Outlining the Cultural Norms Paper Introduction Attention getter I conducted two social experiments with six different people and violated various cultural norms to see their reactions. Introduce the situation The first experiment involved shaking hands with strangers while introducing myself to them and standing too close to them while asking a question. And the second social experiment was to stare at random strangers for an unusually longer period of time. Justify why this is important to observe To see how breaking the cultural/social norm of starting conversations with random strangers, invading their private space and staring at them for experimental purposes turns out to be. Thesis – make connections between population, nonverbal, …show more content…
Types of non-verbal communication (voice, body language, touch, distance) Provide examples from observations The second person I approached to start a conversation was of African American descent and in his early twenties. His handshake was firm and he was not hesitant in answering my questions and held the conversation for a short while. On the other hand, in my staring at a stranger experiment, the woman was of Indian descent in her late thirties. She caught me staring before looking down at her phone and she was the only one to not look back at me. Discuss implications/findings Because of his cultural and racial background, this gentleman was not hesitant to engage in a conversation. He happily shook my hand and it took him a while to step back because I was gradually standing closer and …show more content…
It’s important to study and understand a culture and its norms before assimilating yourself into it so that you do not break a serious social norm, whether it be verbal or nonverbal. According to our book, “Nonverbal communication is an ever-present form of human expression,” and you are always communicating messages even if they are not stated explicitly. Nonverbal cues are there for a reason and they help us to form relationships when we learn how to pick up on those cues commonly used by certain people in our interpersonal relationships. Nonverbal norms help to shape our society in deciding what’s acceptable, help us to establish interpersonal relationships, and help us form a part of our
Woods states that nonverbal patterns reflect specific cultures and nonverbal behavior is not instinctive but learned in the process of socialization (p. 124). Our culture in Puerto Rico, children are considered to be disrespectful if they make eye contact when spoken to by an adult; especially when being reprimanded. Nevertheless, closing one’s eyes completely is a sign of unreserved disrespect when someone is speaking to
Nonverbal behavior is channeled by norms and most of us abide by them without being aware of them. Physical appearance, gesture and body movement, face and eye behavior, vocal behavior, personal space, touch, scent/smell, and time are all forms of nonverbal communication behavior. Norms differ amongst various cultures, ethnic, and geographic groups. There are endless ways and forms to violate nonverbal norms, and by doing so can lead to a barrier in communication, which are problematic to distinguish.
In the field of psychology one of the main goals is studying and determining the behavior of individuals. It is imperative to study human’s behavior under controlled environmental settings, and how these individuals react to the stimuli around them. But it is also important to note how far is too far in the environmental settings, and is it possible for the subjects that are in the experiment able to change their own personal beliefs and conform to the people/ environment around them knowingly. There are few well-known experiments that demonstrate these changes in the personal behavior of the subjects. These being; the Stanley Milgram’s “shock experiment”, and Philip Zimbardo’s “ Stanford Prison experiment ”. These two controversial experiments
There are many different factors to consider that play a part in experimental procedures. Without these variables, researchers would have a hard time making a claim about a particular topic, because they did not consider all sides of the experiment. An example of the variations done in experiments can be seen throughout Solomon Asch’s “Opinions and Social Pressure,”
We conducted this experiment two times: once at night and the other in the late afternoon. The first group, during the night, consisted of Crance, Curtis, and Medici. The confederates entered the gym five minutes before the experimenter and observed and recorded the reactions of the other patrons. We observed that many people discretely watched the experimenter. When she first walked in, the bystanders at the front ...
While breaking the three social norms there was one feeling that I felt was mutual throughout. Breaking those norms made me felt extremely out of place and rude. They made me feel that way because I knew what I was doing wasn 't socially right and people would get mad or be rude to me with their reactions. For the most part throughout my experiment, most people reacted the way I thought they would. You could tell that most people felt awkward or uncomfortable while I was breaking the norm. I faced a couple of difficulties through my assignment when it came to violating the social norms. While trying to break the movie theater norm, it was difficult for me to pick movies with different variety of people and movies that were a little older so less people would be attending them. I also had a little trouble when it came to answering the phone and waiting for the other person to talk first. The problem with this one was that I had to wait for people to actually call me which doesn 't happen that often in this day and age anymore. To conclude, these social norms forced people to be in uncomfortable situations and make a decision as to how they would react to
The objective of my experiment was to observe how people reacted to a violation in the social norms of elevator etiquette. Generally in elevators, people fill in starting from the back, face the elevator doors, and rarely make verbal contact with others. Unless the passengers of the elevator know each other, conversation is sparse and often limited to small-talk. As a result of this, my goal in the experiment was to introduce a foreign behavior to the elevator, something that nobody would expect while going about their day. Thus, I entered a situation where a certain set of expectations was in place, such as the informal rule that individuals should stand (rather than sit) in an elevator, and violated those unspoken rules without acting in
During the time we had in class I talked to three different people. They were all at random and I had no known them prior to this experience. The first person was a white male, he was dressed in boots and a ball cap. He immediately gave me the impression he was not from a big
The daunting task of violating a social norm, something that I could be ostracized and ridiculed for, I still chose to do. Social norms are the rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society. Doing weird things in public while surrounded by strangers is a recipe for disaster, especially for somebody like myself. I am awkward and have plenty of trouble talking to new people. Most of us are told not to talk to strangers when we are younger because there are all sorts of crazy people out there. There could not be a better way to break out of my shell and violate a social norm than to sit down and talk to total strangers while they eat.
In our experiment we decided to invade people’s personal “bubble”. To do this we secretly videotaped them while others went up and got close to them. Now normally in an American society we have our space and we do not like it when strangers intrude on that space. If done then the typical reaction is to step back and gain the space between back. That ...
The human perspective of staring, whether it is directly or aversely, is a phenomenon that psychologists have been trying to figure out for decades. Do we notice if someone else is staring at us from a far? What emotions run through our minds if we do feel someone else’s presence among us? Does our behavior change if we figure out someone is staring at us from a distance? The reactions and behaviors of the human mind change with each given circumstance, with each different scenario shedding light on our perceptions. In some cases, there won’t be any change in their behavior. In other cases, a person will behave differently than they normal would, possibly moving faster or even adverting their behavior to reflect or even mask their emotions. This means that a person will consciously change their behavior because of the staring. Numerous variables in which a person is staring, i.e. how far away they are, the intensity of their stare, is directly correlated to how a person will behavior to the staring (Argyle and Dean, 1973). This correlation is seen clearly when the person in the study knows they are being stared at, especially when the person/experimenter is staring directly into their eyes. A person in this situation will more than likely engage in behavior that will gauge how someone else perceives them and then this person will adjust to their other according to that analysis.
Culture has always been a driving force in understanding nonverbal communication as nonverbal communication is highly influenced by the cultural differences as the context of the culture defines how the communication/message is interpreted in certain cultures. “Communication occurs within a context but the context is particularly important in relation to non-verbal communication” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.185). Culture defines the messages perceived by the non-verbal communication. For instance, proxemics. “Proxemics refers to the spatial relationship or how we use space.” (Tyler, Kossen & Ryan, 2005, p.190) Culture plays an important role in defining the use of one’s personal space in the nonverbal communication process. For example, in North America people usually remain at a distance from one another when talking while Latin American people stay very close when talking. (Wood, 2009). This defines the use of the privacy or personal space in two different cultures. H...
Dinner is the busiest in Crossroads almost all chairs were occupied. If there is space then the area was dirty filled with some food and drink slips. Therefore when I found an empty seat and a clean section, I did not hesitate to ask the group seating in front of me, two men, if I could sit there. I left my backpack and a full plate of food on the table while I went to get more food. I retrieved back slowly consuming my food meanwhile ease dropping their conversations. I was interested to find out what they were talking about so I can strike up a conversation. When their conversation had come to end, I asked one of the men where they were from because of their strong Hispanic accent. He explained that he was from Mexico and I asked his roommate the same question his response was friendly. I started to ask further questions on their interested in technology. They explained to me that they were interested in advancements in robotics and math. Their attitude in their interest cued me to believe they were upper classmen. Both men were Berkeley
Axtell, E. R. (1993). The dos and taboos of body language around the world. In Social interaction in everyday life (chapter 22). Retrieved from http://www.sheltonstate.edu/Uploads/files/faculty/Angela%20Gibson/Sph%20106/taboos0001.pdf.
...tention to how people react to one another’s comments, guessing the relationship between the people and guessing how each feels about what is being said. This can inform individuals to better understand the use of body language when conversing with other people. It is also important to take into account individual differences. Different cultures use different non-verbal gestures. Frequently, when observing these gestures alone the observer can get the wrong impression, for instance, the listener can subconsciously cross their arms. This does not mean that they are bored or annoyed with the speaker; it can be a gesture that they are comfortable with. Viewing gestures as a whole will prevent these misunderstandings. Non-verbal gestures are not only physical, for example; the tone of voice addressing a child will be different from the way it is addressed to an adult.