HBSE 3 || Module 1 || Introduction to Social Deviance ||

STAR COLLEGES INC.

156 Pico Road, La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines

Tel. (074) 422-2636  ·  general@starcolleges.edu.ph  ·  www.starcolleges.edu.ph

STUDENT EDITION COURSE MODULES HBSE 3 Social Deviation and Social Work A guided module handbook for weeks 1–18  ·  HBSE 3

 Doc Kathryn B Santiago, RSW, MSW, MMin
Instructor

Field	Detail
Course Title	Social Deviation and Social Work
Credits / Hours	3 units  ·  3 hours × 18 weeks
Prerequisite	SWP 1
Program Context	Human Behavior and the Social Environment (HBSE 3)
Institution	Star Colleges Inc., La Trinidad, Benguet
Primary Reference	McCaghy, Capron, Jamieson, and Carey (2003). Deviant Behavior, 7th ed.

These modules follow the official course syllabus: Parts I–VI, Weeks 1–18. Language has been lightly standardized (for example, “socio-psychological” rather than “socio-physiological,” “Deterrence,” and “COURSE INFORMATION”) without changing the approved scope.

Institutional Anchors

Every module is studied inside the vision, mission, core values, and objectives of Star Colleges Inc. Social work responses to deviance are never only technical. They are moral, relational, and civic acts.

Vision

Enable students to exemplify leadership in academic excellence, Christian character, and globally competitive skills.

Mission

Prepare students to be responsible citizens by providing the opportunity to acquire skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to make decisions that will lead to meaningful and productive lives for the glory of God.

Core Values

· Stewardship. Of body as temple, of community and church, and of a global neighborhood.

· Christ-centered approach. Compassion, holiness, humility, and service shape motive and method.

· Inclusive education. Borderless, transnational Christian education that still honors local culture and law.

How the course serves the institutional objectives

· A biblically informed view of persons as image-bearers resists both harsh condemnation and naïve denial of harm.

· Training the nation’s human resources includes the capacity to work with people whom society has labeled, feared, or discarded.

· Integrity (2 Corinthians 8:21) requires that records, assessments, and court or agency reports tell the truth without humiliating the client.

· Lifelong learning and stewardship (Genesis 1:28) call social workers to keep studying changing laws, evidence, and community conditions.

General Learning Outcomes

By the end of eighteen weeks the student should be able to demonstrate the following outcomes from the official syllabus.

A. Cognitive

• Explain selected theoretical perspectives and approaches on social deviation.
• Discuss selected categories of social deviations and societal reactions.
• Describe the implications of social deviation for social welfare and social work practice.
• Compare and contrast objectivist and subjectivist forms of social deviance.

B. Affective

5. Demonstrate appreciation of a knowledge base for understanding deviant behaviors and their implications for social functioning and relationships with society.

6. Discover the value of viewing deviance as both an interactive and a political process that influences the development of deviant identities.

7. Recognize and respect diversities in the interpretation of social deviation.

C. Psychomotor

• Present a case study on social deviation using an appropriate theoretical framework.
• Develop resource materials related to social deviations.

Professional stance for this course Deviance is a social process, not a permanent essence of a person. Diagnosis, when used at all, is a tool—not an identity. Some syllabus topics (violence, sexual harm, children in conflict with the law, suicide, substance use) are high-risk. Study them as future helpers, not as spectators. Confidentiality, informed consent, mandatory reporting, and trauma-informed language apply to class discussions, field visits, and written work.

How to Use the Student Edition

This edition is written for you. Each module contains intended outcomes, a study map, core ideas, Philippine practice notes, activities you will actually do, self-checks, and the outputs that enter class standing.

· Before class. Read the module overview and key terms. Annotate one local news item or a chapter from McCaghy et al. (2003) that matches the week.

· In class. Bring questions, not only answers. Walking gallery, H-chart, case analysis, film analysis, debate, and field visits are graded processes, not extras.

· After class. Complete the self-check in writing. File evidence for seatwork, quizzes, assignments, and research activities—these form class standing in prelim, midterm, and final periods.

· Care of self and others. If a topic touches your own history, tell the faculty privately. You may request an alternative reflection rather than a public disclosure.

Module map

Module	Weeks	Syllabus part	Major output
1  Introduction to Social Deviance	1–3	Part I	Poster + H-chart + quiz
2  Theoretical Perspectives	4–11	Part II	Case analysis + film/field sharing
3  Psychological Lens and Disorders	12–14	Psych. + Part III	Reflection + research paper
4  Issues, Law, and Societal Reaction	15–16	Part IV	Quiz + case analysis + debate
5  Practice, Ethics, and Resilience	17–18	Parts V–VI	Field interview + seatwork + quiz

How your grade is computed (lecture)

Class standing includes seatwork, quiz, assignment, and research activities. Examinations are separate.

Period	Formula in the syllabus
Prelim	(Class Standing × 2) + Exam, then divide by 3
Midterm	(Prelim Grade + Class Standing + Exam) ÷ 3
Final	(Midterm Grade + Class Standing + Exam) ÷ 3

 

Module 1  
Introduction to Social Deviance

Item	Detail
Weeks	1–3
Syllabus part	Part I – Introduction to Social Deviancy
Contact time	9 hours
DLOs	Identify traditional, dominant, and alternative paradigms; compare and contrast perspectives and approaches.
TLAs you will meet	Interactive discussion, Walking Gallery, H-Chart Strategy, newspaper article
Assessments	Poster, quiz, completed H-chart

Intended learning outcomes for this module

· Define deviance, norm, social control, and stigma in your own words and with a Philippine example.

· Classify acts using the syllabus typology: good and admired behavior, odd behavior, and bad behavior.

· Distinguish objectivist (norm-based) from subjectivist (label-based) approaches and state one strength and one limit of each.

· Compare traditional, dominant, and alternative paradigms of explaining “why people break rules.”

· Produce a poster and an H-chart that a classmate can understand without a lecture.

Why this module matters to social work

Social workers do not merely describe strange or harmful behavior. They work at the point where a person, a family, a barangay, a church, a school, a police desk, or a court decides that something is “a problem.” That decision can open a door to help. It can also close a future. If you cannot tell the difference between a statistical rarity, a moral disagreement, a crime, a mental-health crisis, and a political label, you will either over-control people or abandon people who are being harmed.

Key terms

· Norm. A shared expectation. Folkways (custom), mores (moral rules), and laws (codified rules with the state behind them) are not the same intensity.

· Deviance. Rule-breaking as socially recognized. Not every crime is treated as deviant in daily life; not every deviance is a crime.

· Social control. Gossip, shame, pastoral counsel, family discipline, barangay mediation, school rules, professional codes, police, courts, and prisons.

· Master status. A label that overshadows other identities—“addict,” “ex-convict,” “promiscuous,” “bakla,” “terrorist,” “hero.”

Lesson 1.1  What counts as deviance?

Begin with a working definition: deviance is any attribute, belief, or behavior that some social audience treats as a violation of a norm and therefore as a candidate for negative (or, sometimes, unexpectedly positive) sanction. Three reminders keep the definition usable.

· Relativity. What is deviant in one barangay, decade, church, or profession may be ordinary in another. Relativity is not an excuse for harm; it is a warning against lazy universal claims.

· Audience. An act becomes socially deviant when someone with enough power or moral authority treats it as such. Silent private difference is not yet a social problem.

· Range. The syllabus asks you to see more than “bad behavior.” People also treat saintliness, extreme excellence, eccentricity, and nonconformity as noteworthy departures from the average.

Three types of deviance in this syllabus

Type	Working meaning	Social work question
Good and admired behavior	Positive deviance: over-conformity or rare virtue that an audience praises (whistleblower, exceptionally honest official, radical generosity).	Who benefits when we celebrate this person? Who is quietly shamed by the comparison?
Odd behavior	Eccentricity or statistical rarity that may not be immoral or illegal (unusual dress, minority belief, neurodivergent manner).	Is the “oddness” a problem for the person, or only for the comfort of others?
Bad behavior	Negative deviance: violation of moral or legal norms that an audience condemns (theft, abuse, exploitation).	Who was harmed, what law or duty applies, and what response repairs rather than only punishes?

A useful four-cell model (Heckert and Heckert) sits behind this typology: negative deviance (under-conformity, negatively evaluated), deviance admiration (under-conformity that an audience secretly or openly admires), rate-busting (over-conformity that is resented), and positive deviance (over-conformity that is praised). Use it when a class argument stalls at “good versus bad.”

Lesson 1.2  Objectivist and subjectivist approaches

The syllabus requires you to compare objectivist (norm-based) and subjectivist (label-based) forms of social deviance. This is the backbone of the whole course.

Question	Objectivist (norm-based)	Subjectivist (label-based)
What is deviance?	A real departure from a statistical, cultural, or legal standard.	A status created when an audience successfully applies a label.
Where do we look?	The act, the rate, the harm, the broken rule.	The reactors: media, church, police, clinic, neighbors.
Typical theories later	Strain, control, deterrence, some psychological models.	Labeling, ethnomethodology, conflict, some feminist work.
Strength	Takes harm, duty, and measurable patterns seriously.	Exposes bias, moral enterprise, and identity damage.
Risk if used alone	Treats the official rule as natural and blames the person.	Can sound as if rape or theft is “only a label.”
Social work use	Assessment of risk, need, and legal duty.	Assessment of stigma, power, and the story the client is forced to live inside.

 

Compare-and-contrast prompt (keep this for the quiz) Objectivist answers “Did the person break a rule and with what effect?” Subjectivist answers “Who called it deviance, with what power, and with what consequence for identity?” A competent social worker asks both. The course outcome is not to pick a favorite camp. It is to know which lens you are using and why.

 

Lesson 1.3  Traditional, dominant, and alternative paradigms

Paradigms are packages of assumptions about human nature, society, and what counts as a good explanation.

· Traditional / classical. Persons are reasoned choosers. Deviance is a calculation of pleasure and pain. Policy leans toward clear law and proportionate punishment (later: deterrence).

· Dominant / positivist. Deviance is caused. Biology, personality, family, strain, or neighborhood “produce” it. The expert studies the offender the way a physician studies a condition. Policy leans toward treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation.

· Alternative / constructionist and critical. Deviance is produced in interaction and in political economy. Labels, gender orders, class, colonial history, and the professions themselves are part of the problem. Policy leans toward rights, decriminalization of status, and changing the reactor—not only the actor.

No paradigm is sufficient by itself for Philippine social work. A child in conflict with the law (CICL) may have made a choice (classical), may live under chronic strain and weak bonds (positivist), and may have been processed more harshly because of class or ethnicity (critical). Your case study later in the course must show that you can hold more than one layer.

Lesson 1.4  Philippine illustrations to practice on

· A scholar from a mountain community who is the first in the family to finish college may be admired in the city and treated as “too proud” at home (admired and odd at once).

· Public drunkenness during a fiesta may be joked about; the same conduct outside a school gate may trigger a barangay blotter.

· A woman who leaves an abusive husband may be called “disobedient” in one church circle and “brave” in a VAWC desk.

· Informal settlers may be described as “illegal” in a headline and as “rights-holders awaiting adequate housing” in a DSWD assessment.

Learning activities (student tasks)

1. Walking Gallery

In small groups, post four sheets on the wall: Good/Admired, Odd, Bad, and “Depends on the audience.” Walk, write examples, and then defend why you moved or refused to move an example. One member records whose power decided the category.

2. H-Chart

Draw a large H. Left column: Objectivist claims. Right column: Subjectivist claims. Crossbar: what both approaches must still protect (human dignity, evidence, the safety of victims). Submit the completed H-chart; it is a graded output.

3. Newspaper article

Choose one current Philippine story (print or reputable online). Mark every word that evaluates a person. Rewrite the lead paragraph twice: once in strictly objectivist language (rule, harm, frequency) and once in subjectivist language (who labeled whom). Attach the original clipping or URL.

4. Poster

One poster, individual or pair, that a first-year student could use as a map of Module 1. Required elements: definition of deviance, three types, two approaches, one local example, and one sentence on why social workers must use both lenses. No clip-art of “criminal faces.”

Self-check

• Can you explain deviance without using the word “abnormal” as a synonym?
• Give one example in which the same act is admired by one audience and condemned by another.
• State the strongest argument for an objectivist definition and the strongest argument against using it alone.
• Which paradigm most shaped the last barangay or school policy you observed? What evidence do you have?

Required outputs this module

· Completed H-chart.

· Poster.

· Quiz on definitions, typology, and the two approaches.

· Newspaper rewrite attached to your notes.