Abnormal Behavior, what is it? Who is to say, what is normal and what is not normal? Now, take it a step further. Who determines abnormal behavior verses normal behavior? Who differentiate between the two? Is it us, (the people, who claim to be normal), your parents, your peers, your environment, or is it society? Often times we are quick to pass judgment on individuals who are acting in a manner that is unacceptable, but unacceptable to, whom? We all have been taught the difference between right and wrong, but is that difference so great that it flirts along the lines of what is normal, and what is not normal? Is it normal for a two-year-old child to talk back to his or her parents? Is it normal for a people to speak to one another when they have made eye contact? Is it normal for men to watch football on Sundays, and for women to watch daytime drama shows during the week? Before we can answer any of these questions we need to know what is behavior, and then differentiate between what is normal, and what is abnormal behavior? Behavior is the manner in which a person behaves, whether they can conform to the standards, or whether they cannot conform to the standards. And once again I pose the question who sets the standards? Society, that’s who. We as a people have already laid out a path of what we think is acceptable and what is not acceptable, the same way that we as a society have deemed what is normal and what is abnormal behavior. When we ask a society how they define abnormal behavior, we are asking first, where does that society draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior and, secondly, which unacceptable behaviors the society views as evidence of “abnormal” rather than simply, undesirable. How are these questions best answered? It is simple, these questions are best answered through what we call society’s norms. It has been said that psychology “has a long history but a short past.” This is certainly true of abnormal psychology. Although examples of bizarre behavior are seen throughout history, and considerations of why people act as they do have appeared and reappeared in literature and philosophy, the scientific study of abnormal behavior really only began around 1900. Society begins with a discussion of the difficulty of defining abnormal behavior and of the importance of developing explanations>