Summary
Summary - Social influence
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- Social influence
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- AQA
summary of resistance to social influence
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Definitions of abnormalityStatistical frequency: Occurs when an individual has a less common characteristic, for
example being more depressed or less intelligent than most of the population.
Deviation from social norms: Concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted
standards of behaviour in a community or society.
Statistical infrequency: Statistics are about numbers. According to the statistical definition
any relatively usual behaviour or characteristic can be thought as normal and any behaviour
that is unusual is abnormal. This is what is meant by statistical infrequency. For example, we
can say that at any one time only a small number of people will have an irrational fear of
buttons or believe for no food reason that their neighbours are zombies.
Example: IQ and intellectual disability order
This statistical approach comes into its own when we are dealing with characteristics that
can be reliably measured e.g., intelligence. In human characteristics the majority of people’s
scores will cluster around the average, and that the further we go above or below that
average, the fewer people will attain that score – normal distributionThe average IQ is set at
1000. In a normal distribution, most people (68%) have a score in the range from 85-115.
Only 2% of people have a score below 70. Those individuals scoring below 7p are very
unusual or ‘abnormal’ and are liable to receive a diagnosis of a psychological disorder –
intellectual disability disorder (IDD).
Deviation from social norms
Most of us notice people whose behaviour represents a deviation from social norms, i.e.,
when a person behaves in a way that is different from how we expect people to behave.
Groups of people (hence social) choose to define behaviour as abnormal on the basis that it
offends their sense of what is 'acceptable or the norm. We are making a collective
judgement as a society about what is right.
Norms are specific to the culture we live in
Social norms may be different for each generation and different in every culture, so there
are relatively few behaviours that would be considered universally abnormal on the basis
that they breach social norms. For example, homosexuality was considered abnormal in our
culture in the past and continues to be viewed as abnormal (and illegal) in some cultures
(e.g., in April 2019, Brunei introduced new laws that make sex between men an offence
punishable by stoning to death).
Example: antisocial personality disorder
A person with antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) is impulsive, aggressive, and
irresponsible. According to the DSM-5 (the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental
disorder) one important symptom of antisocial personality disorder is an 'absence of
prosocial internal standards associated with failure to conform to lawful and culturally
normative ethical behaviour.
In other words, we are making the social judgement that psychopaths are abnormal
because they don't conform to our moral standards. Psychopathic behaviour would be
considered abnormal in a very wide range of cultures.
, Evaluation
Real-world application
One strength of statistical infrequency is its usefulness. Statistical infrequency is used in
clinical practice, both as part of formal diagnosis and to assess the severity of an individual's
symptoms. For example, a diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder requires an 1Q of
below 70 (bottom 2%. An example of statistical infrequency used in an assessment tool is
the Beck depression inventory (BDI). A score of 30+ (top 5% of respondents) is widely
interpreted as indicating severe depression. This shows that the value of the statistical
infrequency criterion is useful in diagnostic and assessment processes.
Unusual characteristics can be positive
One limitation of statistical infrequency is that infrequent characteristics can be positive as
well as negative. For every person with an IQ below 70 there is another with an IQ above
130. Yet we would not think of someone as abnormal for having a high IQ. Similarly, we
would not think of someone with a very low depression score on the BDI as abnormal. These
examples show that being unusual or at one end of a psychological spectrum does not
necessarily make someone abnormal. This means that, although statistical infrequency can
form part of assessment and diagnostic procedures, it is never sufficient as the sole basis for
defining abnormality.
Evaluation
Real-world application
One strength of deviation from social norms is its usefulness. Deviation from social norms is
used in clinical practice. For example, the key defining characteristic of antisocial personality
disorder is the failure to conform to culturally acceptable ethical behaviour i.e.,
recklessness, aggression, violating the rights of others and deceitfulness. These signs of the
disorder are all deviations from social norms. Such norms also play a part in the diagnosis of
schizotypal personality disorder, where the term 'strange is used to characterise the
thinking, behaviour, and appearance of people with the disorder. This shows that the
deviation from social norms criterion has value in psychiatry.
Cultural and situational relativism
One limitation of deviation from social norms is the variability between social norms in
different cultures and even different situations. A person from one cultural group may label
someone from another group as abnormal using their standards rather than the person's
standards. For example, the experience of hearing voices is the norm in some cultures (as
messages from ancestors) but would be seen as a sign of abnormality in most parts of the
UK. Also, even within one cultural context social norms differ from one situation to another.
Aggressive and deceitful behaviour in the context of family life is more socially unacceptable
than in the context of corporate deal-making. This means that it is difficult to judge
deviation from social norms across different situations and cultures.
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