Fun with Social Norms: Violation of Normal Essay

The way I violated this norm was for the entirety of a day I would either look straight down or straight up when talking to someone. By doing this it would prevent me from making eye contact thus breaking the norm.

For my experiment on breaking norms, I choose to chew with my mouth open in the Clinton Dining Hall, and Subway’s eating area. I was very nervous to break this norm because I was brought up knowing that eating with my mouth open was not polite in public. I felt that maybe people would get

As a student, I am often troubled by the rigid routines of the school day, despite the fact that I am actually a very habitual person. The constant ringing of bells, lectures, bellwork, classwork, homework, each a daily practice throughout the school year. Although all of these components promote conformity, which will ultimately support the balance of school and societal norms, they also tend to threaten each student’s own unique characteristics. This then poses the question; to what degree should schools encourage conformity versus individuality? Certainly, a level of conformity is required to achieve a balanced society however, the overall structure of the school day and class, including the methods used to teach and mandatory classes,

Would the study results be the same if the participants were from a different cultural,

The objective of my experiment was to see how people reacted to a violation in the social norms of elevator etiquette. Generally in elevators, people are expected to fill in starting from the back, facing the elevator doors, rarely making verbal contact, with the possible exception of finding out which floor people are heading to. 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 were in place, such as the informal rule that individuals should stand (rather than sit) in an elevator, and violated those unspoken rules without actually doing anything that would not be perfectly acceptable in another social setting.

Most individuals in society are conformist and make sure to stay in the loop. For my experiment, I decided to break the social norm of small talk in public restrooms. Everyone knows to go to the restroom, do their duty, wash your hands and go on your way. Individuals do not take the time to socialize while in the stall especially when someone is focused on not making too much noise. So, what I had done was start small talk with other women who would go into the stall next to me and even got a little personal which would cause embarrassment. With this in mind, I imagined girls would just simply ignore my comments or even ask me to leave them alone; also, older women would respond kinder than a teenager.

The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can

I remember the incident during my stay in Spain. My friends introduced me to their friends and their families. My reaction to the greeting first alerted them, and then became the general fun, but I understand that for my part it was exactly a microaggression. At the moment of greeting, a person leanin towards you and thrice touches your cheek with his/her cheek, imitating a kiss, and you should greet this way with everyone. My first reaction I pulled away. The closest friend of my acquaintances perceived my reaction as a personal dislike.

My experiment consisted of me asking strangers, on the streets of Downtown Grand Rapids, for directions to Rosa Park’s Circle, and invading their personal space. To start, I would approach a stranger; tell them that I am lost, and that I am in need of directions to the Rosa Park’s Circle. As strangers began giving directions to me, I inched closer and closer to them. In addition to invading their personal space, I also held intense eye contact with them, trying my best not to blink. The whole time, although it was difficult, I kept a straight face while I performed my experiment. To make sure that I gathered enough information, and a variety of results, I tested my

A norm is defined as expectations, or rules of behavior that reflect and enforce behavior.(Henslin, 2009) When people are in public settings we expect individuals to behave in a certain way. For example when standing in line to see a show or to purchase an item we expect everyone to stand in a single file line. We expect individuals to wait their turn as they proceed to the front of the line. Another expectation or norm is we expect individuals to have dinning etiquette when eating in restaurants. We expect people to dine using the proper utensils. I thought about this example as I was pondering for an observation to perform. I decided that I would take a chance and visit a well respected restaurant in my area and break the norm

This is report is about the reactions of personal space when invaded. A total of 20 strangers were tested to see how different genders and ages react to strangers coming to close. The experiment took place in Woden plaza where a student stood behind a subject and watched there reaction from the closeness. It was found that 60% of the subjects did react to the close proximities. This reports also shows different theories to why people act the way they do when they feel violated.

In order for you to continue to stay accepted in the current social society you live in today you must follow a certain set of social norms throughout your life, most of the time you do without even realizing it. As well as be followed social norms are broken everyday all around you on all sorts of different levels some harmless and some more serious and punishable such as stealing. Since I have moved out to Santa Barbara and have been experiencing life here now in school and outside of class I have really come to love the beautiful scenic and friendly feel that is given off here with the excessive palm trees on the streets filled with young eager students adjusting to the new college feel and experience finally living away from home on

Since it’s a public place there is a variety of people observing when I break the social norm. There are costumers in the restaurants, waiters/waitresses working, security officials and cleaning staff. Also the ages vary from toddlers to elders so I can be able to receive reactions from different types of

This breaching experiment broke a folkway, a non-serious societal norm, by inverting forms of salutations and farewells in everyday interactions for a period of five days in all forms of communication. Afterwards, I informed all the people I observed in order to maintain an ethical study. I mixed up which forms of goodbye I would initiate conversations with and which farewells I would close with. These ranged from “salutations” to “bye” or “hello” to “farewell”.

At a very early age, children learn about social norms to help them become proper citizens in society. Examples of some social norms that students learn are: “do not yell in the library,” “do not speak unless spoken to,” “do not talk to strangers,” and “close the door when you use the restroom.” As you grow older, these rules become unspoken because everyone knows how to act like a proper individual in society. The textbook definition of a social norm is something that is a rule of behavior that society accepts. (Bicchieri) Since everyone knows these unsaid rules of society, what would happen when someone decides not to follow these rules? What would people think and react? In this paper, I discuss my violation of the social norm “don’t talk to strangers” and discuss what I learned from this experiment.