Social Observation Examples

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In another occasion, I helped a man find the right spackle to patch the cracks on his walls. As I engaged in conversation with him I assured him to the right product as I smiled and grabbed on his shoulder. Many of the customers were expressing discomfort, feelings of awkwardness, and discontent. Within my own thoughts I was having feelings of discomfort as well. As I broke this norm my facial expressions were different from what I truly felt within. I expressed joy, friendliness, and openness. As I performed this social norm violation I had one of my trusty coworkers help me by taking down notes on what she observed overall. Through her observations I was able to recognize that through my experiment I was more prone to approach women than men. The observations also exposed that women were more uncomfortable with the idea of someone getting too close to their personal space and the inappropriate physical contact. Many of the women felt awkwardness and discomfort as they were being caressed by a complete stranger. My observer also took down that when I was touching a customer’s face, particularly a woman, that they would look at their friends or family members and give each other a stare look of “what the heck just happened.” Many women would take this form of affection as a way of being forward towards them. Furthermore, my observer’s notes also exposed It is a way in which individuals represent themselves and behave in particular social groups or cultures according to society’s rules. Social norms are then made in order to maintain these social behaviors in accordance to society. The social norm of personal space is highly valued in American society as every individual feels that they should be respected during their own space. Moreover, people adhere to social norms of personal space in order to remain in a zone of safety, as we become uneasy when individuals we do not know try to get

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