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Time: 20 hours
Level: Intermediate
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 Introduction Resource- Dyslexia is a condition affecting literacy skills. This unit analyses how our image of normality affects the way we as a society define such conditions. You will learn how important it is to integrate...
| | | | | 1 Approaches to the definition of ‘abnormality’
- 1.1 Introduction Resource
- You may have noticed that we often discuss people with the assumption that there is a ‘normal’ pattern of behaviour, which some people do not conform to, while the rest do. This idea of ‘normality’ is...
- 1.2 Definitions of ‘normality’ Resource
- What do we mean when we say something is ‘normal’?
- 1.3 Overview of ‘normality’ Resource
- Before we can specify what might be ‘abnormal’, we must first have a clear idea of what we mean by ‘normality’. However, within psychology this is much more difficult than it first appears. As our discussion...
- 1.4 Experiencing dyslexia Resource
- To illustrate just how problematic the idea of ‘abnormality’ is in practice, we will consider the condition of developmental dyslexia, dyslexia for short. Dyslexia is relatively common and you may have...
- 1.5 Defining dyslexia Resource
- The ongoing debate about dyslexia is reflected in the different approaches that have been taken to formally define it. Clearly this impacts on how dyslexia is defined in practice. The next three sections...
- 1.6 Positive indicators for dyslexia Resource
- Dyslexia is recognized if the person shows various core behavioural symptoms or other features associated with dyslexia.
- 1.7 Dyslexia as a distinctive condition Resource
- The idea that dyslexia is distinctive from other forms of reading difficulty is still debated. One viewpoint is that reading ability is a simple continuum, with exceptionally gifted readers at one end...
- 1.8 Reflecting on definitions of ‘abnormality’ Resource
- The main thing to remember is that the way that ‘abnormality’ is defined will have consequences for the method of identification. It will also impact on people's expectations of their future development....
| | | | | 2 Explanations of dyslexia
- 2.1 Behavioural, cognitive and biological perspectives Resource
- So far we have discussed what contributes to our ideas of ‘abnormality’ and these issues have been illustrated by examining the real-life example of dyslexia. We will now consider the different potential...
- 2.2 Cognitive explanations of dyslexia Resource
- Recall Alexander Faludy's difficulties in learning to read and write, and the other behavioural characteristics associated with having dyslexia. You might have noticed that many features of dyslexia point...
- 2.3 Biological explanations of dyslexia Resource
- Some physical characteristics appear to be ‘typical’ of people with reading difficulties, although their relevance is debated. These include being male, tendencies towards left-handedness or mixed-handedness...
- 2.4 Differences in brain architecture Resource
- Some findings that do appear to be more specific to dyslexia are various microscopic anomalies in the actual organisation of brain cells, reported from post-mortem studies (Galaburda et al., 1985). These...
- 2.5 Biochemical factors Resource
- As we saw in Section 1, ‘medical’ approaches to some psychological conditions have focused on biochemistry and the use of corresponding drug treatments. Very little research of this kind has been applied...
- 2.6 Environmental explanations of dyslexia? Resource
- ‘Environment’ is often used to refer to only social or non-biological influences. However, it actually also refers to the biological, cognitive and behavioural environments that we may be exposed to. If...
- 2.7 Reflecting on explanations of ‘abnormal’ development: the case of dyslexia Resource
- We can draw the following general conclusions about cognitive and biological explanations of abnormality from the material presented above.
| | | | | 3 Treatment and management
- 3.1 Thinking about intervention Resource
- So far we have looked at issues relating to how we define ‘abnormal’ behaviour, and how we think about explanations. Now we will consider the more practical issue of how to approach the treatment of such...
- 3.2 Behavioural approaches Resource
- Behavioural therapies are based on principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning (the latter being more properly referred to as behaviour modification therapy). Operant conditioning is...
- 3.3 Cognitive approaches Resource
- Cognitive approaches to therapy involve interventions that focus on addressing aspects of cognitive processing. For example, cognitive therapy is frequently used to treat stress, depression or phobia,...
- 3.4 Biological approaches Resource
- Certain kinds of psychological disturbances may be seen as ‘malfunctions’ of the brain. If a psychological problem has an obvious biological explanation, then it may be possible to direct therapeutic approaches...
- 3.5 Evaluating intervention studies Resource
- One of the biggest problems in evaluating psychological interventions is that even if a treatment appears to ‘work’ it can still be difficult to ascertain whether the results were a consequence of the...
- 3.6 Reflecting on dyslexia Resource
- Throughout this unit, dyslexia has been evaluated as an example of ‘abnormality’, a difficulty, a problem in need of an intervention. However, research has shown that some adults with dyslexia are distinctive,...
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- 4 Concluding remarks Resource
- This unit has been about understanding the idea of psychological abnormality and its implications. What we have learned is that ‘normality’ is defined in a variety of ways, and it is important to ask what...
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- 5 Further reading Resource
- Claridge, G. (1985) Origins of Mental Illness: Temperament, Deviance and Disorder, Oxford, Blackwell.
| | | | | References and Acknowledgements | | |
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