Individual Differences RE: Deviation from Social Norms

Deviation from Social Norms

Abnormality is doing things that society says should not be done or not doing things that society says should be done (i.e. violating a society’s implicit or explicit social norms)

·        Explicit norms = Society’s norm

·        Implicit norms = Society’s unwritten rules, or, residual rules

-         If society says X should be done and anybody who does X is normal and anybody who does not do X is abnormal

-         If society says X should not be done and anybody who does not do X is normal and anybody who does X is abnormal

Limitations:

-         Some behaviours which deviate from social norms are actually statistically frequent

-         Different cultures have different social norms, so what is ‘normal’ in one culture may be ‘abnormal’ in another

-         Era dependent