 Today, what we would be doing is, we would try to understand that how this whole concept of normality has evolved, what is so special about it know that it is given extra weightage both in the legal framework, in the social framework, even in the clinical framework. And we will take couple of examples to see that is it that aberrations are acceptable, that aberrations are not acceptable and how this whole interplay of normality is sub normality and abnormality begins. Initially, we will be focusing only on normality and with respect to once we establish normality with respect to it, then we will try to understand the whole issue of abnormality and once normal and abnormal ends are known to us, then we will try to find out is there a possibility of defining something like sub normality. Till now what we have been doing, the first lecture we talked about the biomedical model, where the focus was more on the scientific temper of the medical fraternity, the whole issue of classification of diseases. And then we took the whole issue that find the way classification of diseases are taken into account and the way biomedical model is used to define constructs there, that has been extended also to behavioral sciences where for even for behavioral aberrations for psychological disorders, similar type of models are looked at. Then we did try to see that the social context is equally important and the moment you delink classification from the social context, it creates a trouble, it creates a problem and we saw know statements of couple of psychologists, what type of problems they experienced, they explained in terms of extending biomedical model to behavioral sciences. Now, when we look at the whole issue of adjustment, it is equally important to understand adjustment as a social construction. Social construction means the society at large decides what is normal and what is not. Now, remember in the beginning I told you that there are at times there could be matches, the at time there could be mismatches between the social construction of a disease or a disorder or an aberration and the way it is clinically looked upon. Now, today what we are saying is that before we define what is normality from clinical perspective, let us first look at the social construction of normality. Now, one of the connotations of adjustment is normal, means how normal you are, means those who are technically aware of the no house in the discipline will tell you whether you are adjusted or you have an adjustment issue whether you are mal adjusted, but the social connotation of this adjustment is whether you are normal or not. And there could be know very explicit way of saying that you are not normal or you have some problem, there could be no very tacit way of making you realize that this pattern of behavior does not have the approval. For example, if you take into account something like people in your neighborhood, people in your community using certain signage to represent that this behavior is aberrated or you are not adjusted or you are not normal. Say for example, you know somebody does something or somebody explains things in a particular way and you say the moment you put your finger here and you say something like the moment you indicate like this is a nonverbal indicator that this is not working properly, means your normality is at a stake or when we use loosely certain words know in this region of the country, people would very generously use, so the moment you are told, even right now we will also discuss it that actually, is that you have been displaced you are dislocated. Now, dislocated with respect to what and then you would discuss it find there is something like a social construction of normality and then Kisagia is deviation. So, this is a social perception of something which is otherwise statistically proved to be deviation. So, how much you deviate, what constructs normality, how abnormality is defined and then you find that if you ask people who use words like this, how do you define Kisagia or how do you define this or how do you define say Dheela, what it means not to be Kiscahu or not to be Dheela, not to be this, what exactly that means, you will find people will have difficulty explaining it because these are loosely defined. So, what we tried, what we are trying to do here is that the way we are trying to define adjustment, the way we are trying to understand adjustment, adjustment one of the connotation is that how normal you are and therefore, with respect to the psychology of adjustment, we need to understand what normality means and here adjustment and normality primarily we are looking at it as a social construction, then we would try to fit it into a behavioral and legal framework also. It is essential for us to be aware of those classificatory measures that are commonly used by people to construe normality. So, there would be a classificatory scheme means what is normality or who is normal and when I say who is normal, then I should have a scheme that if you have 1, 1 a, 1 b, 1 c, if you have 2, 2 a, 2 b, 2 c, if you have 3, 3 a, 3 b, 3 c, minimum one of each of these categories, then you can be thought to be normal. So, some type of a classificatory schemes which otherwise loosely is used to measure you. So, the way you manifest your behavior, the manifested behavior will be evaluated with respect to the classificatory scheme which has social approval and that will finally, help people at large define who is normal and who is not. Now, there could be different ways of defining normality if we are looking at it from a scientific viewpoint, the way psychologists will look at it. One way of defining normality is that it is a statistical norm. In fact, if you break this word norm, from there you have normality or normal. So, your compliance to the norm makes you normal. If you have difficulty complying to the norm, find your normality is at stake. So, one way of defining normality could be that you just look at it as a statistical average. In terms of a statistical average, many of you must be aware of this normal probability curve. Now, this curve is based on certain assumptions that one of the basic assumption of this curve is that the mean median in the mode lies on the same plane which actually does not happen. Just to recapitulate, you all are of course, aware of it. Mean would mean that it is the average of the numbers. Median would mean that it is a half way above and below which 50 percent of the cases would lie and mode would be the average of the frequency of occurrence of something. So, usually if you compute mean median in mode, you would realize that there numerically they are not the same. But, one of the assumption of this normal probability curve is that the mean median in the mode they would lie on the same plane. Assuming that it says that there is a range. If you look at the population at large, you will have 68.2 percent of the cases which usually no lie between the minus 1 and plus 1 sigma and they are considered to constitute the majority group. So, from social construction point of view, when you say that this is the view of the majority, this is how the society is. This is what usually you see in the society. It actually means that is only 68.2 percent of the people, their behavioral manifestations are taken into account, if normality is looked upon from a statistical view point. 2, you have 13.6 percent cases on both the ends, minus 2 and minus 1 sigma and plus 2 and plus 1 sigma, that is the group which does not fit into this majority group. But, this is another subsection on both the ends. So, if you take the plus side to be more of normal behavior or more of normality, the negative end would be more of problem with complying to the norm. And so finally, we also have no 2.15 percent on both the ends which would be extreme. So, extreme in terms of complying to norm and extreme in terms of not at all complying to the norm. But, the best part of this normal probability curve also is that the curve does not touch the base light. So, you have a very small percentage which actually cannot be fitted into this normal probability curve. We are not going into the statistics, but just to tell you that in majority of the cases, when in psychology people take data, they try to see how good the data fits into the normal probability curves. In majority of the cases, you find that you cannot achieve normal probability curve. So, either the curve gets skewed means either it moves more towards the positive end or more towards the negative end. So, there is a skewness in the curve. It is not exactly the bell shaped curve or one possibility is that you can have kurtosis means majority falls between plus minus 1 sigma. So, what you find is that suddenly the peak at the center goes very high and then there is a sharp decline and you will find very, very little percentage between plus 2 sigma and plus 3 sigma and minus 2 and minus 3 sigma. That would be extreme of compliance. But, statistically if you have to compute the norm, the best idea is that you have good representation of the population in the sample 1, have a very, very large sample size 2 and then try to say if the sample that you have chosen to define a construct, whether it fits into the normal probability curve or not. This could be one way of defining normality when you are trying to have elements in your classificatory scheme that these are for example 12 ideal characteristics that I would be looking at if I have to define normality. The other way of looking at normality is that you just define it as an ideal standard. You do not look into how many people fit into it, how much of it get represented by majority or is it that when you set the ideal it is only the people between plus 2 and plus 3 sigma who will fit into that. You are not at all interested in stuffs like that. All you say that this is ideal standard. In terms of grading, I would say that it is absolute grading. There is nothing like relative grading unlike the system that we follow here at IIT that you have a relative grading system. So, you are compared against say the remaining 58 students who are registered in this course and accordingly the norms for grading is defined. In this case it would be something like an absolute grading system where you just fix the benchmark. This is the benchmark. If you fall short of it, you are not normal and that is the ideal standard. It can again be an issue that is it that once you have an ideal standard for defining normality is it that it is rigidly followed or if you fall short of the standard that also is acceptable that issue we will take little later. And then one other possibility is that you simply try to define normality as behavior which is not abnormal behavior that is not sub normal. So, I have the full spectrum here and I say this is the extreme ideal standard which is normal. This is completely absurd and which is abnormal in between I draw the line and I say this is sub normal. So, if you are not abnormal if you are not sub normal then I have I do not have any other option but to put you as normal. This could be also another way of defining normality. It is not good to say so, but if you comply to the biomedical model in terms of defining psychological disorders or behavioral aberrations and you stick very hard to it. One possibility could be that the moment I am asked to make a psychological profile of you the moment I am asked to come upon with an evaluation scheme for you I might begin only with looking at possible disorders in you. So, instead of asking for your strengths or instead of evaluating your characteristics I start searching for possibility of a disorder or an aberration you say no this is not there to say that the second disorder is also not there third disorder is also not there and because you do not have disorders therefore, you are normal. This might sound absurd, but this could also be one way of doing it. The third viewpoint that you are not abnormal you are not sub normal and therefore, you are normal. But this is say something like reducing your potentials as a human being because it starts looking at you as a person who cannot be normal a person who will certainly deviate a person who cannot follow idealistic standards a person who definitely would have one or the other disorder which is not true for large majority of us. So, normality you know can be understood from all these viewpoints and interesting thing because we are trying to look at it initially from the viewpoint of social construction of normality. So, one interesting and very dominant thing is there and you can add to it if you do not accept this viewpoint is that actually the view of the powerful majority has prevailed in terms of defining what is normality. A large section of the society which was not socially powerful their viewpoint was not taken into account just now we will take an example that how certain practices in the society was simply not taken into account while defining something which would otherwise be considered to be a normal pattern of behavior. So, this is one strong thing now I am you know moving away from psychology even if you look at the society at large contemporary society and try to look at it from you know a sociological viewpoint you would realize know that for doing many a things it is the powerful people, handful people their viewpoint has been taken into account. Just for example, if you have to decide something like what should be the cut-off score for including somebody in IIT system or if I have to decide a parameter of who should be given PSY 451 HSS slot tray all you have to do is to just give your choice your preference and there is a small mass which decides to overrule your preference. Many of you must have experienced it know you opted for something else and finally got something else and given the size of the you know students crediting a course it is extremely difficult down most of the instructors will tell you that sorry your add drop request cannot be intertaked you and then you realize fine the course was made for me not for the instructor you asked me my preference and then you decided to overrule it then what is the point in asking me my preference this could be one way of looking at it. So, you realize it fine it is a powerful majorities whose viewpoint exists know because you are the instructor therefore, you enjoy the liberty of saying that I can add to I can add you to my course or I will not add you or I may even refuse your request to drop a course is that not so even for drops you need permission of the concerned instructor know you make a drop request and the instructor is free to accept or reject your drop request whether you add or drop a course the course will certainly run throughout the semester. This means that although you are one of the stakeholder in this whole process of undergraduate teaching you are at the mercy of the instructors similarly you have other other processes in the society where you realize that small group of people they decide know what you should do and what you should not where there could be a viewpoint which is echoed from many corners many people talking about it, but then that viewpoint is simply over rolled. The recent episode of a gang rape in Delhi and you have this whole social process going on where people will go for strike people going in mass protesting against the actions of certain historic holders in the process of governance this whole thing till date it is continuing. This means that you realize that there is a viewpoint of a powerful majority which is dominating and my viewpoint is not being heard because as an individual I cannot make my presence felt therefore hundreds and thousands of people will collect because I know that if you allow me to sit as a designated place in the national capital my voice can still be unheard. So I go to the place which is nearest to the decision making center in Delhi this whole issue of taking the no procession to India gate going beyond that going to the junction point between the north and the south blocks in Delhi going straight up to the gate of the president's house all this shows that you want that my dear powerful majority listen to me and I is not singular I here I not as an individual but we as a collective group are sharing our concern and we want the system of governance to be modified. Take another controversial issue in our country the whole issue of whether there should be a reservation on the basis of caste structure or not a group of people who will endorse it a group of people who will go against it a group of people who would talk with respect to degradation in the saturation level of competence achievement and many many more of such constructs and people who would be sharing their sufferings because they were you know accidentally born in a particular family which belong to a particular caste and therefore they were deprived of certain opportunities. And then you said that you did not hear me you did not hear my viewpoint you just know you were the powerful majorities you decided the norm who should be benefited who should not be and I have been suffering from couple of generations you will hear many such stories people sharing their suffering how they suffered when they were student how they suffered when they landed up in a profession and many such things even something much more sacrosanct like worshipping a god worshipping a particular deity visiting a particular temple offering prayers in a particular way. You find that there are no classificatory scheme that the society has laid down in terms of what is prescribed and what is prescribed prescribed means you have to do things like this and prescribed is you cannot do things like this. And then you are simply told that if you belong to this group in the society means certain castes then you can do it if you belong to some other group of certain castes you cannot do it there was a long time back huge political uproar in this country when local community in Odisha took offense of Dalit community person visiting a Hindu temple the whole episode attracted the attention of the nation and then the chairman of the SCST commission he decided to go to that temple now the chairman of these commissions are powerful bodies and therefore the chairman has certain privileges now when this man who enjoys certain power in the system of governance decided to go to that temple the whole of the district administration there in Odisha they had to know ensure that nothing untoward happens there on this part this man visits the temple to see that the temple gate was locked and the dominant people who used to administer the day to day affairs in the temple they were simply absconding which basically means that this man was not allowed once again entry into the temple. So, you could be you know the chairman of a national commission but fine I do not allow you to visit the temple in which my god sets because I and you do not share the same caste again I am made to realize that there are some people who are more powerful compared to me simply because I do not belong to certain caste. So, you realize that because I am not an instructor therefore I do not have a say you realize that I do not belong to certain caste therefore I do not have a say and therefore if you know the same way if you start know looking at many social phenomena in contemporary society do not go to the history you would realize that in most of the cases things have been taken into account from the majority's view point and within majority if you start drawing lines if you put the grids there then you will realize that there are the view point only of the powerful majority which has been taken into account but this leads to another sociological debate we are not interested in that debate. So, if the majority of people in a given society they accept a particular way of life to be correct then anyone who deviates from the norm will be designated as abnormal. So, the majority says that this is the behavioral pattern that should be followed in the society and because before defining the norm even if you have been practicing some other form of behavior you are put out of the circumference of this social framework of normality and therefore you are designated as somebody who is not normal. Couple of years back there was an interesting documentary by national geography this documentary was about the young generation of India those who are going to software industry and age group would be 20 21 that was the age group where this whole program was based on what happens to somebody who just graduates is at a prime stage of his life 20 21 years of age joins the job and gets a salary which is extremely exorbitantly high. One interesting thing in that was that what they had done was they took the boys and the girls who have gone to this profession very recently and also looked at their family background they talked to their parents and numerically if I say that the difference between the take home salary of the father or the mother or both of them put together with the child was nowhere comparable. So, may be that the monthly income of this younger generation was much more higher compared to the annual salary of their parents put together both the parents put together. So, that was one interesting way of looking at it but why I am quoting that example is that these young boys and girls they were asked that say once you are in job so what are the changes that you see in your lifestyle and the changes in the behavior I was looking at it from what changes it has led to the behavioral practices of people like this and one interesting aspect was that when they were asked so what now you studied you are placed what now interestingly there were only two responses can you make a guess what next any guess there were only two they said what next the first was getting a flat no car was not there car came little later after flat getting married these young boys and girls at this stage in life when they are otherwise economically extremely affluent compared to their all those who belong to them what next flat what next marriage when parents were asked so what next for your child the answer was exactly the same I would like my child to now have a flat and I would like my child now to get married. So, there is no very very high premium that has been put on marriage in our society that if you decide not to marry or if you delay your marriage not only your family members even the people in the community will start to know pressurizing you that this is the peak time you should get married I remember my bachelor days when I would know receive inputs like this that you should get married not less than I would say 30 35 inputs per day and it was unbearable that why you should be worried about me getting married or not but this is how know the society has evolved the beauty of marriage as a system the beauty of marriage as an institution has been realized and therefore people will start telling you that fine this is the time that now you should certainly know go ahead with this. So, in terms of defining majority and in terms of defining the how majority is viewpoint has been taken into account in terms of defining normality we will take marriage as an example because this has the highest stake in our society and what would be the second example can you guess we will we would not take that example right now, but little later we will take that example also having children. So, the society expects that after particular age you should certainly get married and once you are married no people will start know counseling you that you should certainly have a child and we would take these two examples because they are considered to be of utmost importance in our social framework. So, let us first take the example of marriage from a social viewpoint because we are trying to define normality know as a social construction. So, the social viewpoint is that I am taking the Hindu viewpoint again here you can have differences, but because again I am taking the dominant viewpoint therefore I am taking the Hindu viewpoint because our census report shows that majority in this country belongs to this type of practice. Now, Hinduism describes marriage as a sanskar out of the 16 sanskars marriage happens to be the 13th one and therefore it is a saccharid act this is a social viewpoint where recently somebody gave a statement regarding marriage that it is a contract I do not know if you are aware of this just two days back one of the political leaders gave this statement and it is being hugely debated know in the electronic media the weightage that such type of statements from somebody who belongs to or who represents a political party should give or not. But overall minus this political angle you can look at marriage as a saccharid act the reason being that it is one of the sanskar and if you want to be very precise out of the 16 sanskars defined in Hinduism this is considered to be the 13th sanskar and therefore marriage becomes a saccharid act take a legal viewpoint I do not know law I have never studied it but just know to quote from the marriage act of 1955 that is being followed section 5 of that act says that this act extends to all Indians except those residing in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and this is how Hindu marriage has been defined one neither party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage means neither the bride side nor the groom side should not have a spouse who is living. So, after the death of your spouse if you are going for a remarriage it is acceptable but if your spouse is living and if you are not legally divorced then you cannot marry but that is one you can see here know the important ones that we will take lead from our you know colored red hair to at the time of the marriage neither party a is incapable of giving valid consent to it in consequence of in unsound unsoundness of mind means you give a consent for your marriage but your consent will only be accepted if you are found to be in a same state you should be in a sound state of mind if you are mentally unsound then fine your acceptance does not matter one two though capable of giving a valid consent has been suffering from mental disorder of such a kind or to such an extent as to be unfit for marriage and for the procreation of children. Now, remember even in the legal framework after marriage what has to be done he also gets defined you know that procreation a biological act also has been put together in the marriage act here now interesting part here is that you should not be suffering from a mental disorder which influences know your marital life or your ability to procreate again you have mental disorder coming into picture here and see has been subjected to recurrent attacks of insanity means you have to be consistent consistently sane. So, basically and of course I must tell you that you know only selected part of the marriage act has been put here know full of marriage act is not displayed here. So, do not think that these are the only three things but these three things know are important for us know because even in the legal framework you find unsound state of mind you find mental disorder and you find insanity being taken into account when I was referring to the documentary on know the young generation joining the software industry there you had what next flat marriage. I was telling one of my own experiences where the society and the people in the society who are very distantly or remotely connected to you even they will tell you that know this is the age of marriage this is the age of having children and even in the legal framework you find that know you should be able to know perform the act of marriage you should also be in the position to procreate. So, marriage know from a social view point very sacred act from the legal view point find you should not be having an attack of insanity you should not have be suffering from mental disorder which affects your marital life or your ability to procreate and you should be in a sound state of mind to give consent for it. So, overall in most of the sections of the Indian society marriage with a single partner is prescribed and this is followed that at any given point know you should not be having more than one spouse of course there are deviations know just touch upon that issue. So, socially morally and legally monogamy is the norm you have only one know spouse at one point in time this means monogamy would be the norm for somebody know who whose behavior would be interpreted in terms of whether he is normal or not or whether is know fitting into that social expected know construct of normality or not whether one would once behavior would be considered to be morally correct or not and whether once behavior would be considered to be legally correct or not. Now, before we take the example further if one has multiple spouse and has know physical relationship with them this is how polygamy is defined and know polygamy again can be of two types polygyny and polyandry where polygyny is a man with multiple wives and polyandry would be women with multiple husbands. Now, once you know what polygamy is what polygyny is and what polyandry is now let us look at these places in the country these are just some representations a group in Himachal Pradesh there you find fraternal polyandry where women marries the eldest son of the family and lives as wife to all the brothers. You have the John Sir Bauer community in Uttarakhand where you find polyandry in Meghalaya and in Arunachal Pradesh you find you know the Nishis where non fraternal polyandry is followed you have Khasis where once again non fraternal polyandry is followed. In the Nilgiri plateau area you find the Toda community where you find fraternal polyandry and in Kerala you find you know matrilineal community of the Nair's in Kerala where you have polyandry. What I am trying to know say with this example is that we were looking at marriage where find initially we said that it is a sacred act and therefore, the relationship between couple is very sacred in nature and it has to be preserved in that way and this is the norm of the society. We took the legal view point which said that find with all this the important thing would be that at one given point in time you should have only one living partner. And then therefore, socially it was important know to be loyal to your husband or your wife to be dedicated to your husband or your wife and to refrain from activities of physical proximity with know any other individual which later on became morally acceptable that if you do not practice it then this is an immoral act. Socially unacceptable morally wrong legally again know it can lead you to punitive measures, but when you look at know these many communities you find that it prevails. Now this would basically mean that when you were defining marriage as a social construct when you were defining marriage as a moral construct the viewpoints of these community were not taken into account. Now remember that this practice you would find in these communities before this act came into place. This means that aberrations were not taken into account while defining what is socially correct what is legally correct and what is morally correct. Now with the spread of the modern lifestyle you will find that many of these customs know that polyandry, polygyny that we have discussed they are slowly being phased out, but what is important to notice that although various practices prevailed in the society the majority view became the norm and the majority view also became the law of the land. So I have been living my life in a particular way and then you tell me that sorry I have defined the law now you should behave like this. In many a things such type of situation you encounter say take for example I think majority of you have undergone coaching for your JE exams and if I ask you what was your bed time during those days and you say that 2 o clock in the night I used to go to sleep 8 o clock in the morning I used to wake up and then suddenly you come to a situation where you are told 8 o clock the day begins the lectures will begin. You say that no although I used to know sleep late in the night wake up early in the morning, but afternoons I used to take nap or I used to sleep for 1 hour or so and here you are told at no afternoons will have labs. So you are not free means one place where the norms are defined for you and you are simply tried you have to try your level best to comply to it nothing else are aberrations possible in certain cases yes it is possible, but when you look at it from a legal perspective you would realize that another boundaries are much more rigidly defined compared to when you take certain forms of aberrations when it comes to social acceptance and again you will find a difference between the social and the moral acceptability of an act. We saw the example of marriage which was from a social viewpoint a sacred act, but think of say procreation think of say different forms of marriages think of the act of biological procreation before you follow the social or the legal framework of marriage means you become a unwed father or a unwed mother for example. Is it legally correct you will have legal experts talking about the incorrectness of the act you will have the moral guardians of the society telling you that how morally incorrect this type of behavior is you would have no people from the society telling you that fine this is an aberration this is usually not acceptable in the society, but look at people who have done this and you would realize that they too have been accepted in the society. We had well known senior actress in our country who became unwed mother out of a relationship with one of the very well known cricketers from outside I would refrain taking names here, but then you realize that the whole issue gets debated even in the media it comes into picture, but then was the women socially segregated the answer is no this means that you have a social framework you have a moral framework, but then society will accept aberrations. Now, you can also look at it from that why there was a need for a norm to be evolved now does this norm has to do with faithfulness and loyalty which are components of morality then and social framework will always look into the moral issues. So, by and large the dynamics of human adjustment process needs to be understood in totality. So, when you define normality take behavior take the social view point take the moral view point take the legal view point, but then from a psychological view point when we look at it the acceptance of a behavior becomes much higher because even aberrated forms of behavior will also be accommodated in terms of defining who is normal and who is not.