Deviation from Social Norms

Question 1

What is Deviation from Social Norms?

Answer 1

Somebody can be defined as deviating from social norms when they are mentally ill and brake the rules and norms of a society.

Question 2

Give an example of somebody who deviated from social norms?

Answer 2

Stephen Gough ‘ The naked rambler’ walked down the high street across the country nude, without bother.

Question 3

Define norms and what affects them?

Answer 3

something that is usual, typical, or standard

These are specific to the culture you live in and can be affected by time and socioeconomic background.

Question 4

Give an example of something that wasn’t a norm but now partially is.

Answer 4

Homosexuality was classed as abnormal + illegal in the UK and is now normalised, despite being a crime in other countries.

Question 5

What are the three strengths of DFSN?

Answer 5

• Easy definition to use, as we can compare someone’s behaviour to the social norms.
• It can be used in clinical practice, and can form part of the diagnosis for BPD
• It includes a social aspect of mental health, which is important as social aspects of illness are often ignored.

Question 6

What are the four limitations for DFSN?

Answer 6

very dependent on context,
unclear line between clinical and acting in an ‘odd’ way.
Subjective, E.g some believe Stephen Gough was acting wrongly, other’s don’t.
-A lot of norms based on a specific culture, they can be ethnocentric.
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Question 7

Define Ethnocentrism.

Answer 7

this occurs when a person uses their own cultural beliefs to understand a person from another culture, often in a negative way that leads to damaging bias.