Lesson 1 - Deviation from Social Norms

Question 1

What does ‘deviation from social norms’ mean?

Answer 1

This is any behaviour that does not follow the typical social rules and constructs. If people were to act drastically differently from these social constructs, then they could be defined as abnormal.

Question 2

How do we measure the ‘deviation from social norms’?

Answer 2

Deviation from social norms looks at the impact of an individuals’ behaviour on other people. If the breaking of social constructs means that an individual is acting in an abnormal and undesirable way, then someone could be deemed abnormal.

Question 3

Why do we class people as ‘abnormal’?

Answer 3

When someone is deviating from social norms, we can use this to attempt to identify someone who is suffering from a mental disorder.

Question 4

Evaluation of Deviation from Social Norms (Weakness) - No clear connection

Answer 4

This definition of abnormality does not clearly show a connection between abnormal behaviour and a psychological abnormality. If someone is deviating from social norms, this does not necessarily imply that they have a mental disorder, they may just be odd. This means that we cannot be sure that deviation from social norms directly means abnormality.

Question 5

Evaluation of Deviation from Social Norms (Weakness) - Context changes the situation

Answer 5

When we are looking at deviation from social norms, context must be taken into account. If someone is not wearing clothes when everyone else is (e.g. on a high street) then this would be classed as deviation from social norms.
However, if they are wearing no clothes in an acceptable context (such as a nudist beach), this behaviour would then not be acceptable.

CONTEXT IS ESSENTIAL.