deviation from social norms

• concerns behaviours that are different from the accepted standard of behaviour in society. It occurs when people make a collective judgement as a society of what is 'acceptable' and 'right', deviation from this would be seen as abnormal. eg. homosexuality in the past was regarded as abnormal and a mental disorder.
• • context of behaviour, eg. a person wearing a bikini on a beach would be considered normal but abnormal in a classroom. shouting persistently and loudly would be considered deviant but not a sign of a mental disorder
• • social norms bound by culture, DSM based on social norms of dominant Western culture yet same criteria is applied to people from different subcultures, eg. under the panic attack section is uncontrollable crying may be a primary symptom on some cultures but difficulty breathing in others. possible to address by including social norms of cultures.
• + advantage that it does distinguish between desirable and undesirable behaviours, absent from statistical infrequency model. Also takes into account the effect behaviour has on others, deviance as transgression of social rules which are established in order to help people live together. therefore this definition suggests abnormal behaviour is behaviour that damages others.