Violating Social Norms In American Culture

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.

In our society we have a number of society norms that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator. For example, 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, humor, fear, irritation, or an array of other emotions. When you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about being normal. But in psychology terms, norm means, a standard or representative value for a group. The norm that is more common to people is a social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context.

Norms are behaviors or rules that set forth what is expected of us as people and as a society.

I decided to break a social norm in my house by asking my parents for their permission before doing anything in my own house, for example I would ask to use the restroom or if it was okay for me to get a drink. I only asked for permission to preform those two tasks. After a day it was very obvious to everyone in my home that something was going on with me, but when confronted about what I was doing by my family I refused to conform to their group pressure and inform them. Everyone in my household urged me to conform and stop asking such ridiculous questions; conformity is behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. Examples of conformity can be found everyday in life from the way we dress to the way we talk, a specific example is when one persons’ clapping

Misfit. Rebel. Troublemaker. These are all names that may be given to people who go against the social norm. According to Andersen, Taylor, and Logio, the authors of Sociology: The Essentials, norms are defined as the specific cultural expectations for how to act in a given situation (2016). When someone disrupts the expectations, they commit a norm violation and may display deviant behavior. Since norms are so automatically built into our everyday lives, the rules of social interaction can be subtle and may be imperceptible to the people who participate in them. Therefore, sociologists often purposefully commit a norm violation in order to study what the rules or norms are. This approach, known as ethnomethodology, interprets society as being

Norm violations are a form of actions that do not seem right to some people. Let’s say that you are in a public place, you are expected to act respectful and normal. Norms describes the expectation of a behavior. (James M. Henslin) One can perform a norm violation by doing the opposite of that, like invading personal space. There can be different reactions to violated norms which sociologists call sanctions. (Henslin) Mores, folkways, and values revolve around norms as well.

When looking at the American Society, it’s interesting how everything seems to just work and run a certain way. Society is built on a set of social norms that set standards for everyday living. A norm can be defined as a way of thought or action that is acceptable by the majority of society. Individuals might not be sure why exactly they do something, but if everyone else is doing it, then why not? The social norm we’ve decided to break this semester is the idea of only taking what belongs to you. We plan on going to different dining areas on the Northern Illinois campus, and joining tables with complete strangers. While starting a conversation, we will have one girl begin sharing food off of the stranger’s plate and seeing how they react to this unconventional social interaction. Many individuals would not share their food with their friends, let alone total

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.

Credibility is important for networking with others. It demonstrates one can be trusted and without it many dangers are at stake. In the article “How America Is Losing the Credibility War” Antony J. Blinker offers his own insight on President Trump’s global relations. He reveals that Trump’s super ego and reckless tweeting is diminishing America’s credibility. His intentions of exposing domestic media for providing the public “fake news” can undoubtedly convince the people; causing them to protest. In addition, his careless tweets about countries whom we have growing tensions with, North Korea and Russia, can appear offensive to them ultimately triggering a war. Blinker believes Trump’s disruptive use of social media places the United States

Social media gives users the opportunity to build an online persona through posting of content such as text, images, links or through interaction with others. The way in which users present themselves is a type of behavior usually determined by differences in demographic or psychologic traits. Aristotle defines ethos as the charisma and the credibility of a speaker. When it comes to Mr. Trump, the main argument in favor of his credibility and reputation is his image of the businessman who managed to build the tremendous real-estate empire. President Donald Trump uses Twitter to break news, share his views and feud with critics and celebrities at all times of day or night. It can be hard to keep up — below are some of his noteworthy tweets since he became president.

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

They hold us together as a culture, while separating us as unique individuals at the same time. Folkways, which are based more on custom and etiquette are the most broken of all norms. This can be explained because worst case scenario our only reprimand may be someone staring or talking about us. Mores, while a little more serious than folkways, still don’t have a very serious punishment, just maybe a little more than weird looks, double takes and bad mouthing. Mores are usually based on social morals, which can sometimes make people get a little uneasy, but not much more than that. Laws are the most serious or formal norms, with standard punishment respective to the type of law that is broken. The norm

Breaching is a type of sociological experiment where a social norm is purposefully broken and the reactions of people unaware of the experiment are noted. It can be used to discover how people react when presented with a situation to which they are not accustomed. Along with that, it is important because some reactions are more or less severe based on their experiences and how developed their generalized other is in regards to the norm being breached. Some things that are considered mores in one group may only be folkways in another. Breaching experiment are the first stepping stone to discovering why people react to different events in different ways.

He will say something idiotic, have people come out and try to defend it, and then he will throw all of his spokespeople under the bus. It happens everyday. It’s probably why CNN has to send people to draw what is happening since no audio or visual is being allowed in the press briefings.

Social norms really do interest me. Not just social, but descriptive, moral, injunctive and just norms in a society. These norms help regulate how a society functions and helps facilitate interactions amongst people. I started off my research by asking myself several questions: why can’t we be ourselves around certain people? Why do we feel the need to wait before fully unveiling our masks to people we like or are trying to get to know? I got stuck on one question more than the rest and that is why is ‘too kind’ a bad thing? It really bothered me because I know I over think things a lot and I think about this a lot. People constantly tell me that I’m too kind and that I shouldn’t do this or that but I’ve never fully understood why. Every sort of kind, public act that I preform is always followed by a negative response by my close peers. I don’t see why it’s a bad thing, I think it’s great. Why wouldn’t I help the older lady to her car or hold the door open for the people behind me?