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Understanding behavior makes it more normal.

Woo-Kyoung Ahn1, Laura R Novick, Nancy S Kim

  • 1Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. woo-kyoung.ahn@yale.edu

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|November 19, 2003
PubMed
Summary
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Understanding patient behavior enhances perceived normality. Explaining symptoms, even negative life events, makes individuals appear more normal to clinicians and students, confirming Meehl's hypothesis.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychopathology

Background:

  • Clinicians may perceive patients as more normal when their behaviors are understandable.
  • Meehl's informal observation suggests a link between behavioral comprehension and perceived normality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether providing causal explanations for patient characteristics influences perceived normality.
  • To test Meehl's hypothesis across different participant groups and experimental conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Assessed the impact of plausible vs. implausible causal chains on perceived normality.
  • Experiments 2 & 3: Introduced negative life events as explanations for initial symptoms in causal chains.
  • Participants included undergraduates, clinical psychology graduate students, and expert clinicians.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Plausible causal explanations increased perceived normality, while implausible ones decreased it.
  • Explanations, including negative life events, consistently increased perceived normality across all participant groups.
  • Findings support Meehl's prediction regarding the role of understanding in perceived patient normality.

Conclusions:

  • Causal explanations significantly enhance the perceived normality of individuals described with psychological characteristics.
  • The effect holds true even when explanations involve negative life events, suggesting a robust mechanism.
  • Understanding the 'why' behind behaviors is crucial for clinical judgment of normality.