Reference no: EM133794957
Assignment:
Please describe similarities and differences between a functioning alcoholic, a person with a drinking problem, and an alcoholic using the following definitions of deviance, please explain why these actions are deemed deviant.
Deviance definitions:
Absolutist deviance - A perspective of deviance that argues that certain behaviors are inherently deviant regardless of context, times, and the diversity of the members of a society.
- Absolutist definitions of deviance hold that some acts are innately deviant and others are "right" regardless of context, time, and social diversity.
- Emile Durkheim's communal conscience is one of the earliest sociological links between morality and deviance from an absolutist standpoint. According to Adler & Adler, Durkheim believed that society's laws were objective realities, reflecting his absolutist outlook. According to this position, citizens agree that each unacceptable conduct, opinion, or condition differs from customary norms in some way.
Deviance - Any behavior that is labeled by some members of society, especially those in a position of authority or power, or specific subcultural groups, as an unacceptable violation of social norms and codes of morality that may elicit negative reactions from others.
- Sociologists almost always characterize deviation by saying certain actions violate social norms. This approach is based on the idea that every group, organization, and society has social norms. Deviant behavior is breaking the rules.
Normative deviance - A focus on deviant behavior from the perspective that a social norm has to be violated in order for deviance to have occurred.
- Deviance is human behavior that breaks societal standards, according to the normative perspective. Thus, most would call a man who sprints nude down a crowded street "deviant".
Positive deviance - Behaviors that violate a rule that other people find desirable that may or may not bring about positive consequences.
- Positive deviance is when a rule violation gets a positive response and may or may not have positive effects.
Reactivist deviance - A perspective of social deviance that takes into consideration the idea that deviance can be positive.
- Reactivist concept of social deviance includes positive deviant behavior
Relativist deviance - The perspective on social deviance that examines the manner in which social norms are created and the people who create them.
- The relativist view of social deviance investigates how and who creates social norms. This perspective discusses the definition of deviance that mentions "those in a position of authority or power." The relativist approach adopts a Marxist/conflict idea that power can govern good and wrong. According to the relativist perspective, deviance definitions vary by culture and subculture, making it relevant to specific circumstances, contexts, and social environments.
Social deviance - The study of human deviant behavior within a social context.
- Social deviance is offensive and inappropriate behavior in a group. Formal social deviance involves breaking laws and rules, while informal deviance involves violating unwritten standards.
Statistical deviance - Deviance is that which is unusual, rare, or uncommon.
- Deviance is odd, rare, or uncommon statistically. Vaccination has practically eradicated measles (rubeola), "a childhood infection caused by a virus," in the US, making it statistically rare.
- Social scientists like Frank Schmalleger define deviance statistically. Schmalleger defines deviation as "human activity that violates social norms or is statistically different from the average".
- Henry Vandenburgh mixes a statistical trait with a traditional deviation definition: Deviance is behavior that goes against norms, or what we expect others (and ourselves) to do.