Violate Social Norms

Social norms has widely held standards that people consciously use to make a judgement on a behaviour. If the behaviour violates the social norm it is usually classified as abnormal. An example of a behaviour that violates social norms is schizophrenics having a conversation with an imaginary voice. (Ann.M.Kring, 2007.)The limitations with this definition is that social 'norms' vary across different cultures and ethnic groups meaning that what deviates from ones social norm does not deviate anothers. An example of this is men of the Wodaabe tribe use elaborate makeup and costumes to attract women. Another limitation of the social norm theory is that social norms changes regularly. An example of this is women would not have been allowed to work 100 years ago. Last year 62% of women in Britain were employed, this shows how social norms have changed. (Duggan,

Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) introduced the 7 features of abnormality. If people showed at least 5 of the features it is a high possibility that they could be suffering with a mental illness. An example that someone may be considered as abnormal, is if someone had a serious case of paranoia that it prevented them from leaving their home. On the other hand, the 7 features would classify the person as normal as it does not necessarily mean that their unable to complete tasks within their home. The limitations with this definition is who judges what ''functioning adequately' is. Some people often say that they feel normal when a doctor has diagnosed them with an abnormality. Who should decide that the person is abnormal. (Sam Cook, 2011.) Another limitation with the features is the pattern of how long the client had been behaving in such ways. If a client had been experiencing symptoms of depression, the medical profession would have to consider the frequency and patterns of the behaviour before giving a