SOCIAL DEVIANCE
LET'S SIT RIGHT BACK AND HEAR A TALE, A TALE OF A FATEFUL TRIP, THAT STARTED ON THIS DESERT ISLE, ON THIS TINY SHIP.... WHEN YOU TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF AFLOAT IN THIS OCEAN OF PEOPLE, IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO KICK UP A STORM AND CAPSIZE. FOR AN ENTIRE DAY I WAS A ONE MAN TROPICAL DEPRESSION. MY PARTNER AND I WANDERED AROUND TOWN WITH ONLY A GOAL OF INVADING OTHERS' PERSONAL SPACE. THROUGHOUT THE CITY, WE CROWDED PEOPLE AT PAYPHONES, SAT NEXT TO PEOPLE ON PARK BENCHES, SNUGGLED UP TO SINGLE RIDERS ON ELEVATORS, BROKE THE LAW OF URINAL ETIQUETTE ABD GENERALLY ANNOYED PEOPLE IN A LIBRARY. WITH THE PAYPHONE WE MADE THE INITIAL DECISION TO ALTERNATE, MY PARTNER BEING FEMALE AND I MALE, TO ALSO SEE THE DIFFERENCE RESPONSES TO MALE VS. FEMALE INTRUSION. WE WOULD ALTERNATELY WALK UP TO AND STAND BESIDE THE KIOSK OR BOOTH. WE MADE A DRAMATIC DEMONSTRATION OF NOT LISTENING TO THE CONVERSATION BY DIGGING THROUGH PURSE OR WALLET OR TOEING AROUND SOME IMAGINARY OBJECT ON THE GROUND. ON PARK BENCHES WE USED THE SAME IDEA. WE ONLY STUCK OURSELVES INTO THE SITUATION IF THERE WAS ONLY A SOLO RIDER AND ENOUGH ROOM FOR US TO HAVE STOOD A DISTANCE AWAY. CROWDING SOMEONE IN AN EMPTY 10' X 8' ELEVATOR OR PLOPPING DOWN NEXT TO SOMEONE ON A PARK BENCH SURROUNDED BY FOUR TO FIVE EMPTY BENCHES SEEMED TO SHOW THE MOST DRAMATIC RESPONSE. WE DECIDED THAT THE RULES NORMALLY ADHERED TO IN A LIBRARY SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE DEFINITION OF PERSONAL SPACE, JUST THAT THE SPACE HAD BEEN EXPANDED IN SIZE AND WIDENED TO INCLUDED SOUND PRODUCED BY ANOTHER. MY PARTNER SET HER CELL PHONE AND PAGER IN FRONT OF HER O A TABLE, SLID HER HEADPHONES INTO PLACE TO MAKE IT EASIER TO IGNORE BOTH AND SAT THERE. I MOVED TO THE STACK AREA AND CALLED HER PAGER AND PHONE REPEATEDLY. THE MOST QUESTIONABLE WAYS TO TEST PERSONAL SPACE WERE MINE, ASSUMING THEY WERE ALSO THE EASIEST TO DRAW VIOLENCE. I SPENT AN HOUR INSIDE THE THE WALK IN LOBBY OF A BANK IN THE DAYLIGHT AND AGAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT GETTING WHAT WAS EVIDENTLY TOO CLOSE TO PEOPLE USING ATM MACHINES. THE LAST DEVIANT ACT WITHIN THE REALM OF PERSONAL SPACE WAS DONE ONCE AND ONLY ONCE. WITHIN A BANK OF SEVEN URINALS IN A RESTROOM, I WAITED FOR ONE TO BE USED (THE FAR RIGHT WAS PICKED), THEN MOVED TO THE SECOND FROM THE RIGHT.
In order for you to continue to stay accepted in the current social society you live in today you must follow a certain set of social norms throughout your life, most of the time you do without even realizing it. As well as be followed social norms are broken everyday all around you on all sorts of different levels some harmless and some more serious and punishable such as stealing. Since I have moved out to Santa Barbara and have been experiencing life here now in school and outside of class I have really come to love the beautiful scenic and friendly feel that is given off here with the excessive palm trees on the streets filled with young eager students adjusting to the new college feel and experience finally living away from home on their own. I have definitely been noticing many new changes compared to back at home in Berkeley California where I had grown up my whole life realizing that social norms seem to slightly change as I travel down south. A distinct difference I had noticed when first moving out here is the drop in disabled homeless around town asking for change or money which seemed like an ordinary social norm back home. In Berkeley I would take the bart track to San Francisco every week for school and would rarely go a day without encountering all types of people everywhere asking for help and offering something for sale. I have noticed here in Santa Barbara the community is much more wealthy and seems to not be exposed to as much poverty everyday like you may living in a big city. I began to wonder what the reaction would be if I chose to break the social norm loitering around campus and downtown Isle Vista asking around for money or help. I decided to try testing out this experiment with a few different types of ...
The daunting task of violating a social norm, something that I could be ostracized and ridiculed for, I still chose to do. Social norms are the rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society. Doing weird things in public while surrounded by strangers is a recipe for disaster, especially for somebody like myself. I am awkward and have plenty of trouble talking to new people. Most of us are told not to talk to strangers when we are younger because there are all sorts of crazy people out there. There could not be a better way to break out of my shell and violate a social norm than to sit down and talk to total strangers while they eat.
After reading all four articles, it has come to my attention that deviant behavior is everywhere in our society, and all around the world. Different cultures have different norms and morals making things we believe are normal, deviant. Deviance can be seen in everything, sexual intercourse, rock n roll, and even so much as technology.
When this idea for extra credit came up it really caused some mixed thoughts for me on the subject of social norms. The reason for these thoughts were the reactions of other students in class as to what societal norms they would break, and the amusement or satisfaction they would have in breaking those norms. For the most part, it appeared that the consensus was to, in some way, break a social norm that would reveal them as a nonconformist, or as an individual. With that it mind, I really began to reflect on why it is so important for people to be noticed, and how especially in the individualistic culture of the United States, it is celebrated to be a “breaker of the rules” or a nonconformist.
One big implicit social norm involves personal space. In our society it is implicitly know that you give people enough space when waiting in line or when sitting next to them as not to invade their personal bubble. I thought it would be particularly interesting to see what people did the moment you crossed that “bubble line.” Periodically throughout the day I would intrude upon people’s bubbles. For varied results, this occurred in classrooms, the elevator, the lunch line, the lunch table, and at work. During classes and at lunch I would move my chair really close to that of the person next to me. While in the lunch line and in the elevator I would stand really close to the person, even if there was plenty of space to spread out. At work, again I stood really close to the person when talking to them.
Instead, I stood up and handed the desired two-liter of orange Fanta to the confused, uncomfortable woman. As a group of three teenage guys started walking down the aisle, their conversation ceased and proceeded to stare. Feeling sheepish, the one boy left to obtain something on another aisle while the other two proceeded to get some cases of cokes. The weirdness and creepiness of my actions were clearly evident on the faces of passersby because we’re instilled by our parents that you can’t just sit on the floor of a grocery store. Although I had gotten permission from the manger to perform my act of social deviance, the employees had no knowledge of my social experiment. They nervously avoided the aisle I had occupied and occasionally would walk past to see if I was still there. Throughout the experiment, I refrained from most eye contact relying on my peripheral vision or staring at people’s feet and only talked if I was spoken to. I sat and occasionally laid down in the aisle for about 40-45 minutes at
Deviant behavior is sociologically defined as, when someone departs from the “norms”. Most of the time when someone says deviance they think against the law or acting out in a negative behavior. To sociologists it can be both positive and negative. While most crimes are deviant, they are not always. Norms can be classified into two categories, mores and folkways. Mores are informal rules that are not written; when mores are broken, they can have serious punishments and sanctions. Folkways are informal rules that are just expected to be followed, but have no real repercussions.
Sociologists suggest deviance is a violation of any societal norm. Yet some have suggested deviance is a socially outmoded concept based on a Durkheim’s model of social solidarity. Therefore suggesting now it is obsolete, there is no longer a use for it in a (post) modern progressive and diverse society like Australia. According to Roach Anleu (2004) Colin Sumner was one such claimant. Sumner suggested that the sociological concept of deviance and any coherent theoretical development stagnated in mid 1970s, as no agreement on how deviance should be set never happened, therefore there was never an answer to the question, “deviant from what”? Secondly, Sumner states there is no explanation for why deviance is the chosen subject of research, instead of the norms that specify deviance. He believed it only made sense to examine deviance within the framework of social disapproval. Sumner also believed the relationships between deviance, crime, and difference to be unclear. Lastly he thought that the search for a general concept to encompass such a assorted range of activities, problems and situations was misguided because there can be no behavioural unity for such a diverse range of practices. Sumner (1994) suggested that the focus should analysis how deviant categories are constructed and managed by the power relationships that are continually changing. (Sumner 1994), (Roach Anleu 2014) Roach Anleu (2014) describe norms as reflecting some level of consensus and can be laws, rules, regulations, standards, or unspoken expectations. However, within large communities, there can be individuals, and groups whose behaviour is perceived as deviant according to the accepted norms. Those individuals and or groups may not necessarily be consider...
The Interaction Order of Public Bathrooms, written by Spencer E. Cahill, is an article that does a fairly well job at analyzing interpersonal relationships and individual practices in restrooms. Cahill used ideologies of Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, Margaret Atwood, Horace Miner, and Lyn Lofland to help construct his perspective on the individual’s expectations of bathroom etiquette through our experiences with others and how we internalize these behaviors.
I had to ask the lady to go to men 's fitting room when she replied that she was female but left the fitting room because of the hostile environment. Even though she really was a woman but because people could not get a womanly cue from her them they assumed that she was a male thus their hostility towards her entering a woman 's only
Social deviancy is the violation of social norms. A deviant is someone who rejects folkways and mores. Any action that violates the values or rules of a social group is deviant behavior. In order to actually be characterized as a deviant, the individual must be detected committing a deviant act and be stigmatized by society. A stigma is a mark of social disgrace, setting the deviant apart from the group. Criminality is healthy for society. Deviance affirms our cultural values and norms. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries and brings people together. There will always be people who break society’s rules and that’s important.
The Expectancy Violations Theory originated by Judee Burgoon explains a person’s response to unpredicted actions by their peers, and the numerous meanings that individuals attribute to the abuse or violation of their personal space. Burgoon defined personal space as the “invisible, variable volume of space surrounding an individual that defines that individual’s preferred distance from others” (Griffin, p. 85). Expectancy is what people predict (or expect) will occur, instead of what they wish.
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?
Sociology defines deviance as a behavior that violates norms set by a society, the violation of which leads to social disapproval. Social deviance can range in severity from acts such as murder and incest to simple body modifications like tattoos, and even the smallest departure from the norm can be seen as deviance. Social deviance is also relative to the community in which it is seen, for example one society might consider driving on the right side of the road normal while it could be seen as deviant for others. So as a way to explore the topic of minor deviant behaviors, and public reaction to those behaviors, this paper will discuss the results of social experiments involving
Abstract Chapter 2, Social Pathology and Perspectives, begin with Dr. Earl Rubington and Dr. Martin Weinberg explaining the origin of the concept of defining what to do about a Social Problem. This chapter discusses the organic analogy, child savers, and a universal criterion for pathology, how pathology is used in everyday life and the moral premise of social pathology. The Concept of Social Problems First, Rubington and Weinberg suggest that urbanization, around the 19th century, was the root cause of social problems. The migration of farmers and countrymen into the cities and factories created situations where there were migrations from inside and outside of the American borders created unstable conditions for living and working.