WELCOME FUTURE RSWS!

Social Deviance and Psychological Disorders:

Theory & Practice

Enola Gay M. Misajon-Pedernal, RPsy, MS, PhD Cand.

Clinical Psychologist, Case Manager, & Assistant Professor
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL
DEVIANCY
 REVIEW OUTLINE
Part I
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL DEVIANCY
1. Defining Deviance & Deviant Behavior
2. Types of Deviance
- Approaches & Paradigms
3. Theoretical Foundations on Social
Deviance
- Compare and Contrast different
perspectives.
Part II
OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS
1. Obsessive-Compulsive & Related
Disorders
2. Anxiety Disorders
3. Unipolar & Bipolar Mood Disorders
4. Conduct Disorder
5. Psychotic Disorders
6. Case Management
 DEVIANCE
▪ a violation of established contextual, cultural, or social norms, whether folkways,
mores, or codified law (1906).
▪ a social creation in which “social groups create deviance by making the rules
whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular
people and labeling them as outsiders.” (Howard Becker, 1963)
▪ any behavior that differs significantly from what is considered appropriate or typical
for a social group. (American Psychological Association)
▪ 4Ds Abnormality – Dysfunction, Danger, Distress, and DEVIANCE.
▪ DEVIANCE can be explained in sociological and psychological perspectives.
 DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
▪ any behavior contrary to the dominant norms of society (Humphrey, 2019).
▪ Deviant behavior refers to activities that are disapproved of by society. Deviant
behavior describes an action or behavior that violates social norms, and social
rules. Deviant behavior is a behavioral disposition that is not in conformity with
an institutionalized set-up or code of conduct.
▪ A certain act or behavior may be viewed as deviant behavior and receive sanctions
or punishments within one society and be seen as a normal behavior in another
society.
▪ Deviant behavior is difficult to study because most people are reluctant to be
honest about their “deviant” activities because of the social sanctions associated
with them. Interpersonal reactions to deviance may have a significant effect of
increasing the likelihood of subsequent deviant behavior.
 Folkways, Mores, & Codified Laws

1. FOLKWAYS – norms based on everyday cultural customs concerning practical

matters like how to hold a fork, what type of clothes are appropriate for
different situations, or how to greet someone politely.
2. MORES – more serious moral injunctions or taboos that are broadly
recognized in a society, like the incest taboo.
3. CODIFIED LAWS – norms that are specified in explicit codes and enforced
by government bodies.
4. NORMS – social standards concerning what members of a group
expect and believe is acceptable conduct in a given situation. Yje
usual, customary, and accepted standard.
 FORMAL & INFORMAL DEVIANCE
▪ FORMAL DEVIANCE, in a sociological context, describes actions or
behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules,
and INFORMAL DEVIANCE are violations of social norms, social
folkways and social mores.
▪ Formal deviant behavior can be described as a crime, which violates
laws in a society.
▪ Informal deviant behaviors are minor violations that break unwritten rules
of social life. Norms that have great moral significance are mores. Under
informal deviance, a more opposes societal taboos, and taboo is a strong
social form of deviant behavior.
 NORMATIVE & SITUATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE
❖ The NORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE sees deviance as human behavior that violates
existing and generally accepted social norms. A behavior is typically a VIOLATION
of widely shared and generally agreed-upon behavioral standards. To MOST
people, it seems somehow inherently “wrong” and even disgusting (Humphrey,
2019).
Case in point: A man running naked in a crowded street.

❖ The SITUATIONAL PERSPECTIVE shifts the focus away from the individual and
to the social situation surrounding the behavior in question. A behavior is
relativistic which understands deviance primarily in terms of WHEN and WHERE it
occurs.
Case in point: The naked man is running during UP Oblation.
 SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
✓Social interaction is defined by Gettyes and Dawson as a process by which human
interpenetrate the minds of each other.
✓According to Corkiness, social interaction is defined as a process that influences
the overt state or behavior of individuals minds.
✓Social interaction is usually described as an event that changes the attitude and
the behavior of the interacting persons.
✓It is a social relationship between at least two people, which affects and changes
the societal conditions of people's lives. This social interaction is the soul
of relationship and social life, which produces groups that are the foundation of
societies.
✓DEVIANT BEHAVIORS AFFECT SOCIAL INTERACTIONS.
 TYPES OF DEVIANCE
1. ADMIRED BEHAVIOR – sometimes good behavior (not within the
social norm) can also be considered deviant.
Ex. Putting yourself in danger to save someone.
2. BAD BEHAVIOR – law-breaking and other criminal behavior would fit
into this category.
Ex. Theft
3. ODD BEHAVIOR – this behavior, while not illegal, is not normally
accepted or practiced.
Ex. Pet owners choosing to dye their dog’s hair.
OBJECTIVIST & SUBJECTIVIST
APPROACHES
In terms of aspects of Social Interaction
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
➢ Deviance lies in the characteristics/qualities of an act or a person. There is something
about a person or their behavior that makes them deviant.
For people who believe this, it is often treated as common sense:
Ex.: Homicide is believed to be deviant simply because its always treated as such;
its just common sense that homicide is a deviant thing to do.
Domestic violence, mental illness, drug use, racism, etc.
➢ Which characteristics or qualities make something inherently deviant?
a. Harm (its deviant because it inflicted harm on someone or something)
b. Rarity (its deviant because it rarely happens)
c. Reaction (its deviant because of how society reacts to it)
d. Norms (its deviant because it violated social norms)
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
A. HARM
• By objectivist theory, harm is a quality or characteristic that makes an act deviant
(psychological harm, environmental harm, physical harm, etc.)

• There are many critiques of this theory:

Degrees of harm – how much harm is required for an act to be considered deviant?
There are many things in our lives that are harmful that are not considered to be
deviant – being a soldier in combat is often very harmful, but instead of being
considered deviant, its celebrated.
There are also many things that are considered deviant that are not harmful – bad table
manners, picking your nose in public, etc.
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
B. RARITY
• Objectivists also say that social behavior that is rare is deviant

• There are many critiques of this too:

The threshold problem – how rare does it have to be?
There are lots of rare things that aren’t deviant – winning the lottery, acts of
heroism.
There are tons of things that are common but deviant – tax fraud is becoming
increasingly common, as is domestic violence.
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
C. REACTION
• Objectivists will argue that something is deviant because it generates a negative social
reaction.

• That which society condemns or rejects:

One of the main critiques – what does ‘society’ mean? Everyone?

How many people have to have a negative reaction for it to be considered deviant? If
reaction is an indicator of deviance, we have to figure out what the tipping point is.
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
D. NORM VIOLATION
• Objectivists believe something is deviant when it violates a social norm – if anyone deliberately
steps outside of those norms, it is inherently deviant.

• In other words, deviance is a characteristic/quality that violates behavioral

standards/expectations.

• There is one key critique of this too:

The issue of normative “consensus” – it assumes that we all subscribe to the same set of norms
Norms and values between places or between people can be very different.
 OBJECTIVIST THEORIES
CRITICISMS
1. Some objectivist theories include Merton’s anomie, differential association, strain, etc.

2. The problem is that there are ongoing inconsistencies embedded into each of these
theories’ logic.

3. The appealing thing about these theories is that they seem like common sense; they take a
pragmatic view on the world.

4. But what if its possible that deviance has nothing to do with a characteristic/quality of a
person/act? What if its just a matter of interpretation or perception?
 SUBJECTIVIST THEORIES
➢ Subjectivists believe that deviance is a subjective perception of human beings, rather
than an objective characteristic/quality.

➢ Nothing is inherently deviant; it is all about the labels that are applied to it.
Ex. Homicide is not inherently deviant; we know this because killing is accepted and
celebrated in many contexts (war, euthanasia, etc.)
➢ We bring different kinds of understanding to the same act, depending on the context.
➢ Deviance is a perception/interpretation applied to the phenomenon – but how do
phenomena come to be interpreted as deviant?
➢ What social processes are involved?
 SUBJECTIVIST THEORIES
❖There are many dimensions of deviance:

A. Sociocultural (e.g., what happened in pop culture to make smoking weed less deviant
than it used to be?)

B. Institutional (e.g., did our cops or the courts do anything to make smoking weed less
deviant than it used to be?)

C. Interactional

D. Individual (e.g., why do we personally see smoking weed as less deviant than it used to
be?)
 SUBJECTIVIST THEORIES
❖How would a subjective approach examine/explain drinking and driving?
Years ago, drinking and driving was not seen as deviant – everybody did it. Over time,
drinking and driving has become more and more of a problem – if you do it, you are
shamed, charged, punished, etc.

On the institutional level, one of the reasons for this is MADD, which has changed many
peoples’ perceptions of drinking and driving

❖ How would a subjective approach examine/explain tattooing?

Years ago, tattoos were seen as deviant. Nowadays, nobody really cares if people
have tattoos. This is simply because perceptions have changed over time.
 SUBJECTIVIST THEORIES
CRITICISMS
1. Examples of subjective theories include labelling theory, conflict theory, etc.

2. The most profound critique of subjectivist theories is this – is nothing truly deviant?

3. This is a difficult concept to understand for many people.

4. When we deem things like child abuse to be deviant, that is just a matter of
perception/opinion (that almost all people agree with).
 Blending Objective & Subjective
Approaches

❑ Deviance is something that violates social norms (an objectivist assertion)

but those norms are socially constructed (a subjectivist assertion).
❑When you combine these two theories, you get an approach that fulfills
both areas in a “hybrid” approach.
THEORIES ON DEVIANCE
Concept of Deviant Behavior
STRAIN THEORY
 1. STRAIN THEORY
o Norm violations conceptualized as reflecting disruptions of the social order,
specifically breakdowns in social consensus and integration (Liska, 1987).
o assume that members of society would prefer to conform; individuals pushed
toward norm-violating behavior only because of undue strain stemming from their
circumstances in society (Ward et. al., 1994)
o Robert K. Merton’s Structural Strain Theory is an extension of the strain
theory. This theory traces the origins of deviance to the tensions that are
caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means people have available
to achieve those goals.
 1. STRAIN THEORY
o According to Structural Strain Theory, societies are characterized by both cultural
and societal structure.
- CULTURE establishes goals for people in society while SOCIAL structure
provides (or fails to provide) the means for people to achieve those goals.
- In a well-integrated society, people use accepted and appropriate means to
achieve the goals that society establishes. In this case, the goals and the
means of the society are in balance.
- It is when the goals and means are not in balance with each other that
deviance is likely to occur. This imbalance between cultural goals and
structurally available means can actually lead an individual into deviant
behavior.
 Five (5) Adaptations to Strain
1. Conformity – pursing cultural goals through socially approved means.
2. Innovation – using socially unapproved or unconventional means to obtain
culturally approved
3. Goals – ex. dealing drugs or stealing to achieve financial security.
4. Ritualism – using the same socially approved means to achieve less elusive
goals (more modest and humbler).
5. Retreatism – to reject both the cultural goals and the means to obtain it, then
find a way to escape it.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
THEORY
 2. DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
THEORY
❖ A learning theory of deviance that was initially proposed by sociologist Edwin
Sutherland in 1939 and revised in 1947.
❖ Also known as CULTURAL TRANSMISSIONS – deviance is created through the
socialization or transmission of norms within a community or group.
❖ The differential association explanation of offending suggests that through
interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and
motivation for criminal behavior.
❖ The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate
personal groups.
 Nine (9) Propositions to Deviance
1. Criminal behavior is learned. This means that criminal behavior is not inherited,
as such; also the person who is not already trained in crime does not invent
criminal behavior.
2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of
communication. This communication is verbal in many cases but includes
gestures.
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate
personal groups.
4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of
committing the crime, which are sometimes very simple; (b) the specific
direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
 Nine (9) Propositions to Deviance
5. The specific direction of the motives and drives is learned from definitions of the
legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to
violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law. This is the
principle of differential association. When people become criminal, they do so
not only because of contacts with criminal patterns but also because of isolation
from anticriminal patterns.
7. Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-
criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other
learning.
 Nine (9) Propositions to Deviance
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not
explained by those general needs and values since non-criminal behavior is an
expression of the same needs and values. Thieves generally steal in order to
secure money, but likewise honest laborers work in order to money. The
attempts to explain criminal behavior by general drives and values such as the
money motive have been, and must completely to be, futile, since they explain
lawful behavior as completely as they explain criminal behavior.
SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY
 3. SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY
❖ Deviance is behavior that violates social norms and arouses negative social
reactions.
❖ Some behavior is considered so harmful that governments enact written laws
that ban the behavior.
❖ Crime is behavior that violates these laws and is certainly an important type of
deviance that concerns many people.
❖ Social control refers to ways in which a society tries to prevent and sanction
behavior that violates norms.
❖ Social control theory suggests that the strength and durability of an individual’s
bonds or commitments to conventional society inhibit social deviance (Hirschi
1969; Simpson 1976).
 3. SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY
❖ In one of the foundational applications of social control theory to the field of
crime and delinquency, Hirschi (1969) argued that the most important question is
not “why do they do it?” (i.e., why do criminals commit crime), but rather “why do
the rest of us not do it?” Social control theory offers an explanation—SOCIAL
BONDS.

❖ When an individual’s bonds to society are strong, they prevent or limit crime and
other deviant behavior. When bonds are weak, they increase the probability of
deviance. Weak or broken bonds do not “cause” delinquency, but rather allow it to
happen (Whitehead and Lab 2009: 89).
 Four (4) Elements of Social Bonds
1. Attachments—expressed concern about what others think, or “sensitivity to the
opinion of others“ that would lead individuals to avoid crime and negative
behavior in order to avoid disappointing a respected individual or group (
teachers or parents);
2. Commitments— “investment of time, energy and oneself” in a particular form
of conventional activity and awareness that deviant behavior would place such
investment at risk;
3. Involvements—sufficient time and energy spent on conventional activities such
that less time remains for delinquent behavior; and
4. Beliefs—the extent to which an individual “has been socialized into and accepts
the common belief system.
DETERRENCE THEORY
 4. DETERRENCE THEORY
❖ Deterrence theory says that people don't commit crimes because they are afraid
of getting caught - instead of being motivated by some deep moral sense.

❖ According to deterrence theory, people are most likely to be dissuaded from

committing a crime if the punishment is swift, certain and severe. For example, in
the candy bar theft, if there is a low likelihood that you'll get caught or if the
punishment for getting caught is just a warning, deterrence theory says you'll be
more likely to steal it.
 4. DETERRENCE THEORY
❖ Deterrence theory has received some criticism because it makes three
assumptions. It assumes that people:
1. Know what the penalties for a crime are.
2. Have good control over their actions.
3. Think things through and make choices about their behavior based on logic, not
passion.
LABELLING THEORY
 5. LABELLING THEORY
❖ The theory attempts to account for the processes by which audience reactions, in
the form of sanctions and stigmatizing labels, serve to increase the very behaviors
complained of.
❖ Theory holds that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as
deviant. As such, conforming members of society, who interpret certain behaviors
as deviant and then attach this label to individuals, determine the distinction
between deviance and non-deviance.
❖ Labeling theory questions who apply what label to whom, why they do this, and
what happens as a result of this labeling.
 5. LABELLING THEORY
❖ Howard Becker’s (1963) idea is that deviance is a consequence of external
judgments, or labels, that modify the individual’s self-concept and change the way
others respond to the labeled person.
❖ The central feature of labeling theory is the self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the
labeled correspond to the label in terms of delinquent behavior.
❖ It has been criticized for ignoring the capacity of the individual to resist the
labeling and assuming that it is an automatic process.
❖ Labeling theory recognizes that labels will vary depending on the culture, time
period, and situation.
ETHNO-METHODOLOGY
THEORY
 6. ETHNO-METHODOLOGY
THEORY
❖Ethnomethodology was developed by Garfinkel as a challenge to orthodox
sociology. Ethnomethodology's interest is in how ordinary people make sense of
their social world.
❖ Ethnomethodology is an approach which stresses the ambiguity of language and
action. Rather than assume that we understand what means when they say or do
something, 'ethnos' argue that we have to struggle for their meaning, and that
every situation is characterized by the search for common understanding.
❖ The social world is therefore built up of arbitrary rules, made up of a dense and
often contradictory set of tacit understandings about what is going on.
 6. ETHNO-METHODOLOGY
THEORY
❖ Ethnomethodology is a approach in sociology that studies the “common-sense”
resources, procedures, and practices through which members of a society
interpret their everyday life, and how these social interactions, when mutually
recognized within particular contexts, creates orderliness (Williams, 2001).
❖ The approach argues that human societies construct their organized social
structures and constructions of meaning solely through “folk methods” (tacit
knowledge, routine practices, and ordinary language) (Lynch, 2001).
❖ The practice of Ethnomethodology stems from a tradition of phenomenology.
Phenomenology is a philosophy of experience, and seeks to describe the
structures of experiences, consciousness, the imagination, relationships between
people, and one’s place in society and history (Biberman, 2005).
CONFLICT THEORY/
NEO-MARXIST
 7. CONFLICT THEORY
❖ Norms are not shared by but imposed on members of society by the state to
protect material (property) interests of the capitalist class.
❖ Draws attention to power differentials, such as class conflict, and generally
contrast historically dominant ideologies. It is therefore a macro level analysis of
society.
❖ Karl Marx is the father of the social conflict theory, which is a component of the
four paradigms of sociology.
❖ Conflict theory looks to social and economic factors as the causes of crime and
deviance.
 7. CONFLICT THEORY
❖ MARX BELIEVED THAT THE GENERAL POPULATION WAS DIVIDED INTO
TWO GROUPS.
❖ He labeled the wealthy, who controlled the means of production and business,
the bourgeois.
❖ He labeled the workers who depended on the bourgeois for employment and
survival the proletariat.
❖ Believed that the bourgeois centralized their power and influence through
government, laws, and other authority agencies in order to maintain and expand
their positions of power in society.
 Conflict Theory Assumptions
1. Competition – Conflict theorists believe that competition exists as a result of the
scarcity of resources, including material resources–money, property,
commodities, and more.
2. Revolution – Given conflict theorists' assumption that conflict occurs between
social classes, one outcome of this conflict is a revolutionary event.
3. Structural Inequality – An important assumption of conflict theory is that
human relationships and social structures all experience inequalities of power.
4. War – Conflict theorists tend to see war as either a unifier or as a "cleanser" of
societies. In conflict theory, war is the result of a cumulative and growing conflict
between individuals and groups, and between entire societies.
 Power and Deviance
❖German sociologist Max Weber said that power is the ability to exercise one’s will
over others (Weber 1922).
❖Power inequality affects the quality of deviant activities likely to be engaged in by
people. More powerful people are more likely to be involved in profitable deviant
acts. Ex: Corporate crime
❖Powerless are more likely to commit less profitable deviant deeds. Ex: Robbery
❖Power-or the lack of it- determines to a large extent the type of deviance people
is likely to carry out.
SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
 8. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
❖ Developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and
1930s, social disorganization theory asserts that crime is most likely to occur in
communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control.
❖Social disorganization theory points to broad social factors as the cause of
deviance. A person isn’t born a criminal but becomes one over time, often based
on factors in his or her social environment.
❖Research into social disorganization theory can greatly influence public policy.
For instance, studies have found that children from disadvantaged communities
who attend preschool programs that teach basic social skills are significantly less
likely to engage in criminal activity.
 8. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
❖ Social Disorganization Theory believes that deviant behavior as caused by the
breakdown of norms, laws, mores, and other important values of the society.
❖ Modification or rehabilitation in the parts of the system which suffers from
disorganization.
❖ What are the systems of the society that slowly becomes weak?
GENDER & FEMINIST
PERSPECTIVE
 9. GENDER & FEMINIST THEORY
❖SEX VS. GENDER
SEX – Refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females,
including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and secondary
characteristics such as height and muscularity.
GENDER –behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to
being female or male.
 9. FEMINIST THEORY
❖A type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues.
❖This uses the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and
inequalities.
❖Radical feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in perpetuating
male dominance.
❖In patriarchal societies, men’s contributions are seen as more valuable than those
of women. As a result, women’s viewpoints tend to be silenced or marginalized to
the point of being discredited or considered invalid.
❖Most of women’s experiences in society filtered through the lens of gender; from
early youth, their role in society affected by structure of male domination.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY
 10. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY
✓Childhood trauma
✓ Inner tensions and inability to control one’s impulses.
✓Failure to structure one’s behavior in an ordinary way.

❖Starting from these basic assumptions, psychological explanations of deviant

behavior come mainly from three theories: Psychoanalytic theory, Cognitive
Development theory, and Learning theory.