Normatology

Normatology is the study of normal development and behaviour. It provides the answer to the age old question – what is normal?

There are 5 main Models

The Absence of Pathology Model

The Utopian Model

The Statistical Model

The Systems Model

The Pragmatic Model

The Absence of Pathology Model

The absence of symptoms, signs and lab abnormalities connate normality.
A healthy person is reasonably free of undue pain, discomfort, disability, distress, disadvantage, and other features of disorder.

The Utopian Model

Health is defined as an ideal functioning that is rarely obtained and then only by a few.
Normal or average is therefore pathological in that it is far short of the ideal.
In this respect the analytic model of therapy emphasizes pathology while the humanistic model emphasizes health. Psychoanalysis lacks the language and method to describe healthy functioning.

The Statistical Model

Normal equals the average Level of functioning. Concerns in this model are that the average may be relative to a population that may be dysfunctional.

The Systems Model

Normality is the interplay of systems that interact, operate and fluctuate over time in an adaptive fashion. There are multiple processes nvolved and multiple levels of adaptation that are studied longitudinally.

The Pragmatic Model

Mental disorders are conditions that clinicians treat. Conditions for which people do not seek treatment are not considered pathological and therefore are normal. This is a circular argument and is relative to the degree of complaints and the economic situation of local people and interests of clinicians.

Normality and Mental Health

Often when people are talking about being normal they are referring to their Mental Health.
There are a number of different models of mental health:

• As Above Normal
• As Positive Psychology
• As Maturity
• As Social-Emotional Intelligence
• As Subjective Well-Being
• As Resilience