The norm I decided to break was number two: proximity norms. I decided that school was the perfect place to test our this project. I think it's safe to say that in our culture, it's not exactly normal to stand too close to complete stranger, or even in this case, friends. If it was normal, we wouldn't have to popular term, "personal space" and/or our "personal bubbles." Before I broke the norm, I was actually extremely nervous. I had lots of thoughts going through my mind. I had feelings of nervousness that were similar to a strange form of anxiety. More so than that, I had this nagging fear in the back of my mind about being judged for doing something that was so abnormal. Right from the start those feelings made this project particularly overwhelming, and I think that's why. Everybody has an overpowering urge to be completely normal or to be accepted and violating social norms such as the proximity norm, makes it feel impossible to be accepted at all. To break the norm, whenever I saw a friend at their locker, I approached them and stoof within a foot away while they were getting …show more content…
It sounds absurd to think that something this simple could be so challenging, but when it's something that is seen as socially unacceptable, it's a natural instinct to not want to do it. If I had to rate this experience on a scale of 1-10, it would easily be a 9. I think that possibly the most challenging part of it was resisting to tell other people the reasoning behind breaking this social norm, and I think that's because being that people around me saw it as "socially unacceptable," my immediate reaction was to give an explanation. I'd rather have a reason for acting weird than have people think that I really was, and that could be where social norms actually stem from. All in all, the project itself was fun to do in the moment, but the before and after made me very
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 breaching social norm experiment I was determined to do something I would never do even if it was a dare, especially since my ability to interact with strangers is not the best. So, I decided to make people feel uncomfortable by holding their hand. What I would do is walk up to the person from behind and slowly make my way to their hand to make them feel even more uncomfortable. People normally hold hands with their significant other, or with someone they know like a friend or family member, so to be holding hands with a stranger is out of the ordinary and awkward.
Every society and culture has their own societal norms. These norms distinguish what kind of behavior people are expected to engage in. When a person behaves in a way that violates a particular society’s norms and a percentage of that society looks down upon that behavior, that person’s behavior would be classified as deviant (textbook 1). For example it is a societal norm in the United States for adult men to be employed, so people expect them to be employed. If a 30 year old male does not have a job, then people in his society would look upon him negatively, and the 30 year old would be categorized as a deviant.
All six studies used self-reports. Although this methodology clearly has its shortcomings, available alternatives are not necessarily better. I wanted to examine not just one but multiple behaviors that violate social norms. In addition, I wanted to examine the relationship between social control and civil courage, which would not have been possible if the design had enacted a single uncivil/immoral behavior like Baumert et al. (2013), Chekroun and Brauer (2002). Future studies may benefit from the inclusion of behavioral measures of people's actual reactions to norm transgressions. In an earlier study (Brauer & Chekroun, 2005), the correlation between self-reported social control reactions and actual behaviors was .86 (across situations).
In class, we recently learned about norms and values within our society. Some basic values held by society are honesty, kindness, and family while some norms in society are to wear clothes when you go out in public, don’t drink in public, and to say hello to people you know in public. In our experiment, my group and I decided to break a norm and say hello to people that we have never met before and throughout the experiment we received different reactions. Some people said hello back, while others either ignored us or gave us a strange look. One theory that guided this experiment was Emile Durkhiem’s ideas on social facts and collective conscience.
My “breaking a norm” project was an interesting experience. For my assignment, I went to Walmart and engaged in conversations with random people. I would ask them about their day and ask them a simple question about themselves. Normally people keep to themselves while shopping, or they engage with people that they are familiar with. I figured that this would be a good option for the assignment because people would not expect it. The experience was a little hard for me because I am not a social person.
It is actually a great deal of fun to behave outside of the socially excepted norm when you are with people that are unwilling to follow suit. I was able to get away with my behavior because no one was willing to say anything for fear of “causing a scene.” There is great power in having no shame. I eventually explained the reason for my behavior and all is well with my new friend. During my second trial, I made the same approach with a female subject. I treated her gesture with more contempt than in my first trial. I did not feel as embarrassed or out of place as I did with the young man. I credit this comfort level to the fact that I had practiced this behavior once before and with practice comes confidence. This particular young lady was clearly an extroverted personality type and did not take my offense as gracefully as had the young man. This may have been because my offense was bolder than the first trial. She showed her offense by looking me up and down and with one hand on her hip, stated, “Anyways…” She proceeded to ignore my presence and continued her conversation with our mutual friend. This experiment obviously had a specific angle and expected result. The typical result will be discomfort and even mild hostility. I really enjoyed watching people struggle in between responding how they “ought” to instead of how the instinctively wanted to. For me, the most valuable lesson learned is the advantage
This thinking brought me to the topic of social norms. I did research into what
I did nothing at Santoros restaurant for ten minutes. This restaurant is located inside a hockey rink where I am very familiar with the environment. Since I knew many people around, the most common question I was asked was, “what are you doing?” The people that reacted were mostly people I'm acquainted with. The people I didn't know as well usually gave me a questioning look but kept walking. I was very uncomfortable at first because you are literally standing there in the middle of a busy place doing nothing. In our society it is very out of the norm and people find it “strange” when someone is just standing there doing nothing. In this experiment we were breaking the norm of always having to do something. As time went on I started to become
Another of my norm observations was when I was walking to the campus cafeteria. Every Wednesday I have the opportunity to eat at the campus cafeteria. I usually don’t do so, because I am always leaving campus right after my class, so I don’t spend much time on the BC campus, but a few weeks ago I got a little earlier out of class, so I was not in a rush to get my food, and I started observing the people around me. While I was walking, I heard a dangling sound, like a cat’s bell, and people were looking towards me strange. I knew I didn’t have anything on me that made that noise, and it made me feel uncomfortable with the way people were looking my way, so I turned around and I noticed a group of four people behind me who were all dressed in
Within this essay an analyses will be taking a close inspection of two articles in an attempt to derive a deeper understanding of the points spoken therein, and to achieve a frank comparison of the ideals written within them.
Social deviance is a violation of social norms. So what qualifies as a social deviant? According to sociologist, Howard S. Becker the best definition of social deviance is, “It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that do something deviant.” In cultures around the world, there are many practices Americans find deviant, but in other cultures, it’s the norm. In many countries around the world, girls are married as young as 11 years old. To Americans, that is considered child abuse and rape, but that is only because of our social norms. To the men and parents in different countries, it is perfectly normal because their social norms. In America, social deviance comes in many different forms. We have our sexual deviants,
Since my group had won, my friends and I were portrayed as "jerks" to those freshman girls. I was afraid that she would think that i was a that type of person so I immediately strayed away from my friends.
For four long years I felt as if my high school was in a different world in of itself. I had spent that time interacting with an extensive amount of groups, or “cliques”, and getting to know what they do. Through my experiences, I had begun to realize what made this “subculture” high school of sorts run like it did. High school is an incredibly dynamic time for people, and I had changed as a person dramatically from my freshman to senior year. Like many, my freshman year was quite awkward, as remnants of my middle school self remained with me. As time went on, how, I talked to more people and grew out of my passive and shy personality. This did not just randomly happen without reason though. I began to learn and realize who I was and whom I enjoyed talking to in school, which explained why I spent so much time socializing with multiple kinds and groups of people. Everyone’s concept of “normal” was different, and high school was where I learned that lesson and will never forget.
For my breaching experiment I decided to violate this tacit rule to see how people reacted when their space was violated. I am a very clean person and I can not stand when people are to close to me, so this experiment was something I knew would be a challenge for me.