Social Norms

Have you ever done something so odd and so weird that you got hundreds of funny looks in your direction? Usually, when you get these looks, you are breaking some sort of social norm. Social norms are rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a society during certain situations, but breaking the social norms can be highly frowned upon in the social world we live in today. Certain social norms that are universally known include driving on the right side of the road, keeping a pinky promise and living by the golden rule. Social norms can keep a community together and running smoothly if used, but many people like to push the boundaries of normality to see what happens and how others will respond. Although, I do not embarrass easily, I thought it would be interesting to see people’s reactions if for just one day I violated a social norm.

The five social norms that I am glad exist are the standards of personal space, the expected standard for personal hygiene, the expected standard for manners in public i.e. avoiding belching or flatulating in public areas, the norm of individual choices, and the social norm of education being a standard.

One of the most controversial studies in the history of psychology is Stanley Milgram’s Obedience experiment, which revealed the power of obedience and the horrendous acts people would commit when faced by an authority figure. Milgram selected male participants to be part of a learning study. He got people to be either the learner or the teacher. It was fixed that they were always the teacher. The teacher would shock the learner if they would get the problem wrong. The results showed that the participants would obey if person giving orders is close by, if person giving orders is perceived as legitimate authority figure, if person giving orders is affiliated with prestigious institution, if victim is in separate room. Milgram’s experiment changed how people viewed what others would do in situations. People could see that the ones doing horrendous acts are not any different than the average person rather they are just people following order. Milgram showed that obedience is a very powerful tool and anyone can be subjected to be under the influence. Another similar experiment is the Stanford Prison experiment, which had college students acting like guards and inmates. The participants took their roles very seriously. The guards started to treat the inmates bad and started to physically abuse them. The experiment was a success in the sense it proved that people will take on these roles and abide by them but, it was alarming to

Sociology can be used to explain the social norms and sanctions that are associated with everything that we do. In order to examine social norms, we must use the sociological imagination to make the familiar strange. To do that, we must critically think about the social interactions that take place around us and look at them from different points of view. I observed students interacting with each other and with dining hall employees in Campus Center Dining Hall (CCDH) in order to determine the social norms and sanctions that occur there.

Hello Kiersten…I like how you went into the types and classes of deviance and defined each of them. I definitely agreed with you that human trafficking would be considered a deviant group because these groups of people are engaging in behaviors that violate the social norm. This is a crime to humanity not just to these victims. I puzzled me to know that 14,500- 17,500 people are being trafficked into the United States yearly. This is preposterous to know that as a world power, we are allowing such behavior to go on. You also mentioned the emotional, physical, mental and psychological effect on these victims. Last year, I read a story about a Chinese lady named Lili Huang, 35, who brought a 58-year-old woman from China to work for her as a nanny

There is a reason behind almost everything that humans do during everyday life. However, we do not think about why we waved back at the person across the street, we just do it. Interpreting that person’s wave and reacting to it by waving back, smiling, or nodding is a part of sociology. After taking a sociology class you realize all these everyday behaviors have meaning. Now, all of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I get into an elevator, wait in line at the grocery store, or even how I view myself.

The social norm that I wanted to perform an experiment on, was a social norm of only wearing CSS or affiliated programs apparel at practice. This norm is easy to follow, but I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if I wore an opposing team’s apparel. As a transfer soccer player from St. Catherine University, I decided that would be a perfect opposing team to represent. So, at practice, I decided to have all of my CSS practice stuff on and have a St. Kate’s sweatshirt on instead of our typical warmup. The school colors are completely different, so I really stood out with my dark purple and yellow sweatshirt.

Everyday, American individuals conform to social norms by observing or interacting with one another. These unspoken rules guide how individuals are expected to behave in society. A culture is a set of values, beliefs, and behavior that outlines a person’s way of life, and by conforming to societal norms, humans are creating their own culture. However, when norms are violated, one may respond with any sort of emotions including anger, confusion, or being afraid. Without norms, the world would be chaotic. People would break laws making this world unsafe. For this assignment, I was told to observe people's reaction by breaking a folkway, a type of social norm that results in small consequences.

Social norm is the understanding people can influence our behavior in day to day basis. In social norms in society there is implicit rules which, is known as the not spoken but, you learn them when you deviate the rule by breaking the social norms in society such as, values, beliefs, attitudes, morals and behavior. People tend to follow the norms of society or the group. But, not following the social norms of society, individuals might think your deviant. However, social norms can be biased sometimes because, every culture has different norms and values. For example, shaking hands between both genders is very common in western countries because, it's seen as a norm. Whereas, in other parts of the world handshake between men and women can

In a matter of time, women will eventually attain the same status as men in terms of social deviance and criminality. It can be broken down into positive and negative context based on society and people's perception. For example, as the world becomes progressive women will try to retain more power or will seek more power. But it will make them to violate social norms which will label women as criminal. History shows us that time to time our powerful women figure did violet laws in their timeperiod to prove a point. For example one hand Margaret Sanger was seen as a criminal during her time since she initatited the idea of birth control. Other hand there was Razor gang leader Matilda Devine from Austrilia who had over 79 convictions. She begin

Philip Zimbardo is known for his famous prison experiment that revealed some important facts about human nature. This type of experiment had never been done before. The Stanford prison experiment was designed to find out “whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment” (McLeod 1). Zimbardo was influenced by the Milgram experiment, which was a study of the power of the situation. He says that the Milgram experiment was focused on one-on-one social power. Zimbardo’s experiment was focused on institutional power over the individual in groups due to the change of the environment. Zimbardo has written many books about social psychology, which is the study of human behaviors and the social situation. I learned about Zimbardo in my Psychology 100 class. He was born on March 23, 1933, and is still alive to this day. His studies and experiments are what influenced me to go into the field of psychology. Zimbardo is a crucial social psychologist because of his prison experiment, which led to unique discoveries.

In Donald Black’s The Behavior of Law (1976), Black maintains that law is the governments’ way of attaining social control, and law is “the normative life of a state and its citizens, such as legislation, litigation, and adjudication (p .2).” For Black, law is a quantitative variable that varies across time, and the structural and cultural aspects of society can predict the style, form, and quantity of social control at any given time. Law is predicted by the conditions under which various types of control systems develop, the kinds of people who use them, and the case outcomes that emerge. The social structure of cases, including the social characteristics of offenders and their victims, supporters and adjudicators, can explain the

Social norms marketing draws on assumptions from psychology of norms, and suggest that individuals behave in ways consistent with what they believe other are doing, or what they believe others believe they should be doing (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). In the above poster, the social norm being challenged surrounds the abuse (overconsumption or consumption without supervision) of prescription drugs. The text reads “97.3% of UND [University of North Dakota] students do not abuse prescription drugs”. This seems to address the misconception that “everyone” is doing drugs, and uses this statistic to imply that abuse of prescription drugs among undergraduates happens less frequently than message receivers might suspect.

Behavioral economists understand that human are impacted by heuristics. Heuristics is important for understanding our humanness; they shape our biases. The Bible teaches that God is the only perfect being. Christians try to attain spiritual perfection, but know that is not possible. Economic behaviorists understand that humans will never be perfect. Humans are impulsive, emotional, and commit sin. The Lord and Savior is without sin. Christians, like economic behaviorists, recognize their humanness and sinfulness, and are better able to make adjustments, thereby controlling their behavior and facilitating long-term positive health care changes.

barriers to the active participation of health volunteers reflecting “the inadequate capability of the volunteers and trainers”, “inadequate acceptance of the volunteers”, “restrictive social norms” and “organizational problems” themes were explored by qualitative research. Sub-themes included Inadequate knowledge of volunteers, Inadequate skills of the volunteers/ trainers, Inefficient communication, Not taking care of the population covered by the program, Organizational distrust, Unrealistic expectations and systemic confusion, Escaping and denial of responsibility, Lack of motivation and organizational support and Educational Failure. The first round questionnaire consisted of 10 questions, the questions were formulated exploratory (open