Summary Of Normlessness By Emile Durkheim

“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.

But conforming to what the majority is doing because it is deemed as cool is a whole different story. Instead of conforming to keep society running smoothly, we sometimes conform due to fear that we will receive hateful backlash for breaking against the norm or in fear that we will be wrong. Solomon Asch explains the latter reason when he conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. In his experiment, there was only one true participant and 4 other fake participants that will help prove his point correct. Cards were shown to everyone where there were lines of different length illustrated. They all had to choose which line was the longest. The first four people at the table were the fake participants and purposely chose the wrong answers. The last person was the true participant in the experiment and in all of the experiments they conducted, the last person always went with what the rest of the group thought even though he knew that the answer was incorrect. After the experiment was conducted, the real participants were interviewed and asked why they went along with everyone else even though they knew the answer was incorrect. “Most of them said that they did not really

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

For years we have been conditioned to think, feel and act a certain way based upon what society deems ‘correct or right’. If we disagree with this way of life or thinking we are often shunned and discriminated against for differentiating from societal norms.

Throughout life, in any society we develop a sense to conform and adjust to our surroundings but why? Our values in our society determines our norms and why we do the things we do. I recently sought out to break these social conformities that violated the values, and norms we hold as a society. Every society is different and, in every society there are different and similar values, norms, sanctions folkways, and mores. Breaking them up and analyzing them we began to understand why these terms and values are so important to us.

Conformity is a struggle that people encounter everyday in society. There are many examples of the different types of conformity in the world. Some of these types are in the examples I am going to discuss. In “The Sociology of the Leopard Man”, “Two Kinds”, and Dead Poet Society we learn that it is not always a good idea to conform. Although conformity can be good, I believe that it is even better for people to step out of their comfort zone and not be afraid to show who they really are.

We, as humans, like to believe that we always stand out in a crowd and never conform to please society. We hold our freedom to be individuals higher than most of our other freedoms. Humans believe that we always use this individualism to speak our opinions. We think that we would never change our views to comply with a group. As much as we would like to believe this, it seems that more often than not, we tend to follow the crowd. In her article “Group Minds”, Doris Lessing was on the right track when she described how humans stand for choice and individualism, but when faced with the situation, most tend to fall in line with the majority.

Often times in life people will feel it necessary to conform in order to fit into certain groups of people. When a person conforms it usually leads to them changing the way they behave. This

Society makes us feel content with who we are; we feel more protected when we’re with others rather than being alone. Some say “A strong society depends on people to conform to run smoothly. Following the rules and regulations for living within a society allows the group to grow.” (13 pros). Although conformists are needed, society is not dependent on them. We are dependent on individualists like Trump, Martin Luther King, and Elvis Presley. Conforming with society does not always help the group “grow”. Agreeing with others when they are wrong can lead to a

Individuals have a constant drawing to conform to the norms of society. It is easy to be swept up into society’s rules as most people associate a feeling of acceptance when they fit into society. While blending in is easy, it takes far more courage and strength to be an individual as they must break free from this mainstream comfort zone to generate their own, individual virtues. The figurative distance created between those based in society and those who are individuals uncovers a morally affecting environment of judgement and acceptance. Those caught in the middle of society’s norms find it easy to believe certain things because their views are shared and supported by those around them. Individuals, on the other hand, must be strong

Normalcy is almost impossible to define in modern day society. However, clearly identifiable, are those whom society considers being abnormal. For those who fit into this category, belonging can be a difficult and sometimes impossible achievement. It is important to understand those who have a sense of being different, and while they can find it difficult to belong, for some, this is the desired outcome.

On one hand, society argues that they are all distinct individuals and they are leaders who do not follow the crowd. On the other hand, a small percentage of society contends that many people like to think they are diverse, but in reality many are scared to stand away from the crowd and take action by themselves. In the article ¨The Sociology of Leopard Man, Logan Feys expresses that ¨ Society looks down upon freakish and extraordinary individuals alike and views them with suspicion. Ordinary people fear what they don’t understand¨(par.4). I agree with the author because some people do not understand that they conform all the time and they fear that they are not an individual. Feys also explains that ¨ Conformity can be seen as the world’s most common but dangerous psychological disorder. To be human is to be an individual human, with individual tastes, talents, values, and dreams that are distinct from those of others.¨ I would also agree with that statement by Feys because I believe that people want to feel special and unique, but in reality people conform almost all the time. To realize that conformity can be dangerous and to realize that you conform is important to withstanding

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

Since the beginning of time it has been human nature to seek community and inclusion, over isolation and separation. We as a species have a need to belong, and it has been theorized that we are fundamentally pack animals. However our ideology of community can harm the individual, putting them at risk of becoming a drone for “higher ranking” members of the group. Lacking free thinking, and only reviewing choices or decisions as a group, limiting the individual's liberal cognitive functioning. But the group as a whole is also at risk of becoming biased, viewing other groups with different ways of thinking, life, or even as simple as skin color as inferior. This correspondingly will lead to the unfair treatment and bigotry of others, and

In today life people generally tend to conform in many situations to blend in and to live their life peacefully. They may feel safer doing so and more acceptable by society if they don’t stick out with ideas opposite or different to the “main stream”.