AO3 - deviation from social norms

• problem of context - normal and acceptable to wear minimal clothing at beach but not at work. Similarly cultural context may need to be taken into account as well
• problem of subjectivity as social norm is defined by society. for example young women who had children outside of wedlock were locked up in psychiatric institutions
• benefits society - identifies behaviour as abnormal if it is damaging to others and as a result discourages behaviour that is hindering to social order
• culturally relative - for example homosexuality used to be classed as a mental disorder in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder but now it is not
• unacceptable behaviour can vary from one culture to another e.g. hearing voices is a sign of being favoured by the gods in some cultures and others it's a sign of evil entities
• this means what is considered abnormal using definition is dependent on culture of behaviour. as a result there are no universal standards for labelling behaviour as abnormal