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26 OCTOBER
No 1235
What is normal behavior?
Except for such extremes as psychosis and physiological disorders, normality is usually culturally defined as being like others in the dominant society. It is exceedingly difficult to quantify and observe values, beliefs, thought patterns, and perceptions. Thus, normality rests overwhelmingly on behavior. Those not behaving according to the norms of white, middle-class, mainstream America often are perceived as engaging in pathological or abnormal behavior. Yet true pathological behavior is socially and psychologically destructive, not merely different from the dominant group.
Most people unconsciously place negative value judgments on that which is culturally different. What “they†do is bad, inappropriate, wrong, or abnormal, not simply different. An American might say that “the British drive on the wrong side of the road,†when, in fact, they drive on the left side of the road. Or a foreign visitor might tell co-nationals that “Americans eat bad food,†when he really means that Americans eat different food than people in his country. This tendency to perceive culturally different behavior negatively is most likely to occur when people are unaware of the concept of culture and the lens of their own culture.
It is almost impossible to describe culturally different behavior objectively because we view it through the lens of our own cultural experiences. This causes us not only to select out that which our culture has deemed significant and ignore evidence that might contradict or confuse our simple perspective, but also adds an evaluative dimension where our behavior becomes normal, and their different behavior becomes abnormal. If we cannot describe the behavior of others objectively, how can we possibly understand or empathize with that behavior?
Sometimes that which is culturally different
is not even given attention. It is ignored or denied, and other people
and the artifacts of their culture are treated as invisible or marginal.
This is some-
what like the tourist in Mexico who asks a vendor the price of a serape.
“Three hundred pesos,†the vendor replies. “No, how much is it in real
money?â€Â
Children who are culturally different are not simply viewed as different. Their culture is ignored or denied and the children feel marginal. And their behavior is often perceived as abnormal, when in fact it may be only culturally different.
GARY R. WEAVER
Weaver, G.R. (1990). The crisis of cross-cultural Child and Youth Care. Choices in Caring. Krueger, M. and Powell, N. (Eds.). Washington D.C. Child Welfare League of America, pp.73-74.
