Reflective Essay (Breaking a Social Norm)

Akers, R. (2006). Parental and peer influences on adolescent drug use in Korea. Asian Journal of Criminology.

Social Norms can be defined as expectations, or rules of behavior, that develop out of values or morals. Someone’s values can be defined as their idea of what is desirable in life. People develop expectations of what is the right way to reflect these values. When norms are violated people are usually shocked and form sanctions from the norm that is being broken, either positively or negatively. For this paper I was required to violate a norm.

Everyone is an outsider. I mean think of it. There are so many different groups of people in today’s world, that for one person to be involved in every aspect of those groups, they would have no free time whatsoever. Take a high school for example. You have the athletes, the academic group, the geeky group, and to add on to these, it is like there are sub groups as well. Some geeks like to play sports, some athletes are very intelligent, there is no one way to place them all into one specific box. Now when the term outsider arises, that can only be taken in context. For example, an outsider to an athlete, can be that kid that only sits outside and reads during lunch, but an outsider to that kid, is another guy who is playing basketball by

In our society we have a number of society norms that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator. For example, it is proper to face front, stand away from strangers, and not to look at 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 common to people is a social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context.

My mother has always told me that certain things should not be done in public. Social norms are opinions and beliefs that are shared amongst a group. Throughout our lives our parents tell us things that aren’t socially acceptable, and that there are consequences for those actions. Those that don’t act in ways that are socially acceptable are isolated from society. Norms help to guide the general public by reinforcing it with a punishment in waiting.

Being an outsider is a position that an individual does not fit in with the rest of society. Areas of society are often called clique at which we feel like we must coordinate our actions to follow and pleases. Those actions leads to the anonymous question should the outside, those who do not follow the rest be embraced or rejected. Corresponding with the rights of our world, we are seen as equal, yet we do not always follow that. Outsiders should be rejected, providing them growth, individuality through independence and, crucial life skills.

The Purpose of this essay is to reflect upon an experience which relates to the chosen topic of dignity and respect, this was highlighted in my self-assessment (please see appendix) Acknowledging a persons’ dignity can contribute to their sense of good health, well-being and independence. Dignity is an essential element of high quality care and involves aspects such as respect, privacy, autonomy and self-worth (The Welsh Assembly, 2007)

In our society we have a number of norms that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator. It is “proper” to face front, stand away from strangers, and not to look at others. When a social norm is broken people may respond with alarm, humour, fear, irritation, or an array of other emotions. When you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about simply being normal. But in psychology terms, norm means a standard or representative value for a group. A social norm is some sort of an expectation that our society has that is deemed normal by that society; they tell us which behaviors, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a given

Human beings are defined as ''social animals'' because in every aspects of life they live together, they form a variety of groups and improve relationships with each other. Interaction with others is a natural result of living in society. In the process of interaction, society and its rules has a social impact on each individual. If people face with any kind of social impact such as group pressure, great part of them show conformity by changing their behaviors, ideas, decisions in expected way. A person conforms if he or she chooses a course of action that a majority favors or that is socially acceptable. Some kind of conformity is natural and socially healthy but obeying all the norms, ideas, and decisions without thinking or accepting

I empathised with her situation, however I maintained the professional boundaries and avoided using sympathy. I could clearly see that I wasn’t going to be able to offer her a solution to her problem and in this unfortunate case I was unable to take her enquiry further. Consequently, she was aware she had to settle for a lesser grade or a potential fail, however had an awareness of what she had to do for future practice.

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

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

In today's day and age contemporary society's are built upon the thought of citizen conformity to a prescribed set of values and norms to. This idea of complies to social standards makes one think as to how these norms of fact society as a whole and an individual. The main driving component which draws people too conformity are the desire to be excepted in certain status groups. People fear that if they do not conformity is norms that they will be breaking the social contract therefore been shunned by society at not being able to achieve their personal goals. Further analysis of these forces for conformity in contemporary society it will be shown that these forces produced negative ethical conduct and

The dreaded English 102. Could this be my final English course in my career as a student? I don’t know for sure. I still need to decide what my major will be in. There is something that I know for sure, that is, needing to take this class to move on. I am not certain how my time in this class will go, but I plan to work hard to get the best grade that I can. Hence, I have decided to get this out of the way now, I look to fine-tune my writing skills, and I expect this course to help me understand my writing style.

An individual’s role in society can vary with the number themes the characters exhibit. When there are signs of fate, cruelties, weaknesses, and desires for justice and catharsis the role of an individual becomes more complicated. In Antigone, most of those themes are shown thus a single person’s influence or role on society is very small and complicated to attain. However in The Lottery the society has most of the control and there is not many signs of those characteristics so the role of a person is simplified because they are nothing compared to the society combined. Finally, in The Penalty of Death, there are signs of many of the themes but since it is the societies influence against that of an individuals, it is simplified because