...Social norms are customs that we are conditioned to percieve as ordinary. Social norms have their pupose in our society. One can look at social norms as being favorable or unfavorable. I personally think that social norms are often a positive thing as they help keep us in order. For this paper I decided to violate a social norm that is derived from folkways. Folways are common demeanors related to rituals and triditions of a certain society. The norm that I choose to violate for this paper required me to cut into the middle of a line by myelf and stay in line for atleast 2 minutes. I decided to violate this social norm on the campus of Queensborough Commnity Colloge, in the cafeteria located in the science building. I choose this specific...
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...Stepping Outside My Box and Into Social Change Regina Weekley South University Online Stepping Outside My Box and Into Social Change It has been said, “There have always been people who defy gender norms”, and I am one of those people. As a child comfort wasn’t something I felt in girlie dresses or even pink and white shoes, but baggy jeans and loose fitting T-shirts with matching boy’s sneakers. Being forced into what was “socially acceptable” or the “gender norm” of dressing like a girl because I was girl made life uncomfortable on several occasions and also became a battle within. I didn’t understand what the big deal was, I just wanted to be comfortable in my own skin, but not wanting to disappoint those who matter the most I conformed. I gave into social control, and forsook my individuality. In search of a peace within, I found myself having to step outside the box of the “norm” and step into my individuality which put me in violation of a folkway-wearing the other gender’s clothing. In this essay I will recall at least one situation I violated this folkway, discuss my feelings of violating the norm and other’s reaction to my violation. Almost a week ago, I was being honored at an after five Gala for my work in community service. As we know galas have a pretty direct dress code; women normally wear a nice dress, and the men adorned with a nice suit and bow tie. When approach by my director with the specifics of the gala and my attendance being mandatory, I had to...
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...Assignment 3: Nonverbal Communication – Violating Social Norms Assignment 3: Nonverbal Communication – Violating Social Norms When I started this assignment I was totally lost. I couldn’t find which direction to go in until I researched the title and read over the chapters in the book a little more for a better understanding. Then it hit me and I realized how cool I was going to make this assignment. Before I get into the first scenario I want to briefly go over what I learned about nonverbal communication and social norms. Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication is “behaviors and characteristics that convey meaning without the use of words” (Floyd, 2011, p.179). How I interpret the meaning of nonverbal communication? In my opinion these are emotions that are not consciously controlled but an instant reaction off of one of our sudden perceptions. Our senses pick up this vibe. This is why people lean towards respecting nonverbal communication better than what a person actually says out of his/her mouth is because nonverbal communication is more honest. It’s an automatic reaction in most cases like a reflux (123helpme.com, 2000). Using of nonverbal communication. An example of nonverbal communication is “for instance, if someone asks you for directions to the bookstore and you point and say “It’s that way”, your nonverbal behavior (pointing) clarifies the meaning of your verbal message” (Floyd, 2011, p. 179). “In contrast, if you say “It’s...
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...PSYCHOLOGY 260 SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3 SOCIAL NORMS In society today, many people act accordingly to social norms which is generally “implicit or explicit rules a group has for acceptable behaviours” (Aronson, Wilson, Fehr, Akert, 2013). If an individual acts defiantly towards expected behaviours, most of the other people would tend to isolate or reject that individual. In part of my violation of the social norm, I had worn flip-flops with socks the entire Thursday out in public to interpret people’s reactions. This social norm is referred to a descriptive norm, considering that this “behaviour is approved or disapproved of by others” (Aronson et al. 2013). This day was like any other regular Vancouver day, it consisted of rain. It became abundantly clear that the social norm for that day would require an individual to have shoes on. Besides the social context that it is generally uncomfortable walking with your socks drenched in water, some people believe that wearing flip-flops with socks altogether is despicable, and unacceptable social behaviour. As I walk through the school, I began to notice a lot more people looked at me when I walked by, compared to the usual nil before. To my senses, these stares felt nothing like acceptance, but felt more related to exclusion. This was understandable, as groups tend to use “social exclusion as effective ways to enforce normative behaviour” (Whitson, Wang, Kim, Cao, Scrimpshire, 2013). It wasn’t until after school, that...
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...In my Norm Violation assignment I chose to break the common dining etiquette norm of eating with your hands. Since eating with your hands is only deviant behavior in certain dining situations, I chose to break this norm at a local sit-down restaurant in Eugene, Café Soriah. I went to the downtown restaurant with a group of friends for an afternoon meal without telling them of my Norm Violation assignment. Being the only informed one in the experiment seemed like the best way to get the most candid reactions from my peers. When I arrived to the restaurant I immediately noticed several social norms that everyone at the establishment was following. The customers and the staff were well dressed, and everyone was conducting himself or herself in an appropriate indoor manor. Everyone who was dining there was using silverware and had napkins in their laps as well. I also noticed that the group of people I had walked in with had already broken some less serious social norms or folkways. They way we were dressed epitomized college students who were struggling financially and those who did not have dressing nice high on their list of priorities. I could tell that we had instantly acquired stigmas from both the staff and some of the customers, simply by how we were dressed for the setting we were in. However, we were not acting unruly by any means and these stigmatisms seemed to be overlooked once we were seated. We were seated in a very open area of the restaurant and immediately...
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...Shannon Sociology 11th Grade Ms. Tahir 17th of November 2014 Breaking A Social Norm The norm I will be violating is wearing dark sunglasses and wearing a hoodie to school (specifically in classrooms.) The norm I will be violating is nothing but a simple folkway-a rule that covers customary ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving but lack moral overtones. This norm acts as a mechanism of social control because wearing these types of clothes to a school environment show solidarity and maybe somewhat threatens people. Solidarity because you do not fully see the face of the person (hidden) and threatening because you do not know what the person is thinking and the appearance also helps in that. I will be going to specific classrooms of the day and just try to blend in with the crowd and see how people will react. Perhaps the reactions will range from people whispering about how I look to the worst being the teacher will kick me out of class or tell me to go to the principal’s office because of my appearance. I predict that the major reaction I will be getting is someone making fun of me, which will lead to the teacher kicking me out of class. The norm will be taking place at school, which will take place in Choir class with Mr. White and Digital Journalism class with Mr. Bondurant. In Choir class, there will be different types of people observing me. The age range will be from 14 to 17 years old, all from different upbringings and cultures. In Digital Journalism,...
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...fastest growing theories in social science today. Many sociologists and political scientists defend the claim that rational choice theory can provide the basis for a unified and comprehensive theory of social behavior. What distinguishes rational choice theory from other forms of theory is that it denies the existence of any kinds of action other than the purely rational and calculative. All social action can be seen as rationally motivated, as instrumental action, however much of it may appear to be irrational or non-rational. Rational Choice Theory, law-violating behavior should be viewed as an event that occurs when an offender decides to risk violating the law after considering his or her own personal situation need for money, personal values, learning experiences and situational factors how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighborhood is, how efficient the local police happen to be. Before choosing to commit a crime, the reasoning criminal evaluates the risk of apprehension, the seriousness of the expected punishment, the value of the criminal enterprise, and his or her immediate need for criminal gain. Crime prevention or at least crime reduction may be achieved through policies that convince criminals to refrain from criminal activities, delay their actions, or avoid a particular situation. People will engage in criminal and deviant activities if they do not fear apprehension and punishment. Norms, laws, and enforcement are to...
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...about violating gender norms: Boys shouldn't look like girls, and girls shouldn't act like boys. Sex roles, 48(9-10), 411-419. Blakemore’s article examines children’s views about violating gender norms as compared to social norms. The understanding of this concept increased with age. The author concluded that generally boys with feminine characteristics were judged more negatively than girls with masculine characteristics. This source is useful in researching how children perform gender and how society enforces the heteronormative ideal. Gagen, E. A. (2000). Performing gender in America’s playgrounds. Children’s geographies: playing, living, learning, 213-229. Gagen’s book focuses on how the playground is a learning environment for performing gender. The author explores the performative nature of gender identity in all ages, and found it is most abundant in children. The placement of a certain gender is not inevitable, but closely managed by authoritative figures. This is a useful source because it explores how the playground teaches children how to perform their predetermined gender by socializing with other children....
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...Violating Social Norms I. Social Norm Violated Society today is shaped by norms and customs that we as humans abide by. Many norms are followed without opinion or realization that it is being done. Norms are unwritten but traditionally followed. One norm that is an understood rule is how one should behave in an elevator. For instance, it is proper to face front, stand with a respectable distance away from the person next to you, to look forward, and not stare. Being polite is acceptable with a greeting or so but normally that is all. I violated this norm by standing very closely to people as they entered the elevator and uncomfortably staring at them, I also faced the back of the elevator and sang loudly. That one was easiest for me because I didn’t really have to look at the person the entire time but the consequence was I did not get to fully visualize their reaction. II. Reaction of Others When a social norm is broken people may respond with alarm, humor, fear, irritation, or an array of other emotions. When you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about being normal. But in psychology terms, norm means, a standard or representative value for a group. The norm that is more universal to people is social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior, thoughts or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context. While I violated the social norm of elevator etiquette, I had a few different reactions. I first faced the back of the elevator...
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...Deviance is defined as as a violation of social norms, in regards to sociology. But what if deviance is actually just the opposite? What if deviance is simply a social norm? Cultural deviance theory suggests that the conformity to cultural norms of lower class societies actually causes crime. Simply stated, if you are in a lower class of society, committing a crime is actually an act of conformity. In the case of these poor societies, it is more obscure to not conform to the consistent lifestyle of crime. Moreover, does deviance really even exist in these societies? Those born into a lower class society, according to the cultural deviance theory, are born into a life of crime. Members of the poor society are expected to commit crimes, due...
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...DEVIANCE Sociology defines social deviance as an act of omission or commission of an offense where perpetrators risk facing state prosecution and legal punishment. Therefore, the sociological study of deviance looks at various social laws, their influence on the individual and societal behavior, and potential punishments for lawbreakers. Indeed, Kubrin, Stucky, & Krohn, (2009) note that sociology appreciates the fact that social norms vary in description across societies. This implies that an action that is deviant to one community may be morally acceptable to another. Moreover, sociology recognizes that while societies play a more important role than individuals do in creating and imposing norms and rules. This means that views on deviant acts existing in individuals more likely relate to their society’s responses to the behavior (Kubrin, Stucky, & Krohn, 2009). Norms are rules and expectations by which members of society are conventionally guided. Deviance is a failure to conform to these norms. Social norms differ from culture to culture. For example, a deviant act can be committed in one society that breaks a social norm there, but may be normal for another society. Over the years, sociologists have come up with numerous theories and concepts that help explain the causes, effects, and solutions to deviance. For instance, originally studied at the Chicago School, the social disorganization theory owes its application to deviance as a social issue to Roger Miller and...
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...Norm Violation Analysis A social norm, or folkway, is a guideline for how a certain society thinks or behaves. A violation of a social norm is when a person has an abnormal way of thinking and violates the acceptable behavior in that society. Often, we do not realize that folkways exist because we are so accustomed in the ways that we are taught at a young age. I have undertaken the task of breaking a social norm with a neighboring university campus. I chose to walk on the left side of the sidewalk several times during class changes at Appalachian State University, on the most congested part of campus. I would act like I was oblivious to the fact that I was on the left side of the sidewalk, either being on my cell phone or looking at my...
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...Gender are behaviors that are expected in society based on cultural expectations attributes. However, Cultural expectations have distinctive views of what makes someone famine and masculine. Ridgeway says “Gender is based on a social group that categorizes males and females” (4).This shows that women and males have their own distinctive behaviors when they need to interact with one another in the workforce. Race and social class defines what gender a female and male are categorized. For example, males who are middle class have higher social class. While woman have lower class and are put to jobs that are unworthy. In 3 minute thesis is based on status and gestors based on presentation. Norm’s behavior defines how a male and...
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...Explain how culture and socialisation interact in a sociological context? Culture is our knowledge we gain from birth as a result of our immersement into our cultural group. Socialisation is the way in which we learn this information we gain from such contact. When we look at the two ‘Culture and Socialisation’ and study how this interaction occurs, what is gained, changed, modified, etc we are defining the interaction of culture and socialisation and how they react to each other we are using ‘Sociology’. Culture is known to us as the knowledge you learn from birth, from within your own group. It involves learning and establishing our languages, belief’s, norms, mores, sanctions, both positive and negative influences, sub and counter cultures. When we learn a culture we are learning a “peoples values – their ideas of what is desirable in life.”( Henslin, Possamai & Possamai-Indesedy 2011, p. 50) Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. We learn to cope with being thrown into this culture, we learn how to adapt and copy from our family circle, mother, father, siblings, perhaps, extended families including aunties and uncles and cousins. We learn the gestures, so we become acceptable and socialised within this group. Socialisation on the other hand is the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group and their culture, therefore shaping the identity. “We start to become aware...
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...Deviance (deviation) – behavior that differs from the norms or accepted social standards and is condemned by the society. The theory of strain and anomie, presenting that deviant behavior holds that people are more likely to pursue illegitimate means to attaining culturally prescribed goals when they are blocked from accessing the institutionalized means to these goals, allows us to consider deviance as the result of the social pressure, but not of the negative attitude to the social values, standards, and goals attaining, highly appreciated within the measures of this culture. This means that the theory leaves the chance for criminals, implying the necessity of reorganization or society in order to approach to the ideal of democracy and equality of rights. Still comparing this concept with the Cultural Transmission Theory we can see several disadvantages of the previous one. First, strain theory was determined by the author to analyze different pattern of adaptation (conformity innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion) to the disjunction between the emphasis on cultural goals and institutional means. Saying that conformism, in particular, implies adjustment to the accepted ways of achieving the goals, whereas conformity in different subcultures may cause adaptation to the previously accepted deviant norms within this community. That means that previous conception does not work in the community where deviant behavior, norms, values are considered as favorable, in this way...
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