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NSWSociety and CultureQuick questions

Depth Study: Social Conformity and Nonconformity

Quick questions on Deviance in the HSC Society and Culture Social Conformity and Nonconformity option

1short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.

What is defining deviance?
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Deviance is behaviour that breaches the significant norms of a group or society and attracts disapproval or sanction. The crucial point is that deviance is not a fixed quality of an act but a social judgement about it. The same behaviour can be deviant in one society or era and accepted in another. Deviance is therefore socially constructed: it depends on the norms in force and on who is doing the judging, not just on what is done.

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