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Diagnosis and Treatment of Adult Psychopathology
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Diagnosis and Treatment of Adult Psychopathology
The identification of abnormality is based on three salient and valid criteria; emotions, thoughts, and behavior. The three suffices to be the best criteria as they are a replica of the functions of the brain. The abnormality is an issue that is related to mental disorders. Whenever a person has a mental disorder, it is most likely that the disorder deregulates and causes mental dysfunction which represents abnormality. The mind or the brain coordinates most of the functions of the body (Iverson, Follette, Pistorello, & Fruzzetti, 2012, p.1). Thus, an abnormality can be evaluated using the three criteria which are functions controlled primarily by the brain.
The advantage of using emotion as a criterion to evaluate abnormality is that it represents the mental state and process. Thus, the emotion deregulation represents a dysfunctional mental state. Additionally, the thoughts or cognitions are directly controlled by the mind; thus, bad thoughts can be perceived to be a replica of the abnormality or a mental disorder. Lastly, the advantage of using behavior for evaluating abnormality is that it complements the other two criteria in confirming the abnormality in an individual (Iverson et al., 2012, p.6).
On the other hand, the particular criteria also have disadvantages. The disadvantage of emotions is that it does not primarily emanate from the brain, they are sometimes triggered by the environment.

Also, an individual may showcase behaviors that are not a replica of the brain functions but rather a response to a situation. That is, a person may have a phobia for a certain environment or activities; hence, the behaviors they showcase during such moments are not a sure measure of abnormality. Subsequently, different people have varying cognitive capabilities. Thus, whenever a person has a certain level of thinking or cognition such as in learning, it does not necessarily represent abnormality (Iverson et al., 2012, p.6-7).
References
Iverson, K. M., Follette, V. M., Pistorello, J., & Fruzzetti, A. E. (2012). An investigation of experiential avoidance, emotion dysregulation, and distress tolerance in young adult outpatients with borderline personality disorder symptoms. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3(4), 415.