Hand Washing Deviance

Why is correct hand washing considered deviant? Hygiene education, for children in first world countries, is focused on proper procedure and how this protects them from germs and the spread of disease. It is ingrained into the minds of preschool children that the most important way they can prevent pathogen contamination is by washing their hands, with soap and water. Yet, even though this is an important habit, a large number of adults never continue with the hand washing techniques they learn in childhood. Through an analysis of the association of contamination in relation to hand washing techniques by female Australian university students, a reason for perceptions of deviance becomes evident. Variables such as social pressure and a strong

The act of deviance in my fieldwork was not performed to determine what behaviours are abnormal but to establish how a behaviour, considered normal and socially required, becomes abnormal when performed according to guidelines.

For my fieldwork setting, I chose the female bathroom in the food court of Macquarie University during the period of 11-11.45 on a Monday morning. My reasoning was, as it was a busy time the bathrooms had a high turnover of users. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) website provides a step by step guide informing the public on the correct way to wash their hands (Cdc.gov, 2015). The CDC guide has five steps; wet, lather your entire hands with soap, scrub your hands for 20 seconds or the time it takes for you to hum the “Happy Birthday” song twice, rinse and dry (ibid). When I entered the bathroom there were plenty of women using the facilities and I immediately went to one of the sinks and washed my hands, according to the CDC guidelines (ibid). After I had finished, I would either withdraw to a stall or exit outside. As there was such a high turnover of users I didn’t worry about women questioning me as to why I was repeating my actions. Before I entered the bathroom, I had decided that I would sing “Happy Birthday” out

73), normal, is a concept of good. It is the expected behaviour by a society. What my research reveals it that, for Australian society, the expected behaviour is that there will be a risk assessment of the likelihood of contamination. However, there are some variables which influence hand washing. If analysed using the Social Learning Theory (SLT) the variables associated with hand washing can be identified. SLT is based around the idea that personal, behavioural, and environmental factors all influence actions in a particular context (Berry, Mitteer and Fournier, 2014, p. 925). Social norms surrounding gender influences hand washing. For women specifically, it is an expectation because their perceived ‘natural’ role as a stay-at-home mum and its strong association with cleanliness (ibid, p. 926). This reveals that gender stereotypes within the Australian society have an effect on perceptions of deviance. As can be surmised from the research, a woman who did not wash her hands would be considered deviant. From an environmental perspective, it was observed that bathrooms which have more hand to object contact have a higher rate of hand washing (ibid, p. 927). The studies prove our societies fascination with lowering the risk of contamination. This is not without warrant. Within hospitals, hand washing is a major issue, as when compliance levels are low, it allows for a higher risk of infection (Azim and McLaws, 2014; Branco, 2015; Lee,