Strengths - Deviation from Social Norms:
- Social Norms usually exist to enable everyone to live together in society. This definition allows behaviour that has disruptive or harmful effect on others to be considered undesirable, and therefore abnormal.
Limitations - Deviation from Social Norms:
- A definition which equates normality with conformity is open to criticism: some people are simply individualistic, or eccentric, but should not be labelled 'abnormal' if they are otherwise harmless and functioning well.
- Not all social norms are necessarily in the best interests of society, and perhaps should be broken if they are morally wrong. EG: Rosa Parkes refusal to accept racial segregation on transport in the USA is viewed as more heroic than abnormal. This proves that this definition is inadequate to define abnormality on its own as there are too many exceptions to it.
- Social norms are often culturally relative, varying from one culture to another. This can cause problems if a person judges someone from a different culture as abnormal by their own standards, when it is socially acceptable from the cultural standpoint of the person being judged. EG: belief in voodoo in one culture may be seen as paranoia in another. This means that the definition could create unfair and discriminatory treatment of different cultural groups, since there in no agreement upon social norms.