Cards (4)

  • Strength - Not a sole explanation (P+E):
    P: has real-life applications in APD diagnosis
    E: APD individual is aggressive, impulsive + irresponsible -> have an 'absence of prosocial internal standards' -> making social judgement that psychopath is abnormal as they don't conform to lawful/culturally normative ethical behaviour
  • Strength - Not a sole explanation (A):
    A: THEREFORE, a place for deviation from social norms in thinking about what is normal + abnormal
    • However, there are other factors to consider e.g. distress to other people resulting from APD (failure to function adequately definition)
    • So, in practice, deviation from social norms is never sole reason for defining abnormality
  • Limitation - Cultural Relativism (P+E+A):
    P: social norms vary from one generation to another + one community to another
    E: person from one cultural group may label someone fro from another culture as behaving abnormally according to their standards of the person behaving that way -> e.g. hearing voices is socially acceptable in some cultures but would be seen as a sign of a mental abnormality in UK
    A: creates problems for people from one culture living within another culture group
  • Limitation - Can lead to human rights abuses (P+E+A):
    P: too much reliance on deviation from social norms to understand abnormality can also lead to systematic abuse of human rights
    E: historical examples of deviation from social norms (drapetomania - black slaves - running away + nymphomania - women - sexual attraction to working-class men) show that they were put into place to control minority ethnic groups + women
    A: these appear ridiculous nowadays but this is only because our social norms have changed