| Abstract: | ![]()
Recent issues of the American Psychologist have been devoting some space to techniques in teaching abnormal psychology. Mills (1955, 10, 74-78) suggested field trips to existing community facilities; Brown (1955, 10, 85-86) reported on a technique of having students analyze, without their knowing until afterwards, their own personality test protocols; and more recently Wertheimer (1955, 10, 826) wrote on a method of the students writing short papers on "abnormal" behavior from their own or their friends' experiences. Only the latter demonstration comes close to meeting one of the fundamental problems for the student of abnormal psychology: the meaning of the concepts of "normal" and "abnormal." This article presents a simple classroom demonstration that has been used successfully at Trinity College during the early part of the course to emphasize two fundamental ideas: (a) behavior which is different from that of the group is not necessarily abnormal behavior, and (b) our labels of normal and abnormal have more meaning for us if we are aware of the circumstances underlying the deviant behavior observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
