Deviation from Social Norms

• Deviation from social norms - Concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a society
• Example: Antisocial personality disorder

  • A person with antisocial personality disorder is impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible
  • According to the DSM-5, one symptom is an 'absence of prosocial internal standards associated with failure to conform to lawful and culturally normative ethical behaviour'
  • So making social judgement that psychopaths are abnormal because they don't conform to our moral standards
• DSM-5 - The manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders
• STRENGTH of Deviation from social norms: USEFULNESS

  • Used in clinical practice
  • Example: Key defining characteristic of antisocial personality disorder is the failure to conform to culturally acceptable ethical behaviour (i.e aggression, recklessness etc)
  • Link: Value in psychiatry
• WEAKNESS of Deviation from social norms: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

  • Variability between social norms in different cultures
  • Example: Experience of hearing voices (ancestors) in one culture is the norm, but would be seen as a sign of abnormality in UK
  • Link: Difficult to judge deviation from social norms across different cultures