Norm Violation: The Observance Of Social Behavior

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

were folkways that were violated “norms that are not strictly enforced” (Henslin, 2015, pg. 51). Such as, being loud and out of the ordinary behavior that we are expected to live by. When I was at Universal Studios I saw many tourists taking pictures and enjoying the neat graphics, the pretty view of the Hollywood bluffs, and technology that is being produced on a regular basis. When I suddenly came across a very loud man screaming at the top of his lungs in your face saying “Ha ha ha I beat you!”, as if we were all in a type of race to the top of the escalators stampeding his way through the crowded escalators. Immediately I began to scan the surrounding to see the reaction of people towards the behavior of this man. Surprisingly most of the people I observed of all ages had the same reaction such as; a blank face for a second while the gathered their thoughts and then all at once a very angry annoyed face f why in the world this man was doing this. The type of norm that was violated was personal space due to the exaggeratedly loud this man would scream in your face not only would it disturb the person’s face he was in but the others around that would also hear him.
Another norm violation I observed was the prejudice towards a homosexual man dressed as a women. There were two women dressed all black, with headscarves, and Muslim traits touring the Bakersfield College campus. While I was standing in the hallway for class to begin the Muslim women were passing by and the homosexual man stepped out of class to receive a phone call. The women were astonished to see his man dressed that way as if for them this were as if they saw a Martian roaming around. They were not only astonished but also confused, angry, upset, and shocked to see the man. In the United States there was recently passed the gay marriage rights which allow more freedom to those who are homosexual, lesbian, or transsexual. This is very common to see in our society it still makes some people uncomfortable but these women, it was as if their mores “norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential core values of the well-being of the group” (Henslin, 2015, pg.51) violated by this man. Something that their culture is not used to seeing. This violation would be considered decorum.
Lastly, the norm violation I committed was in Oxnard C.A at a shopping mall.

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

apparel.
In the diversity of cultures there are values” Their ideas of what is desirable in life good or bad beautiful or ugly” (Henslin, 2015, pg.49).

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

others.