If you don't act like everyone else, society will hate you. This opinion is quite popular, and not without reason. Unusual behavior confuses people, their mood deteriorates, they get upset, and the whole day goes nowhere. Believe me, no one wants to spit on you once again, people already have a lot to do. To prevent such misfortunes from happening, there are special disciplines that teach correct behavior in society. One of these is deviantology. Its goal is to investigate your "bad" behavior, find the reasons and get a "good boy" as a result.
Deviant behavior
Any deviation from social norms of morality and ethics is called deviant behavior. This is expressed both in the individual and in the whole social group. For example, theft, in addition to criminal prosecution, is defined as deviant behavior. There are more "innocent" manifestationsdeviations: aggressive behavior, refusal to follow the rules, vagrancy, etc. In general, everything that the majority does not do.
Types of deviant behavior
Among deviant behavior, several classifications are considered. They help to understand the direction and narrow the search field for the causes of deviant behavior. Most often these are the 4 following points:
- Innovation.
- Ritualism.
- Retreatism.
- Rebellion.
Innovation is agreement with the public majority in the goals, but the exact opposite in the means. For example, fraud. The goal is to make money. Approved. Means - to deceive grandmothers and the like for money. Rejected.
Ritualism is a complete misunderstanding or denial of the goals of society, means of achievement, exaggerated to the point of absurdity. For example, bureaucracy. Means - under a microscope, check every tick and curl. Strenuously approved. Purpose - yes, there is no purpose, just like that. Rejected.
Retreatism is a complete denial of both the goals of society and the means to achieve them. For example, an alcoholic. The goal is to get drunk and escape from the real world (retreatism from English retreat - retreat). Rejected. Means - to drink as much alcohol as possible in the shortest possible time. Rejected.
Rebellion is a complete denial of the goals and means of society, while the desire to replace them with new, more advanced ones. The goal is a distant bright future. Approved. Means - to cut down the "obsolete" foundations and norms. Rejected.
The concept of deviantology
Deviantology is the psychology of deviant behavior. Its purpose is to study deviations in human behavior with subsequent correction, correction. The subject is behavior itself. Specifically, the rejected behavior. The process itself and possible correction options are considered. Moreover, the focus is on both deviations of one person and a group of people as a whole.
Criteria for determining deviant behavior
Since deviantology is the consideration of deviations in the behavior of a person, there are several criteria for determining deviant behavior: qualitative-quantitative assessment, psychopathic, social-normative criteria.
Qualitative-quantitative criterion illustrates the saying: "everything is good in moderation". This means that many deviant acts may not be considered as such if done in moderation. For example, the consumption of alcohol in reasonable quantities is not condemned. If you start to abuse alcohol, society will stigmatize this as a deviation in behavior.
Psychopathic evaluation is conducted from a medical point of view. These are all kinds of mental illnesses that cause a person to act abnormally.
Socio-normative assessment is related to the current state of the whole society. It is no secret that at different times different things were condemned and approved. What is acceptable from the point of view of modern society is right.
Main correction methodsbehavior
There are several methods of correcting deviant behavior, their use depends on the cause of the deviation. Let's highlight a few of the most important:
- Stimulate a person's readiness for positive change.
- Reduce the impact of fear and anxiety on the personality.
- Forcing a person to face their fears.
Methods for correcting deviant behavior differ, but in general they act in the same way: try on a person for normal behavior, show him what is good and what is bad. A man, he's a fool, does abnormal things just because he doesn't know how to do it. It would be easy for him to explain that, they say, only bad people steal - so he will instantly come to his senses.
A place in science
Deviantology is an offshoot of sociology with a touch of psychology. Despite its application, it is still too theoretical, but is still considered a full-fledged scientific discipline.
Two sides of the same coin
Deviantology is actually that kind of hypocrite. For her, there is no good or bad, only success or failure. In theory there is black and white, but in practice there are only shades.
To be specific, deviantology considers behavior unacceptable only if the outcome is unsuccessful. For example, a person does not study well at school, does not go anywhere and does not go to work. Deviantology will say: this is deviant, abnormal behavior. He must have complexes; does not help society, and in general, it is ugly. But it costs himacquire values that are considered the highest in society - money, for example, so now this person will turn from a marginal into an example to follow.
There are many such cases. But deviantology, being, as it should be for a decent lady, a cunning fox, immediately retorts, calling such cases "a positive deviation from social norms." How to distinguish "positive" from "negative" if you do not know the result? Deviantology coquettishly keeps silent on this issue.
"Seeker" ends up with a full bag of concepts and naked enthusiasm. Putting the theory into practice is a laborious process. This happens not only because of the ambiguity of the human psyche, but also because of the ambiguity of the discipline itself.
Problems of deviantology
Deviantology, being at the intersection of sociology and psychology, boldly adopts the disadvantages of the latter. In particular, the actions themselves are often amenable to research, while the processes that accompany them are considered secondary, albeit mandatory. But it's not bad.
Not as bad as the fact that everything is considered without regard to the "habitat" of a particular person. Psychologists talk to the "rejected" in a completely different language. They say: "No, you think wrong. How to think, I'll tell you now …". They try to solve the problem of man, being in their "environment". The patient simply does not understand them. It's like,speaking in Russian, to explain to the Chinese why the eyes should not be narrow. This is one of the most serious problems in modern psychology, and deviantology often adopts it. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are more likely to confirm the existence of the rule.
The problem with the rule "no victim - no crime" deviantology also bypassed very gracefully. For example, in the book "Deviantology" Zmanovskaya E. says:
A feature of deviant behavior is that it causes real damage to the person himself or to people around him.
That is, in the absence of harm to others, you can always point out that the "suspect" is the "victim". The argument is very convenient, because a rare criminal confesses to a crime if he is not caught by the hand. It is not possible to take a person "red-handed" when inflicting mental trauma on himself. Of course, this will not be followed by criminal or administrative punishment, but the diagnosis of "deviant behavior" has been made.
To be fair, it should be noted that Zmanovskaya's "Deviantology" does not always regard the psychology of deviant behavior as negative:
In our opinion, such close social phenomena as radicalism, creativity and marginality do not satisfy this criterion and are not deviant behavior. Despite the fact that they also deviate from generally accepted norms, causing irritation of the conservative-minded part of the population, these phenomenauseful to society rather than dangerous.
However, this confuses the "uninitiated" person even more. Borders become as blurry as possible. If, for example, a bad person is beaten, this will also be rather "useful" for society, but responsibility will not be avoided. Is it possible to avoid the stigma of "deviant" in this way? Who then evaluates what will ultimately be useful and what will not? Why, then, was the term of behavioral deviations coined at all, if one part of them can be justified by the fact that it will be useful, and the other is covered by the Criminal Code? These questions remain open both in the specifics of behavior in E. Zmanovskaya's "Deviantology" and in the entire discipline as a whole.
