Psychology 16 Mark plans

• A01:

  • Social norms are implicit rules about how we ought to behave in society and are set by social groups as a collective judgement on what is acceptable. For example, wearing clothes, attending school, drinking tea, eating with a knife and fork.
  • Abnormality is defined as any behaviour that violates these unwritten rules
  • The behaviour can be desirable or undesirable (acceptable or unacceptable)
  • In a psychological context: 
  • Depression - not getting out of bed/ going to school
  • OCD - excessive hand washing/ repeating tasks several times
  • Phobias -not leaving the house/ extreme reactions in public
• P: Deviation from social norms is a culturally biassed definition

  E:This is because norms change significantly between cultures, meaning the definition cannot be applied globally

  E: For example, in some cultures it is seen as desirable to hear voices (South East Asia and Africa) as it is seen as a sign that God is talking to them.

  L: This means that the definition is limited in its application as it cannot be used to provide a nomothetic explanation of abnormality, for all cultures, but also within all contexts.
• P: Deviation from social norms is bound by context.

  E: This is because behaviours that would be considered abnormal in some circumstances and contexts would be considered normal in others.

  E: For example, in many cultures, wearing clothes in public is considered the norm, however, in contexts such as when in the shower, the same concept would be considered abnormal.

  L: This again limits the definition's applicability, as it cannot be generalised to every context and therefore can not be described as nomothetic or a holistic theory?