Deviation from Social Norms

The first of our definitions of abnormality - these are not theories or explanations of abnormality (they don't seek to answer the question 'why?') but ways of deciding who has a psychological disorder.

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

You need to:

• Make sure you have an outline of the definition, and can define 'social norms' with examples.
• Give examples of behaviours which deviate from social norms, which are genuine signs of abnormality and which are actually 'normal' behaviour (that is, examples where DSN isn't working).
• Write a half-page evaluation discussing strengths (recognition of the desirability of behaviour - its effect on others / the fact that it is based on observable behaviour) and limitations (without understanding the context it can be hard to say whether such behaviour is related to abnormality / social norms vary between cultures and over time but abnormality shouldn't).