him or her. This as argued may negatively impact the behavior of the patient, who may think that heshe is sick. According to Sutker and Adams (2001), those around this patient may as well treat himher as sick even though it was not considered a disease in the first place. The classification of abnormality or labeling of patients as mentally ill in some situations may make it hard to diagnose the illnesses.

Classifying a mental disorder as well as diagnosis of the same has been said to be unreliable. This has been compounded by the fact it is quite hard to ascertain the symptom and its extent. It has been argued that it is quite hard to separate the two extremes. Who is abnormal and who is not Drawing a parallel between these two could have implications on the diagnosis process (Stravinsky  OConnor, 1995).

Conclusion
There is much that has been done in an attempt to study and understand abnormal behavior, but still a lot of improvement needs to done in the special needs education as well therapy. A little research has been done to shed light on what is healthy behavior. Perhaps analyzing what constitute an abnormal behavior would lift the ambiguity of the subject and improve our understanding of what is normal behavior. Different methods have been used to classify what abnormal behavior is.