Institutions can be defined as structures that standardize patterns of rule based behaviors in society, when serving the community effectively and functioning normally, they can become almost invisible. It become possible for institutions to disappear because they organize nearly every level of society can can appear to be intrinsic attributes of human culture instead of social constructions. Institutions such as marriage, religion, education and government provide the framework in which we think about our role in society and what kind of behavior is expected from us at each point in our lives. Because institutions can effectively disappear from our worldview it becomes easy to forget that other patterns of behavior, ones that deviate from current normative social behavior, can be acceptable even though they conflict with the established order. James M. Henslin uses the incredible story of Flight 227 to illustrate how normal and deviant behavior can flip when a situation reveals that current normative behavior is in fact a social construction. By social construction Henslin tells us that nothing has built in meaning. Meaning is instead arbitrarily assigned and socially constructed. For the passengers of Flight 227 the value assigned to bodies was such that bodies, while not a person, were still human and deserved to be treated with respect and certainly were never to be considered as food. But as Henslin relates, when the passengers were given the choice between death or cannibalism the group was able to socially construct new definitions of acceptable behavior as relates to human bodies. Acceptable behavior within the group was redefined to include eating human flesh as long as certain requirements were met, such as no o... ... middle of paper ... ...nd much my sisters seemed more sensitive to the teasing by classmates and would beg to be sent to school with a lunch that better conformed to the lunch standards of her peers. This kind of peer pressure and ostracization of deviants is one way that institutions can enforce normal behavior. Institutions do this by working at multiple levels and embedding the norms so deep that other members of society act as enforcers, often unknowingly. It is not immediately obvious that the rules being enforced are arbitrarily constructed by society, because of this it is difficult to separate social conventions from the intrinsic nature humans or society. But through examination of normal and deviant behavior it’s possible to peer deeper and realize that our behaviors and our values are socially constructed, not supernaturally prescribed or intrinsically part of who we are.
Institutions force individuals to bend and mold the standard and give up freedom and individuality. Some individuals are unable to conform when their will to remain creative and self-reliant is too strong; they fight against the current that society and its institutions create. Beating the system is another thing; those who attempt to beat the system are often referred to as romantics because they do not focus on the reality of situations. The system cannot be beat. If one official of an intuition is taken down there will be a many more waiting i... ...
Furthermore, sometimes the desire to be accepted is stronger than prevailing conventions. This makes an individual to do things to make him feel accepted in the society. Krakauer compares the people in Alaska and McCandless. He writes, “And I’m sure there are plenty of other Alaskans who had a lot in common with McCandless when they first got here, too, including many of his critics. Which maybe why they’re so hard on him. Maybe McCandless reminds them a little too much of their former selves” (Krakauer 221). In today’s society, an individual confirms itself to what a society wants and expect him or her to be.
Social institutions are defined as established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political institutions. In The Code of the Streets, Elijah Anderson plays on the fact that a persons environment can play a big part in a persons behavior. According to Anderson “ simply living in such an environment places young people at risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior.”
Narrowly escaping the attack of the coast guard on the Vietnamese refugees, the refugees were stranded on an island and unable to escape starvation. Some of the survivors had to turn to “human flesh as a source of food” in order to avoid imminent death (par. 3). The limitation on food was the cause that led to the people participating in survival cannibalism. The effect was that “there was only one survivor” who was found (par. 4). When faced with death, people adopted unorthodox behaviors to increase their likelihood of existence. This example of cause and effect emphasized that cannibalism is not always a choice, but sometimes a necessity. Such a situation could theoretically happen to anyone, if placed under certain circumstances. Once having to put themselves into that place, people truly realize that cannibalism isn’t only a myth, but a possible survival
In society, it's difficult to go against the norm. Individuals are compelled to act a specific way, or look a specific way in order to be accepted. For instance, teenagers may encounter pressure from their peers to partake in specific exercises that may not be moral, since they feel the need to fit in. This weight of conformity isn't just present in reality; it can be found in literature as well. The story "St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell depicts that in order to conform to society, individuals abandon their selflessness and compassion and become selfish and apathetic.
Social pressures make us lose our ideals and force us to conform. We are born into a society with all these rules and social norms that we
In the world we live in today, deviance happens to play an integral role in within the societies that scatter our globe, whether we like it or not. Deviance describes actions or behaviors that violate the social norms of our society. These behaviors can violate formally enacted rules, such as laws that are put into place by government, as well as the informal type of “guidelines” that various cultures have informally established and shaped for themselves. As one may come to understand, norms are essentially expectations that are standard to a certain culture. These norms gently guide people in a society in “what to do,” and “what not to do,” in compliance with their societies' norms. With this said, it is important to keep in mind that social norms differ from culture to culture. One act that may be considered deviant in a particular society, may be generally accepted in another. Three main sociological theories of deviance include the cultural transmission theory (also known as the differential association theory), the labeling theory, and the control theory.
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 stay away from those 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.
First, we must examine the definitions of deviance and norms. Henry defines deviance as a person who goes against the standards, expectations, and norms of their society (lecture). Further, deviancy is thought of as a personal
How do the actions and words of a society affect the way people act? In Never Let Me Go, author Kazuo Ishiguro depicts a society in which individuality is threatened by the pressure to conform through methods such as peer pressure and social expectations. Without a doubt, peer pressure is most commonly found in schools today just as social expectations are suffocating the middle class’ desire to become their own unique person.
Furthermore can formal social control institutions such as the criminal justice system and the government provide the best aspect of producing conformity and law abiding behaviour? Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory is concerned with what effect formal institutions have on conformity in individuals and in particular, how law abiding behaviour is produced due to these institutions (Walklate, 2005). However Wilson (2007) argues that formal methods of social control such as the criminal justice system are merely there to control and segregate delinquents and offenders who have not had adequate socialisation, which is where social mores are learnt and when conformity is produced, and that an alternative form of social control such as restorative justice might produce more effective results.
Law, ?a governmental social control? (Black 2), is a quantitative variable that changes in time and space and can be defined by style: penal, compensatory, therapeutic or conciliatory (Black 5). The brief description of law and its interrelation with social control and deviant behavior can be encapsulated in the following scheme. This concept of law put into the context of social life gives a framework of the behavior of law.
Peer pressure and acts of mass blind obedience are all too common occurrences in our everyday society. A person, who under any other circumstances would never act in such a way, will commit unthinkable acts when backed by a single person or even worse, a large mass of individuals. It’s almost always destructive, and the person or persons involved usually always end up feeling regretful and bewildered by their actions. When thinking about group peer pressure, there are several other words that come to mind such as; conformity, compliance, brainwashing and social influence. Group peer pressure can make a person with the purest morals and the highest values act in ways that are more than contradictory. Group peer pressure can turn a saint into a sinner, a leader to a follower, and an individual to a tiny speck in a large and corrupt mass.
In order for society to meet the basic social needs of its members, social institutions, which are not buildings, or an organization or even people, but a system whose of social norms, mores and folkways that help make people feel important. Social institutions, according to our textbook, is defined as a fundamental component of this organization in which individuals, occupying defined statues, are “regulated by social norms, public opinion, law and religion” (Amato 2004, p.961). Social institutions are meant to meet people’s basic needs and enable the society to survive. Because social institutions prescribe socially accepted beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors, they exert considerable social control over individuals.
Institutions play a key role in many of the things that are happening in society today. From financial institutions to the types of goods consumers can buy in a place of business. One of the biggest aspects of an institutions influence on society is the need for supply and demand and to control society so that it can adapt to the changes caused by individuals within it. All societies necessarily make economic choices. A society is a system of social relationship while institution is the organization of rules traditions and usages. Institutions are the forms of procedure which are recognized and accepted by society and they exist for the society and govern the relations between members of society. Society represents human aspect while an institution is a social condition of com and behavior.