Society's Guidelines And Standards

Have you ever wondered why we hold the doors for those behind us? How about the reason we use utensils when we eat? What about why we always stand facing the doors in the elevator? These are all examples of what are known as social norms. According to Dr. Ward social norms are “basic rules of society that help people know what is and is not appropriate to do in any situation.” These basic rules of society are usually unwritten and unspoken and many of us pick up on them over time. Although, some social norms are very common throughout many cultures, there is a lot of them that vary depending on which culture you are apart of. For example, here in America, a major social norm that we have is when eating, the polite thing to do is to use spoons and forks, instead of digging in with your hands. For instance, we would not eat spaghetti with our hands but we would use a fork. In some Thiland cultures it is considered rude to put most foods in your mouth with a fork. Then there is also some cultures such as Chile in which it is impolite to use your hands for anything, even foods such as french fries, they use forks while eating.

What differentiates American society from other societies is the rules and values that they follow. In sociology, these are called norms. Norms govern our lives by showing us how to behave in a certain ways. Codified norms turn into laws. One such norm is to shake hands when meeting someone. Another norm is when using public transportation, to give up his or her seat to someone who is elderly, disabled or pregnant. William Graham Sumner was one of the first American sociologists to distinguish between norms and folkways. Folkways stem from norms that most often are done unconsciously, and emerge from repetition. They are vital to society, are flexible, and do not provoke strong public responses if broken (Sumner, 1906, p. 1).

Everyday we have social norms that we live up to. There is so many social norms that we are so used to doing that you would have never thought would be a social norm. Some examples include brushing your teeth, saying please and thank you. Although these are things a lot of us do other people may not consider them social norms. Social norms are different everywhere and what society you are coming from.

Society tends to have a set definition of what “normal” means as well as how people should behave. The view a population has on normality is an outcome of culture, individuals, and the environment that surrounds it. A person is raised to regard behavior in a certain way, which tends to result in them having a fixed opinion of what is acceptable. An issue of this phenomenon arises when people cannot endure others having a different standpoint on what is customary. It causes individuals to argue and leads to the inferior giving in, submitting to those whose views are much more socially accepted. When the majority pressures their opinions on

In society people are expected to follow many unwritten rules that are thought to be the “norm”. When one decides to break one of societies unwritten rules it puts not only the rule breaker but everyone around in positions where they are forced out of their comfort zones and must adjust to the abnormal. For this assignment the task was to choose multiple norms to break in front of various audiences then analyze the experience both as the norm breaker and reactions of the unknowing audience. This paper will discuss breaking of an interpersonal behavior norm by standing too close to others while browsing various stores in a mall. Also a social etiquette norm will be evaluated by choosing to sit on the floor at a food service establishment to

Whether one realizes it or not, the world we live in is governed by certain expectations and unwritten rules that our society creates. These expected behaviors are called norms. When one establishes the role that they play in society, they are governed by the expectations that society places on that specific role. Norms give order to a society, but is that enough to say that they are good for citizens? Are these norms needed to govern our behavior in a way that our government cannot? Social norms and the effect that they can have on a person or group of people is shown through Shakespeare's The Tempest. The characters in The Tempest are negatively affected by the unwritten social norms that they are expected to follow, and today these

In society, social norms are conducted to define an appropriate behavior of how a person should be, specifying what is considered as "right" or "wrong." When a specific person does not follow the norms, they are seen as different, and is regarded as an outsider. According to Orson Scott Card, an outsider is a person who does not belong in a particular social group. He states all human beings are outsiders, because nobody ever feels like they are accepted by others.

It is often questioned what determines deviance, or what norms are people complying to that determines what is deviant and what is not. I have noted that the norms that determine deviance change depending on the particular setting, but which person determines these norms? Is the person that is deemed the most powerful the one that establishes these norms? Such as the referee, or the preacher, because these people are most often seen as the most influential, do they determine the behavior that is acceptable in that specific setting? “Human beings need norms to guide and direct their behavior, to provide order and predictability in social relationships and to make sense of and understanding of each other’s actions” (McLeod). Are the difference in norms due to the idea that they must change in order to make sense of the change in behavior between two settings?

To understand why we have a sense of conformity, we must first understand value. “Values are used to learn people’s culture, ideas, and what they want out of life (Henslin 49). Every culture has similar and different values. “Norms are the expectations a group develops concerning the ‘right’ way to reflects its values” (Henslin49). An example of a norm would be personal space and speaking quietly in certain places such as a library. When norms are violated people often begin to question the person’s sanity and well-being based on how extreme the norm violation was.

As we all have observed, throughout history each culture or society has unique norms that are acceptable to that group of people. Therefore, to establish and come to the acceptance of these basic norms, each society must develop its’ own strategies and techniques to encourage the fundamentals of behavior, which is clear in our modern society. Most do assume that everyone in a society will follow and respect such norms. However, some tend to deviate from the adequate norms and demonstrate deviant behavior. Nevertheless, we are inclined to ask ourselves, why do people decide to violate such important standards of living?

According to Gordon (1976), "It is clear to the teenager that he or she should have a date after school, and it is clear to the average man or woman that he should have a mate, family, a circle of friends." Cultural expectations for social relationships change with age. For instance, while it is appropriate for young children to have their primary emotional attachment to their parents, young adults are expected to develop new attachments to dating partners and later to a spouse. Therefore, Daniel Perlman and Letitia Anne Peplau stated that when a person's social relationships do not keep pace with age-related changes in normative standards for relationships, he or she is likely to feel

In this paper I’m writing about a violation i witness, and one norm violation i committed myself. Before I did this I had to figure what a norm was. “Norms are reality expectations and the right behavior” (Aiken, 1991, p.121). Avoiding a norm violation is to go against the right behavior that you shouldn’t commit if it isn’t the right thing to do. There are many types of norm violations you can break. Mores are the “Norms are very strict to enforce because they are thought different essential to the core values of the group” (Aiken, 1991, p. 132). A folkway is a “norm that isn’t as strict and enforced as mores or values” (Aiken, 1991, p. 136). Norms aren’t the same everywhere, because behaviors that might be legal to do in the United States can be illegal in other countries and they can get offended if you disrespect them. Cultures are a very big thing when it comes to being respectful and disrespectful when it comes to a perspective of behavior. This is due to different type of cultural systems because in the United States we will accept some norm violations but in another country they might find it offensive. Values are considering standards in which people define what is desirable, and undesirable, and also good, or evil, and gorgeous from hideous. When people accept our values in the right behavior, that’s when we approach them with a smile and a handshake, or even better we can approach them with a present. When norms are violated we become angry and disappointed, so

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen makes brilliant use of her characters and their situations to paint an image of society in the early 19th century. At the same time, the norms and values which she presents bear some remarkable similarities to today’s world. Social norms are defined by Kendall, Murray, and Linden in Sociology in Our Times as “established rules of behavior or standards of conduct” (664), while a social value is defined as “a collective idea about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture” (668). These terms can be used fairly interchangeably; they both

Defining deviance as behaviour, which violates consensual social norms, also raises the questions of whose norms? Why are some norms more important than others? And why do some norms appear to serve the interests of capitalist governments and the powerful? .

What may have been the norm for one may not be the norm to another, especially when it comes to the cultures of foreign lands.   Cultural norms often are so strongly ingrained in an individual's daily life that the individual may be unaware of certain behaviors. Until these behaviors are seen in the context of a different culture with different values and beliefs, the