Social Norms
In this view, behaviour is atypical because it goes against the norms of society, and people therefore find it 'weird'. A social norm is an unwritten rule about what is right or wrong in social behaviour. Norms depend heavily on culture, varying between countries and over time. An advantage of deviating from social norms is that it fits with everyday experience of what people see as typical. Disadvantages of deviating from social norms are that every culture or subculture will have a separate viewpoint, so no worldwide standard of mental illness can be established using this definition and there is too much reliance on one cultural view of right and wrong could lead to discrimination.
In society, there are actions which come to us naturally like shaking someone's hand. This act of kindness has been introduced to us since we were young. Everyone knows when social norms are appropriate in a situation for example when going for a job interview. Whenever you are in a job interview we know that shaking hands at the start and at the interview is deemed as being normal. Social norms take place in all kinds of situations and some of these social norms come to us naturally.
However if, shaking hands had been seen as abnormal then society wouldn't be as it is today. This is because if you are meeting someone for the first time and don't shake their hand like you would normally do, it wouldn't really matter because if no one else is doing it then why should you ? It would be seen as unnecessary. What would society be like if no one ever shook hands ? In my view it would be really different because everyone would be shy and no one would talk to each other as they do now. It would be odd but because shaking hands is an act of kindness and everyone is aware of it, our society is more pleasurable and more kind.
Good summary of the reasons and flaws for defining abnormality this way. As you say, handshaking is a social norm, and a pretty arbitrary one - we could just as easily do something else when we greet someone. Any idea why handshaking developed as the norm, and not something else like patting someone's shoulder or squeezing their nose? Would it really make such a difference? Of course if the norm was reversed, we'd consider it really odd and creepy if people tried to shake our hands!
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