Deviation from Social Norms (AQA A Level Psychology)

Deviation from social norms

• Deviation from social norms is one of the four definitions of abnormality

• Social norms are a set of unwritten rules which people use in order to abide by what is deemed 'normal' behaviour, e.g.:

  • Queuing for a bus rather than pushing to the front

  • Speaking at a volume deemed acceptable for the environment i.e. shouting is acceptable at a football match but not in a café

  • Wearing a bikini on a beach as opposed to wearing a bikini for a work meeting

• If a behaviour goes against social norms it may be viewed as abnormal

• Some behaviours are deemed to be desirable (e.g. queuing, speaking quietly); some behaviours are deemed to be undesirable (e.g. pushing, shouting)

• Someone who performs undesirable behaviours may be labelled as socially deviant

• Social norms are dependent upon time and culture:

  • Homosexuality was deemed abnormal (and criminal) in the UK until fairly recently

  • Women who were outspoken and assertive were tried as witches in England in the 17th century

  • Unmarried mothers were incarcerated in mental hospitals in Ireland until well into the late 20th century

Some cultures still view some behaviours deemed normal in the UK as abnormal:

• Homosexuality: in some cultures this is a taboo and may even result in the death penalty

• Some cultures do not allow women equal rights and may lock women away (or worse) if they protest against this inequality

Evaluation of deviation from social norms

Strengths

• Using deviation from social norms is a useful tool for assessing behaviour, e.g.:

  • someone who constantly behaves in an anti-social manner could be termed socially deviant:

    • their socially deviant behaviour may in fact be symptoms of schizophrenia thus a proper course of treatment can be prescribed for them

• Social norms are in place to ensure that societies are harmonious and run smoothly:

  • Identifying socially deviant behaviour is one way of protecting members of a society from distressing or harmful acts committed by others

Limitations

• Some behaviours which appear 'socially deviant' may simply be an example of eccentricity which means that this definition of abnormality does not account for individual differences

• Deviation from social norms is not generalisable across cultures; the same behaviour may be viewed as normal in one culture and abnormal in another culture e.g.:

  • Hsieh-ping (ghost sickness) is a Chinese/Taiwanese culture-bound syndrome in which the sufferer believes that they are possessed by an ancestral ghost

    • People experiencing hsieh-ping may go into a brief trance-like state, become delirious, experience tremors, hallucinations, crying and laughing

    • In Chinese culture hsieh-ping has positive connotations, but the syndrome would be viewed as deviating from social norms in Western cultures and likely result in a diagnosis of mental illness