Answer the following questions:

1. The current cultural understanding of psychological problems suggest a qualitative difference (instead of quantitative) between "abnormal" and "normal" individuals? Why?
2. What sources of information do we have in our culture to determine this difference?
3. Is this the most valid way to think about psychological problems? What advantages does a dimensional model hold?

Allport believed that disorders represent a radical discontinuity from normal (i.e., qualitatively different). The Five-Factor Model suggests disorders are quantitatively different from normal.

1. Why, in your opinion, has our society adopted the view that abnormal and normal are qualitatively different? What function does our current conceptualization serve?
2. What might happen if our society shifted toward a more quantitative understanding of the difference between normal and abnormal?