Sociology 101 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.

“Etiquette is all human social behavior. If you’re a hermit on a mountain, you don’t have to worry about etiquette; if somebody comes up the mountain, then you’ve got a problem…” This quote from American journalist, Judith Martin, illustrates the concept that the presence of others creates or inspires expectations. Social norms, or specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation, are practiced throughout various societies and cultures across the planet. People relay on social norms to provide order and predictability in social situations. Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role one plays, the behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role. It is most common for people to conform to the guidelines provided by the roles we perform. When one does not conform to the social norms, it is considered abnormal behavior. For this assignment, I faced the challenge to disregard expectations of social roles and norms in society.

Norms are rules for behavior that are based on values, made through society. Breaking one of the norms can sometimes make people uncomfortable, or even disgusted. There are general rules that can make a conversation comfortable, based on how well a person knows others that talking in the conversation (“Social Distance”). As I experimented with the disruption of conversational distance, I experienced two completely different reactions. Depending on the level of comfortability, norms can be accepted behavior or can be

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.

My first test of my experiment was in a convenience store. I walked in; whispering hello and proceeded to grab a cup of coffee. In my whispering voice I asked a female employee about the coffee lids and interacted with the lady at the register. I observed that in both instances the females would lean

For this assignment I didn’t really know of a good way to break a social way, so I picked the one from the example. Joining a conversation of someone you do not know is probably the easiest thing to do. It was time to determine where my observations would take place. I didn’t want to do it while people were walking to class. Most people are in a rush to go to class or occupied by there smart phones. So I decided to do it at one of the ASU dinning halls. The reason I picked a dinning hall is because I felt like it would be easier to hold a conversation with someone sitting still than a person in motion.

The interaction that I encountered happens ten years ago. When I moved to the United Stated, everything was still new to me. I had to adjust into many different things in the American's society in order to be at a social standard norm level here. In addition, my English was acceptable to get the message delivery to the other person. I clearly remembered one day as I was working out in a strange neighborhood that far away from my house, I started to get lost at a moment. I began to panic and could not figure out a way out to get to the main street. Therefore, my goal at that time was to get approach to one of the neighbor's house asking for a direction to get home. I want to interact with a complete stranger person and see how they would respond to help me. I chose this interaction because it gives chance to practice small talk with unacquainted person whenever there is an unexpected situation arises as well as to overcome the language barrier.

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.

My experiment consisted of me asking strangers, on the streets of Downtown Grand Rapids, for directions to Rosa Park’s Circle, and invading their personal space. To start, I would approach a stranger; tell them that I am lost, and that I am in need of directions to the Rosa Park’s Circle. As strangers began giving directions to me, I inched closer and closer to them. In addition to invading their personal space, I also held intense eye contact with them, trying my best not to blink. The whole time, although it was difficult, I kept a straight face while I performed my experiment. To make sure that I gathered enough information, and a variety of results, I tested my

In society, we are accustomed to the normative social influence of rules for us to follow, from how we act in public to what we wear. Whether it was visible to us at the time or not the general public does follow this social norm that governs us for one simplistic reason, we don’t want to be embarrassed for being out of the social norm. The need for social acceptance is presented in our everyday behaviors, actions, and reactions to social normalities. Even with the acceptation of the many people who pretend not to notice a change in a person social norm, when a social norm is broken, the majority will notice it. However I did learn something during the time I was the social norms breaker, “individuals will tend to either fully conform to the

When researching the topic of social norms and norm violations, there is an ongoing list. This is because almost everything we do in society is based on these social norms. If/when these are broken it can be punished as little as someone giving a dirty look, or as large as severe jail time. Social norms come into existence when a society does a specific task over and over until it becomes a normal occurrence. One of the biggest concerns is the war on drugs. Marijuana use is harshly punishments yet causes little to none negative effects. On the other hand, we have tobacco which there are barely any laws on yet it is killing thousands of Americans.

The experiment was a breach of the social norm that one shouldn’t talk to strangers for no reason. In order to break this norm, 30 strangers were approached

In the American society, there are many social norms relating to gender. There are certain expectations that both males and females must follow to be socially accepted. These norms and expectations are enforce in children’s lives at a young age. I know for me personally, when I was younger in a family full of boys, I would always hang out with them. In doing so, I would play with nerf guns and wrestler actions figure, what society considers a boy toy. My parents would always tell me that I needed to act more “like a girl.” As I got older, I realized that what my parents told me was stereotypical and that there are no such thing as what is appropriate for a male or female. Today as more and more things are becoming unisex, which means that it

A social norm that strikes my fascination is in the initial actions, responses, and facial expressions individuals convey when greeting other people, whether a person is acknowledging a friend, co-worker, family member, or a stranger, one would think that each person would greet everyone in somewhat the same manner due to the nature of one’s personality and regardless of their relationship to that individual. I had the assumption that when people have a very bubbly and outgoing personality they would greet everyone in the same vivacious way. Likewise, when individuals are more reserved and less likely to take the initiative in introducing themselves to a stranger, I figured they would be more shy and quiet in their responses. So what I wanted to do was count to three out loud before saying, “Hello” back to my friends, co-workers, family members, and strangers’ greetings and see how they would react to this social norm violation. Therefore, the social norm I chose to break was failing to respond directly to a person’s greeting in the normal response rate and additionally counting out loud to three before replying.

As last week passed by I made the decision to continually either stand close to whomever I was in the elevator with, or strike up a conversation with them. Once I had observed the results of these experiments in action, I combined the two. After a few days I began standing closer to people than the social norm displays, as well as make small talk. The results I found were genuinely fascinating. The truth is that no two