deviation from social norms

• Definition of deviating from social norms


  Deviating from/not following the unwritten rules of society + accepted behaviours
• example - Antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy)


  • peope with this Aggressive, impulsive, absence of social standards, don't conform to moral standards, so are abnormal
• a strength is real world application


  Used in clinical practice to diagnose some mental disorders such as antisocial personality disorder, characteristics behaviours of this disorder deviate from social norms, so the definition has practical value
• a limitation is that social norms change over time


  for example, social norms aren't fixed, so things that are considered abnormal now will change, so the classification of mental disorders needs to be constantly updated

  Challenges the reliability of the definition
• a weakness is social norms vary between culture + situation


  fro example, social norms vary between cultures, e.g. in some cultures hearing voices is considered good but in many cultures it is a sign of abnormality + normal behaviour may vary between contexts/situations, so people can be wrongly defined as abnormal

  and it is hard to judge across cultures