What are deviations from expected norms?

A deviation from expected norms is when something happens that’s different from what we usually expect.

Imagine you have a bag of jelly beans. Most days, you get 10 jelly beans, that's the norm. But one day, you only get 5 jelly beans. That means there’s a deviation from the expected norm because it was less than usual. Or maybe another day, you get 20 jelly beans, that’s also a deviation, but in the other direction.

Now think about playing on the playground. The rule is: you can swing for 5 minutes. That's your expected norm. But one day, you swing for only 3 minutes, that's a deviation from the expected norm, because it was shorter than usual. Another time, maybe you swing for 10 minutes, that’s also a deviation, but longer this time.

So, whenever something happens that's not what we usually expect, it's called a deviation from the expected norms, just like getting fewer or more jelly beans, or swinging less or more than usual.