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Explain all about what sociology is
Violating social norms paper
Violate a social norm
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Recommended: Explain all about what sociology is
Norm Violation:
The Observance Of Social Behavior
What is Sociology, and what is the relationship with social norms? “Sociology is the scientific study of society and human behavior” (Henslin, 2015, pg. 4). Norms are “expectations of ‘right’ behavior” (Henslin, 2015, pg. 49). The relationship of the two would be that society upholds itself following the norms in our everyday life. If we follow he norms of society we could be given sanctions, there are positive sanctions and negative sanctions. For instance, I’ve observed norm violations that in the most part they are given negative sanctions. Later in this paper you will be given the different scenarios of social norm violations that I’ve experienced.
In the norm violations I witnessed there
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The decision about the place and outfit that would be worn to commit the norm violation. There I was wearing a bright green wig, green jeans, and a green t-shirt with yellow shoes. The plan was to take one walk around the entire mall to get the reactions in various sections of the mall. The reactions were different for each age type the seniors laughed in the most part or simply didn’t acknowledge what I was doing, the middle aged people would try not to look and seemed angry that their children had to be present at the type and the little kids laughed in the most part. Then I got the dreaded “It isn’t Halloween”, scream I just laughed and continued my course. Then I came across people my age some gave me dirty looks and others simply laughed and continued their shopping. This is an example of folkways as mentioned earlier, there is no strict rules in our daily lives enforcing dress code but dressing out of the norms make people feel uncomfortable and others may give you negative sanctions. This too could be a personal space violation by hurting people’s eyes by the brightness of my …show more content…
Every cultures has their own way to define the values. What could be of value in one country could be invaluable in a different country. For example, in Mexico there are places within the same country where the values are measured in different types of ways, such as; in a low-income scenario morality is of great value and in a high-income scenario money and power determine their values of life in a different manor. Everything depends in the social background you are born into that determines how you will live life this term would be called ascribed status” a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life”(Henslin, 2015, pg.102). All the examples of ‘norm violations’ observed throughout the past weeks and the content of the text book have made me come to a conclusion that we are afraid to be different. Different is viewed as bad putting us on the other side of the crowd where people are judged and misunderstood for what they believe. We are so used to seeing things being ‘correct’ we are afraid to come out of our shells and be something that could become great because society might say otherwise. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and live outside the norms although it a little difficult to some more than
The reactions of people when you break a social norm can vary quite drastically. Sometimes the reactions are quite large and other times they are rather subtle. The reactions typically vary based on what norm you break and how strong of a norm it is. In the case of invading people’s personal space, I did not receive and intense reactions. All of the reactions I received were subtle. Not ma...
The presence of others seems to set expectations to behave in certain ways in certain situations, even if they do not want to. Social conformity is a “type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure” (McLeod, S. (2007). People will tend to agree openly but privately be thinking and knowing it is wrong. People feel they need to socially conform to have a sense of belonging or connectedness, fit in, have a positive social identity, or to simply adapt to their situation and surroundings at the time. I feel it is rare to find those who exude confidence (not to be confused with arrogance), that are comfortable in their own skin, and speak their mind with the facts/truth and break the norms. It might be hard at first to take this approach, but in my experience, those individuals are also the ones that are highly respected. On the other hand, those who go against what society claims is right or wrong may be seen as deviants. Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs (Kendall, 2012-01-01, p. 180). Examples are tattoos, Goth, not leaving a tip for the waiter/waitress, pink hair, not believing in God or simply walking down the wrong side of the hallway.
I chose to break a social norm by sitting/ laying on the floor of an aisle in a grocery store, engaging in deviant behavior, instead of shopping for groceries. Sitting on the floor of a grocery store is a case of deviant behavior because it goes against society by breaking the norm. Because the standard behavior of people in a grocery store is to walk and look around, with usually a basket or cart, shopping for desired items, the expected response of others would be feeling uncomfortable, awkward, and confused. Upon performing my act of social deviance, numerous people demonstrated the anticipated reaction. As people turned down the aisle, I occupied, conversations died down to whispers or stopped altogether. Of the people who questioned me on my
From what I understand, the norm is not something as the constitution, but more like the social morality. This is easier to do; I don’t need to try to do something weird because I already had many experiences like that. I’m sure many people have done something anybody think that was normal, however it turns out something so stupid that makes them embarrassed a lot every time they recall about it. With my personality, I have no sense for what people call normal, for instance, about fashion, entertainment or something like that, I means something about the way of life of the modern young people. The unchangeable mistake I always have whenever I hang out with my friend every time in a while is my sense in fashion. I usually just wear the pants I used to go to school or go out to do something, and wear a shirt inside and a jacket outside if I feel cold; I am pretty sensitive to the cold even in the summer. So the reaction I always received from my friend is a good laugh from them. To tell the truth, I have so used to it to the extent I don’t even feel trouble by it anymore for it is just...
Social norm is a way of dressing, talking, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Most people in this world define themselves through their clothing, hairstyles, and experiences. Each person has a different behavior, which is due to the differences in traditions, cultures, education and experiences. The environment and social norms directly affect the person’s behavior. The way we behave is not right or wrong, but only what our society allows us to. In our society, we have a number of society norms that we accept. For example, the way we should behave in public, it is important for us to move away from strangers, and respect our elders. The family is one of the first avenues by which children begin to form their understanding of social norms. Parents are constantly teaching their children what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.
Societies that esteem social conformity view defiance as a by-product of insolence rather than an act of courage. Isolation of individuals that do not abide by the set restrictions is another common characteristic of systems that encourage mob mentalities. As a result, in order to be accepted by peers, individuals often have to function based on societal expectations. Some consider pursuing their own opinions and ideas against the social norms. This often garners backlash and hostilities from other members of society, ranging from physical and verbal abuse to denial of individual’s competence and sanity to complete alienation from society. Although some people are able to champion their freedom of expression and right to opinions over the need
In today?s society we live by the norm and we chastise those individuals who do not live by the guidelines or expectation of society. We as a society praise those who follow our folkways in public and private. Folkways is a guideline set my society that we follow for the sake of convenience or tradition. As part of my Sociology 1B course I had to go out and observed two norm violations and violate one myself in order to understand the society I live in. In my job I was able to observe two norm violations one was a member who was passing out candy who violated
I violated a social norm by refusing to “mirror” the nonverbal display of one of my best friends. Her name is Hailyn and we have been best friends since middle school. Because we go to the same church, I met her on Sunday and she told me that she needed to talk to me. She explained to me that she was asked out by a man that she has been dating for two weeks now. I already knew that she was dating this person and that she was interested in him. Yet, she was never in a committed relationship so she told me that she wants to go out on a few more dates with the person before deciding to actually go out with him. To violate the social norm, I responded to her without empathizing. I tried my best not to create any chameleon effect of any unconscious nodding or gasp. My responses were very simple and straight forward. When she told me that the man that she’s been dating, I literally told her, “good for you,” without any facial expressions. She seemed to be a bit disappointed by my reaction but she still went on and told me that she wants to date
While trying to break the movie theater norm, it was difficult for me to pick movies with a 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 it.
There are many different things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are explicit rules that govern how we behave in our society. Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize, but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens our professor gave us an assignment that is really easy, but also difficult to do because we have to break a norm in from of people. We had two choices, choice number one, facing people while standing in an elevator, and the other choice
A social norm is classified as a standard expectation of what is the correct or deemed acceptable conduct that a member of a society has. The social norm that I chose to violate is the one where as I describe, you evade people’s personal space. What defines giving people their personal space and not getting too close, is that out of respect in my opinion, people need to have space to breathe and to move. If you get too close to people, either the person is going to think you are sexually intimidating him or she, you are just creepy, or even worse think you are rude for intimidating a right people have to be inches away from you. As I was getting ready to do the assignment of monitoring the reactions I would get for violating any social norm of my choice, I had a hard time thinking about which social norm I was going to
As our society evolves, our norms do as well. With the rising acceptance of homosexuality, body modification, and ambiguous gender roles, the American culture is still transitioning causing many to wonder what are considered norms. While these people are trying to figure out the new norms of this fast paced society, I found myself breaking one of the most basic norms. With my giant, fluffy robe I went to Meijer’s, Taco Bell, and the gym.
The social norm I chose to break was eating with my mouth open. I wanted to do something that I know wouldn't be too out of the ordinary but would still receive good responses. I spent time eating with my mouth open for two days, both in public places on campus and at meals in my fraternity house. The observations I made were very interesting and helped me gain a better understanding of how others react when someone breaks a social norm.
From a young age, children in are taught to behave in a way that satisfies their society's standards of behavior. Each society has its own standards of behavior, also known as norms. One set of norms may be similar to those of another society, or one society's own set of norms can be the complete opposite of those of another society. But no matter how different or similar, norms are a part a society's core for they are the guidelines to how members are expected to act, and draws a line between what is acceptable and unacceptable. Despite efforts to enforce norms through social control, there are many people who deviate from these norms. Deviance is behavior that violates the standards of a group or society (Witt, 2013, p. 135). The act of deviance comes in many forms that range from harmless acts like a girl shaving her head, or it might be an action that is more extreme like committing murder.
Unfortunately, this struggle for conformity often extends beyond a personal level. It is not uncommon for society to chastise a person for being different, in one particular way or another. This chastising could range from polite disapproval, to snide comments, to harmful, oppressive tactics such as bullying and harassment. This causes more people to conform to society for the fear of being labeled a