Final answer:
Failure to function adequately as a definition of abnormality involves significant difficulties in performing daily activities and societal roles due to psychological distress or disorders; it includes problems with adaptive skills and dealing with stress.
Step-by-step explanation:
Failure to function adequately is seen as one of the definitions of abnormality in the field of mental health. It encompasses the inability of individuals to perform daily activities and fulfill societal roles due to psychological distress or disorders. While not all cases are indicative of a mental disorder, significant limitations in adaptive skills such as understanding and processing information, communicating, learning from experience, logical reasoning, impulse control, and understanding social cues, are hallmarks of this definition. For instance, having difficulty facing minor stress without significant crises, or showing maladjustment in physical exercise patterns can be signs of failure to function adequately. This criterion must be considered alongside ecological validity and cultural relativity, as what is deemed inadequate functioning in one cultural or social context might be viewed differently in another.