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How Conformity Plays A Big Part Essay

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In society, when it comes to understanding what a deviant act is, we must be able to understand how conformity plays a big part. A person cannot simply understand what is deviant without understand conformity, it’s almost like society and culture; both intertwine and cannot be understood without one another. The need to belong is a basic human motive and even if they may not agree with everything in society, humans conform because they fear of being disbanded or sanctioned from the group. Norms also play a big part in deviance, norms are the rules on how a person should behave, but when someone breaks those rules, then it is deviant. Now, norms vary in different places. In many countries, the death penalty is extremely deviant, but is accepted in America. Also, because society can change overtime, so do norms. In the 1600 century and for a long time, slavery was justified as okay because people were making profit. Today, murder, adultery, gambling, drugs, cheating on tests, and skipping class are all considered deviant acts. If an individual violates a norm, it is expected to receive responses from others; negative sanctions. The intensity of the negative sanction depends on the importance of the norm. There’s two types of sanctions; informal and formal. Informal sanctions come from social groups and can vary from dirty stares from friends and family to disapproval by the group. A formal sanction comes organizations within society and can vary from fines to prison. So,
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