What is Abnormal Behavior?

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-10-23 8:20 AM CDST

• What is abnormal behavior?
  • Well, there is no one right answer.
    • Many definitions exist but none are entirely satisfactory.
      • One definition is that abnormal behavior is any that deviates from central tendencies, like the mean, for example. By this definition, abnormal behavior would be any that is statistically deviant.
        • For example, if most of the population smoked, but you did not, then not smoking would be considered abnormal.
    • There are obvious problems with this definition.
      • For instance, what happens to the definition when the popularity of a behavior shifts?
    • Or, more tellingly, what if the majority's behavior is obviously pathological.
      • This last point is explored in the movie, "The King of Hearts ," where, during World War I, the main character sides with the "insane" inhabitants of a lunatic asylum, instead of his "sane" fellow soldiers.
        • When millions are trying to kill other millions, how is that sane?
        • Alan Bates, the hero of the movie, decides that it is more normal to live with the inhabitants of the asylum than to keep killing.
      • The movie shows that the majority can often be quite abnormal.

    • Another similar definition is deviation from socio-cultural norms, not statistical ones.
      • In this definition, abnormality is when one violates behaviors that most consider proper.
        • For example, not shaving, not going to church, and so on, would be abnormal.
      • The difference between this definition and the previous one is that it is not the prevalence of the behavior that makes it normal, but rather the perception of propriety instead.
    • Other definitions are based on individuals instead of groups.
      • For example, if a person feels uncomfortable in situations where others do not, then that person may be maladjusted.
    • Similarly, a person may feel distress in situations where others do not.
    • Or, a person may react in a less mature fashion than others do in particular situations.
    • Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" exploits these individualistic kinds of definitions.
      • In that poem, Richard Cory is cast as a man who has everything a person could possibly want.
      • Yet, in the end, he commits suicide.
    • Another possible definition is simply being in trouble: trouble at home, work, school, or with the law, for example.
      • When other people start to notice that you cannot adequately deal with your responsibilities, you may be in trouble.
        • The commercials for private mental hospitals on TV are good examples.
        • In one, a wife is calling her husband's boss because her husband is an alcoholic, and did not come to work after lunch, again.
          • The message at the end is that maybe it is time that he, and she, do something about their trouble, namely, call that hospital.
  • The definitions above give you some idea of the possible range of abnormal behavior, yet none of them is entirely satisfactory. Also, you should not expect ever to find a completely satisfactory definition of abnormal behavior.