Social Norms And Its Effect On Society Essay

A social norm is a behavior accepted and expected by society. We learn social norms from feedback, called sanctions, we get from our peers and elders. A sanction can be positive or negative; if it is positive it is a sort of reward that encourages the behavior and if it is negative it is a sort of punishment meant to discourage the behavior. For example, when children fart in public they break the social norm and are scolded or negatively sanctioned by their parents with yelling or are bullied by their peers. However, if the child were to hold a door for someone else they receive a positive sanction of that person’s thanks.

This paper will address what social norms entail and what role they play within a society.

My mother has always told me that certain things should not be done in public. Social norms are opinions and beliefs that are shared amongst a group. Throughout our lives our parents tell us things that aren’t socially acceptable, and that there are consequences for those actions. Those that don’t act in ways that are socially acceptable are isolated from society. Norms help to guide the general public by reinforcing it with a punishment in waiting.

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.

Humans interact and go on about their daily life unknowingly following rules that society establishes as well as common social norms. Although this is a strange concept to grasp, this phenomenon is how society acts as a whole and how we as individuals are. Social norms are ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside a person but exert social control over each person they interact with. These are the rules that we abide by and are ingrained in our heads but what happens if one breaks that social norm.

ciety has molded us to be or act a certain way, this all sdepends where we are in the world. For example in the United States it is considered completely normal for a women to show skin like their legs, arms, stomach, and chest while in some Islamic states, were it is considered a social value for women are not allowed to show any form of skin whether its legs, arms, and sometimes their face. One’s own society norms, values, and sanctions vary depending where you are geographically in the world as well as your status in your society. I witnessed many norm violations being done on a daily basis and did a couple myself. In every class of individuals one establishes their values which help create their norms while creating negative and positive

Social norms can dictate and justify how people behave. In order to justify their actions, some people

They are things that we all do naturally, whether its face the door in an elevator, eat with a fork and knife, giving a baby boy trucks and a baby girl Barbie dolls, or even not talking to your neighbor in the bathroom. It’s very difficult to break a norm because its things we do ever since we are born, and we don’t want to ruin the social nature that we live in or ruin our group identity. Some norms are easy to break but others are more difficult. In some cases, breaking a norm can seem disrespectful or offensive to some people, also called Mores, while others will just make people laugh and aren’t taken to seriously, also known as Folkways. Social control, or in other words a way for society to ensure conformity with the use of rewards and punishments, play a large role in whether or not we do something because we are afraid of having to deal with the consequences. Depending on how strict the norm, will depend on the severity of social sanction. It could be a punishment while it could be a

Social norms are the rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society. Typically, the norms are not challenged because people are afraid of the consequences. When someone breaks a social norm, they risk ridicule, embarrassment, and possibly punishment. Some examples of social norms include shaking hands when meeting someone, making direct eye contact, and driving on the right side of the road in the United States. For my assignment, I decided to violate personal space norms and conversational norms.

We live in a society where we have to follow a certain structure in our lives. If someone were to do something out of the ordinary it is considered to be a norm violation. Although, sometimes there could also be exceptions to those norm violations. Throughout this experience of committing my own norm validation and observing a few validations from people living their normal lives, I gained knowledge of how society reacts to these unusual norms.

The Wall Street Journal article speaks upon social norms and how they come about. In the beginning of the article Wang analyzes how behavior is developed by what people deem to be appropriate, desirable, and correct. She goes on to indicate that psychologists are examining how, “the often-unspoken rules of a group, shape not just our behavior but also our attitudes.” She signifies how norms contribute to a central human social purpose, assisting us on who is in the group or who is merely an outsider to the norm. Wang informs us that little is known about how attitudinal norms are initiated in groups. Surprisingly, researchers say that those who devise the trend or norm are usually isolated from the group, being apart of the group might restrict one’s potential. Wang enlightens the reader that group pressure is a forceful pressure over health behaviors, for example, drug use and alcohol use. There is also another side to adapting into these social norms. Wang argues that, “observation of others' behavior can also result in misperceptions of the norm, which in turn can cause the actual norm

At the grocery store, I violated the social norm of purchasing the whole bag of grapes displayed, not just one individual grape. When I did this, I felt awkward because I was going against societies expectations of me. I also received repercussions as I violated the norm because I did not fit in and began to separate myself from the crowd of conformists. I experienced an array of reactions throughout this incident. The manager was called over, customers were curious and annoyed, and the cashier became very confused and aggravated. They were surprised I was breaking the unwritten rules of society. Two different types of norms include mores and folkways. Mores are formal outlined norms that result in severe punishment when violated. A few examples of mores are laws, religion, and plagiarism. Folkway norms are unwritten expected behaviors society holds to keep it systematic and predictable (Conley, 2011, pgs. 91-92). Examples of folkway norms include waiting in lines, walking on the right side of the sidewalk, and my field research study of buying the entire bag of grapes or similar produce, instead of just one. Different punishments for violating these norms are comprised of positive and negative sanctions. Positive sanctions, or rewards, encourage the conformity of social norms. Some examples include getting a raise in your job for hard work or receiving an A+ on a test for studying. Negative sanctions are the discouragement or punishment used because of a violation of a social norm. Examples of this include putting someone in prison or intentionally not speaking to someone for a period of time. In my field research I experienced a negative sanction of hearing adverse comments about my actions. Another concept is culture, a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices that are not a part of the natural world. Two types of culture are material culture and nonmaterial culture.

In every society there are social norms, rules and expectations as to how people, or groups of people should behave. There are many ways that people can influence our behavior, but perhaps one of the most important aspects of social norms and mores, is that in the presence of others, we seem to set up expectations as how people should look and behave. We have learned that culture is a big influence in how society deems how we should look and also behave. When we come in contact to a different group of people that we consider radical we experience “culture shock” because they challenge our basic assumptions of what is right, what we consider taboo, ugly, or beautiful.

As society we have never given much thought as to how we function to how society . This statement is not only true on a macro level, such as how our government functions along with other aspects of society but also as individuals. Furthermore, we as individuals rarely stop to think about the reasons we have to react the way we do in certain situations. It can be almost guaranteed that we react in these ways because of norms. Norms can be defined as “expectations of right behavior”(Henslin 2015). Norms such as these can be shaped by society, government or culture. These norms can also bring along norm violations such as folkways, mores and sanctions. However very few times do we acknowledge how much these norms inflict in our lives. However, this

Several individuals within society typically follow social guidelines that they are unaware of performing. Social guidelines such as stopping at a red light or saying thank you when someone has done something for you. These social guidelines or norms give society a script to follow regarding their behavior and actions. Although norms are the acceptable actions and behaviors that society is taught to perform, there are occurrences where individuals stray away from this in which they are now enacting deviance. To act deviant is considered to break away or do something different of a social norm. There are several forms of deviance that occur frequently within society that violate social norms and hinder society’s overall function. In particular, a form of deviance that hinders the social norm would include bullying. Bullying strips the self image of an individual that can cause internal and external pain to themselves or others. Specially, several incidents of bullying occur in adolescents. It is adolescents who are most prone to bullying or engage in bullying that ultimately focuses on an individual’s gender, race and sexuality. Thus, adolescents engaging in deviance by bullying peers have a harsh impact on the individual’s sensitivity toward their gender, race, and sexuality which can harm not only their mental and physical health, but their overall disposition.