A person behaves different from what society expects.
Society has standards and expectations.
Collective judgement on what we believe is acceptable.
This can vary from culture to culture.
Very few behaviours are universally abnormally.
Judge people based on a culture at a given time.
Some behaviours are normal in one culture, but not in another.
Strength:
Distinction between desirable and undesirable behaviour:
Explanation considers that behaviours which are abnormal, are undesirable in society.
Strength of this approach is that it attempts to diagnose abnormality with a view of helping others as well as helping the individuals.
Weakness:
Cultural Relativism:
Social norms differ between cultures. There is a risk with this definition of labelling other cultural behaviours as 'abnormal' because they fall outside the norms of ones culture.
We cannot use deviating from social norms to define behaviour universally.
Weakness:
Severity and context of behaviour:
Fails to consider the severity of behaviour , someone may deviate from social norms by spitting chewing gum on the pavement.
This doesn't mean they have a psychological behaviour.
Therefore, fails to distinguish between deviant and diagnosable disorders.
