Deviation from social norms

• Most of us notice whose behaviour is a deviation from social norms. This is when someone behaves differently from how we expect. Groups of people choose to define behaviour as abnormal on the basis that it offends their sense of what is acceptable/the norm. We make collective judgements as a society about what is right 👍
• Social norms a specific to the culture we live in


  Social norms are different for every generation and every culture, there are very few behaviours that would be considered universally abnormal on the basis they breach social norms. For example, homosexuality is still viewed as abnormal is some cultures and was considered abnormal in our society in the past.
• For example someone with antisocial personality disorder (APD, or psychopathy) is impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible. A symptom of APD is an "absence of prosocial internal standards associated with a failure to confirm to lawful or culturally normative ethical behaviour". So, someone with APD is socially judged as being abnormal because they don't conform to our moral standards. Psychopathic behaviour would be considered abnormal in a very wide range of cultures
• AO3, susceptible to abuse

  What is socially acceptable now, may not have been years ago

  • 50 years ago, in Russia 🪆 anyone who disagreed with the state was classed as insane and placed in a mental institution
  • Szas (1974) claimed the concept of mental illness was made to exclude Non-conformists from society

  Defining abnormality in terms of deviation from social norms creates a danger of mental illnesses being identified based on social morals and attitudes.
• AO3 deviance is related to context and degree 


  Judgements of deviance are related to the context of behaviours

  • Wearing a bikini 👙 at the beach 🏖️ would be considered a norm, but wearing a bikini 👙 to school 🏫 would be considered abnormal and may even indicate a mental disorder
  • Shouting loudly is deviant, but often not 🚫 evidence of mental disturbance, unless it's excessive then it may.

  Social deviance on its own cannot offer 🫴 a complete definition of abnormality, as both context and degree must also be considered 🤔
• AO3 there are some strengths

  This definition does define between desirable and undesirable behaviour.

  This model also considers the affect behaviour has on others. Deviance is defined by transgression of social rules which have been established to help 🙂 people live together. According to this definition abnormal behavior means behavior that damages others.

  It's it is practical and useful to identify undesirable and damaging behavior which may alert the need to get help for the person concerned.
• AO3 Cultural relativism

  Social norms are defined by culture

  • Classifications like the DSM are based on western social norms, and may not be appropriate to apply to other cultures
  • Cultural relativism was acknowledged in the most recent DSM in 2013 (DSM-5). Which makes references to cultural contexts when diagnosing. e.g panic attacks may be seen as a primary symptom for a specific mental illness, but difficultly breathing mat be the primary symptom for the same illness in another culture

  Limits this theory as cultural differences must be considered when diagnosing mental illnesses