deviation from social norms

• Social norms vary as times change.
• Classification systems need to be continually updated to reflect changing norms and values of a society.

  If the criteria is outdated, it can lead to prejudice and invalid assessment of an individual's mental wellbeing.
• Social norms are defined by culture. This means that a person from one cultural group may label someone from another culture as behaving abnormally according to their standards rather than the standards of the person behaving in that way.

  And so, this definition is subjected to cultural relativism as there is a danger of misdiagnosis if a clinician doesn't understand a patient's cultural practices and assumes they are suffering from a mental illness.
• However, the concept of cultural relativism has been included in the latest edition of the DSM which makes reference to cultural contexts in many areas of diagnosis. This suggests that it is possible to address this issue by including cultural differences in diagnostic systems.
• This definition distinguishes clearly between desirable and undesirable behaviours unlike other definitions such as statistical infrequency.

  This is a strength as this means that numerically rare can be socially acceptable and so not abnormal.

  Not all statistically rare behaviours are signs of mental illnesses so we need a more subjective definition such as this to make an overall judgement of what judgement is required.
• Too much reliance on this definition can lead to violations of human rights. Historical examples of deviation from social norms, such as drapetomania and nymphomania are clearly diagnoses that were used to maintain control over minority ethnic groups and women.

  Therefore, a danger with this definition is that if a mental health professionals rely to heavily on what they consider to be 'normal' it can lead to unjust stigmatisation of particular groups.
• Definitions of what counts of deviating from social norms are often decided by members of powerful groups, leaving more marginalised groups to be more vulnerable to human rights abuses.