Societal Norms: Unbreakable or Breakable?

1257 Words3 Pages

Running head: Unbreakable breakable norm 1 Unbreakable breakable norm 6 Unbreakable Breakable Norms Gladys Sanchez Student ID: 00522506 Bakersfield College Unbreakable Breakable Norms 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 …show more content…

On the first Saturday of February, after my lunch, I was given the task of cleaning the front area of the store, when I overheard a member and his wife who were around 30 years of age, complaining to the cashier about a male member who was shopping and was giving out candy to whoever he came across. The member and his wife made negative comments calling the other member a creep, weirdo, and crazy for trying to give their child a piece of candy. The cashier?s reaction was to apologize on behalf of the other member. The couples, who were about 30 to 40 years of age with children, rejected the candy, sanctioned the member and expressed their disapproval for the offer to the cashier and went as far as complaining to management. A few minutes later, I saw the member who was passing candy out in the caf? area asking a couple around their early to mid-20?s if their 2 year old daughter was able to have a piece of candy. Without hesitation, the couple took the candy and allowed their 2 year old daughter to eat a piece of candy from a complete stranger and made positive comments such as ?That?s a nice guy?. I was baffled by the different reactions and as I began to think about the norm that was violated by the member who was passing out candy. It became clear that the couples in their 30?s to 40?s with children felt like a personal space norm …show more content…

It?s amazing how by breaking a social norm I was given a warning that I could potentially lose my job for not acting the way members expect me to. The folkways of today?s society has made it difficult to live a life out of the norm. We as a society tend to sanction those who violate norms and those who mores are not equal to our own. In many ways folkways and values get in the way of accepting, without judgment those who?s ways and values are different from our

Show More
Related

  • Tacit Gender Rules in Society

    500 Words  | 1 Pages

    Society is not a realm in which all of the rules are listed on paper; people naturally abide them due to their countless experiences. The results of these incidents or the incident as a whole sometimes transform itself into an unspoken code that people are assumed to know by heart. For example, humans are treated differently - usually with more respect and higher expectations (such as CEOs or famous actors and actresses) - when they are in a very high position or level in an industry. No matter how much or little they do, they are frequently noticed more by the media than anyone else. But how about those who live in their normal lives trying to bring home the bread and milk for their families? Or those who do a substantial amount of service and deeds for their communities and companies? Ty...

    Read More

  • The Doing Nothing: Societal Norm

    295 Words  | 1 Pages

    Societal norms are ultimately the sociological expectations for our society. So, when people see somebody standing in the middle of a crowded public place doing nothing, they are going to take notice. I realized that while standing in the middle of the mall where many people

    Read More

  • The Behavioral Deviance of a Social Norm

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    Deviance is any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or group in which it occurs (Kendall, 2012). Our experiment will study the behavioral deviance of a social norm. Sociologists use symbolic interactionism to study face-to-face interactions. We are expected to follow these certain unwritten rules of behavior telling us the way that we should act in certain situations. The social norm or folkway I chose to break was that of invading an individual’s personal space. See Figure 1.0 showing the proximity generally utilized by Americans, according to Edward T.Hall. Personal space is the region surrounding a person, approximately 18 inches, which they regard as psychologically theirs. People value their personal space, and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached (Personal space, n.d.). We walked around to find the best scenario and individuals to interject our teammate in purposefully invading their comfort zone.

    Read More

  • Norm Violation Essay

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society can be very diminishing and very hurtful. I say hurtful by the way many people criticize one another by the way we walk, talk, and act with others or even alone. As we grow older we fall into different categories such as community, religion, and the list goes on. In between all that there is certain norms and values to follow. There are certain types of norms and values we have to follow in our community to not get harassed. First, before I committed a norm violation and making an observation I had to be able to understand what values, norms, folkways, sanctions, and mores were. “Values are ideas of what is desirable in life. Values underlie our preferences, guide our choices, and indicate what we hold worthwhile in life” (Henslin,

    Read More

  • Social Norms in America

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    They hold us together as a culture, while separating us as unique individuals at the same time. Folkways, which are based more on custom and etiquette are the most broken of all norms. This can be explained because worst case scenario our only reprimand may be someone staring or talking about us. Mores, while a little more serious than folkways, still don’t have a very serious punishment, just maybe a little more than weird looks, double takes and bad mouthing. Mores are usually based on social morals, which can sometimes make people get a little uneasy, but not much more than that. Laws are the most serious or formal norms, with standard punishment respective to the type of law that is broken. The norm that I have chosen to discuss, in my opinion, hits a little bit of all three of these categories. I have chosen to analyze a television talk show and the guests they attract. Maury Povich, while previously known as one of the more serious talk shows with fairly reasonable guests and topics has become more of a “Jerry Springer” type of talk show. It is almost so vile that you just have to watch it kind of a show; at least that is my roommate’s excuse. Monday, March 14th, the show aired the topic “My Boyfriend Controls My Every Move.” Since Maury was straying from his almost everyday topic of “Who Is My Babies Daddy”, I decided to give it a gander. I was absolutely appalled at the things these couples were saying. There was one couple in particular that really had my undivided attention that had been married twenty some odd years. This woman was made to do everything her husband said, or she would be punished. Her duties included cleaning, cooking, shopping, grooming and washing her husban...

    Read More

  • Sociological Theories of Deviance

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the world we live in today, deviance happens to play an integral role in within the societies that scatter our globe, whether we like it or not. Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate the social norms of our society. These behaviors can violate formally enacted rules, such as laws that are put into place by government, as well as the informal type of “guidelines” that various cultures have informally established and shaped for themselves. As one may come to understand, norms are essentially expectations that are standard to a certain culture. These norms gently guide people in a society in “what to do,” and “what not to do,” in compliance with their societies' norms. With this said, it is important to keep in mind that social norms differ from culture to culture. One act that may be considered deviant in a particular society, may be generally accepted in another. Three main sociological theories of deviance include the cultural transmission theory (also known as the differential association theory), the labeling theory, and the control theory.

    Read More

  • Breaking Experiment Essay

    2113 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Norms Essay

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is 9:00 PM on a Sunday night. Televisions all across America tune into MTV. Millions of viewers will now spend the next thirty minutes watching a television program titled 'Jackass'. While watching this program, the viewers will observe everything from people eating hard boiled eggs in an attempt to purposely vomit, to a man testing out various self defense devices on himself. Next week viewers will tune into the same program to see the same kinds of stunts performed. The reason that America watches these kinds of programs, and the participants in them perform these stunts, are because 'norms' are being broken. A norm is something that is generally accepted by a society as the right thing to do, or the way things are supposed to be. For example, a norm would be to enter an elevator and stand facing the front for the duration of the trip. Breaking that norm would be to enter the elevator and face the back for the duration of the trip. It is not what is expected. Different norms exist in different societies, and when these norms are broken within these societies people pay attention, because it is not an occurrence observed on a regular basis.

    Read More

  • Observing People's Behavior at a Fitness Center

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lets start by understanding that cultures are a melting pot of people’s beliefs, language, behaviors, values, material objects, and norms. Norms are written and non-written “expectations of behavior” that govern a certain location, place, or culture (26). These norms also vary from culture to culture meaning what is a norm in the U.S may not be a norm in India. For example, a norm in America would be tipping a waiter after a meal. Another would be acknowledging someone as you walk past him or her, typically done at work or in a public place. In all, norms are folkways, mores, taboos, and written laws that are an established standard of one’s behavior.

    Read More

  • Breaking Society’s Rules

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    American literature often examines people and motives. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, and in Arthur Miller’s dramatic classic, The Crucible, people and motives often depict patterns of Puritans struggling for life during a precarious time.

    Read More

  • Essay On Masculinity And Deviance

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    　　Several individuals within society typically follow social guidelines that they are unaware of performing. Social guidelines such as stopping at a red light or saying thank you when someone has done something for you. These social guidelines or norms give society a script to follow regarding their behavior and actions. Although norms are the acceptable actions and behaviors that society is taught to perform, there are occurrences where individuals stay away from those in which they are now enacting deviance. To act deviant is considered to break away or do something different of a social norm. There are several forms of deviance that occur frequently within society that violate social norms and hinder society’s overall function.

    Read More

  • Social Norms in Society

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Power of Norms

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Norms are a part of everyday life. Without norms the world would be in total chaos. Norms by definition are rules of behavior shared by members of a society and rooted in the value system. ( ) Norms are held at a high standard in a society and are valued by its members. Norms vary from society to society. What is considered normal in one society may not be acceptable in another society. Norms are a societies way of living if a member of society breaks that norm they may be looked at as strange or even penalized depending on what kind of norm is broken. Norms are broken into three categories which are folkways, mores, and laws. Folkways are customs or desirable behaviors that are not strictly enforced. Violating a folkway is not criminal, but violating a folkway may have you looked at as weird. Mores are the strongest form of norms they have great moral significance in a society. Violating a more is considered immoral or borderline criminal. The strongest form of mores are taboos which are unthinkable action within a society. Laws are the third category of norms that a...

    Read More

  • Deviance In Society

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Government And Non Government Organization

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    4). Samuels also talks about how folkways are norms that are “part of day-to-day living”, which guide individuals on what is social acceptable to wear, eat, and how to properly interact with others (p. 4). Some examples of folkways are saying “thank you” whenever a person does something to assist another in a task, females having to wear makeup in order to leave their house, or mothers referring to their child 's age in weeks instead of months or months instead of years because it is how their doctors have taught them to refer to age. In comparison, mores also guide individuals on what is socially acceptable, but they are upheld by a moral code of conduct based on personal or religious beliefs and values. Some examples of mores could be, but are not limited to: not working on Sundays, fasting, not swearing, giving up a seat on the bus for an elderly person, and donating to charities. Both folkways and mores can vary depending on the groups to which they are addressing, however, they are present in every form of civilization. Rules are in some ways the same as folkways and mores, be that as it may, when social deviance happens the consequences of those actions against government and non-governmental entities can greatly

    Read More

More about Societal Norms: Unbreakable or Breakable?

Open Document