The document discusses the concept of breaking social norms and the reactions it elicits from others, highlighting personal experiences and observations. It explains that social norms dictate acceptable behaviors in society, and breaking them can lead to feelings of insecurity and judgment from others. The author explores various social norms, both informal and formal, and the impact of conformity on individual behavior and societal expectations.

1. Breaking a Social Norm Essay
Breaking a social norm In our society we have a number of society norms that we abide by. For
example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator. For example, it is
proper to face front, stand away from strangers, and not to look at others. When a social norm is
broken people may respond with alarm, humor, fear, irritation, or an array of other emotions. When
you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about being normal. But in psychology terms, norm
means, a standard or representative value for a group. The norm that is more common to people is a
social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within
a given group within a given context. In society today us as...show more content...
I wanted to turn around and say something but I just kept my cool and said to myself, "This is
only a test Cynthia don't let them get to you." Once I finished talking to myself I was relieved
and ready to go into the movies. While walking into the movies, I received more looks and heard
more whispers coming out of people which really didn't make sense. All they had to do was just
except me for who I was and that I was wearing clothes. After I got tired of the looks and whispers
I changed my clothes and walked back in movie theatre. Once again my boyfriend looked at me
strangely and said, " Why did you change"? When I finally broke it down to him that I was doing
a project for psychology he started to laugh. His response towards me was, he was going to love
me no matter how I come out the house. I thought that was cute, that let me know that he doesn't
care what people think and that he was always going to be with me no matter how I look. When I
broke the norm of how I look, I felt really insecure about myself and I really did care of what
people were going to say about me. But I did learn this people are very judgmental on a person
that they have no clue about. The other norm that I broke was going against authority. The authority
that I went against was my mom during Thanksgiving dinner. When I did this norm, I really felt
bad because, me and my mom are so close and I would never had disrespect her the way I
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2. Breaking Social Norms Essay
Social norms are actions and behaviors that are recognized as acceptable amongst society.
Personally, I abide to most social norms because it provides me sense of comfort and belonging.
To break a social norm would probably make anyone feel like an outsider and the need to feel
accepted is what most likely drives us to conform to social norms. In order to test how social norms
affect myself and other around me, I decided to completely step outside of my comfort zone and
break an imperative hygienic social norm; brushing ones teeth.
While brushing your teeth is crucial to one's hygiene, it's also a courtesy to others and is considered
to be a social norm for many reasons. Humans, specifically Americans, tend to value oral health to
the highest degree because our communication between one and other revolves around the mouth.
Not brushing your teeth can result in bad breath, tooth decay and gum disease. While it may seem
like these complications only affect those who choose not to brush their teeth, it doesn't. The
majority of Americans find it rude, let alone disgusting, when they are talking to someone who has
neglected to clean their teeth and can relate to holding their breath in attempt to not to smell
someone's rancid breath. Many people also find it uncomfortable when looking at someone's rotten,
food filled teeth in conversation. All in all, neglecting to brush ones teeth can result in a multitude of
undesirable issues that not only affects themselves, but everyone
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3. Breaking A Social Norm
In every aspect of society, there are social norms. Without norms, there would become chaos
because we need norms that define behaviors as proper and others as improper. Whether it be
dressing a certain way at your job or treating a fellow employee or classmate a special way. Last
weekend I broke a norm. It was an awkward experiment, but rather interesting. Here's what happened.
My partner Jennifer and I arrived to Little Havana Restaurant at around 12:30 pm. There were
around 18 observers there, all ranging from probably 9–50 years old. It wasn't too quiet but it wasn't
too loud either. Most people inside were Cubans, but there were a couple of Americans too.
Everyone minding their own business, caught up in their conversations, typical restaurant behaviors.
I acted normal as everyone acts in a restaurant. We were seated at our table. The waiter came, took
our drink order, returned with our drinks, took our food order...show more content...
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
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4. Breaking Social Norms Essay
Alex King SOC–10 10/13/12 Breaking Social Norms In our society we have a number of norms
that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator.
It is "proper" to face front, stand away from strangers, and not to look at others. When a social
norm is broken people may respond with alarm, humour, fear, irritation, or an array of other
emotions. When you think of a norm, you are probably thinking about simply being normal. But in
psychology terms, norm means a standard or representative value for a group. A social norm is
some sort of an expectation that our society has that is deemed normal by that society; they tell us
which behaviors, thoughts, or feelings are appropriate within a given...show more content...
The gesture was small and confined to a very small space, yet it proved to generate great and
powerfully negative reactions. As stated earlier, this experiment completely proved my
hypothesis wrong. Many of the people that rode the elevator with me stared at me as though there
were something wrong with me. Most were uncomfortable and fidgety and kept looking over
their shoulder at me as they rode forward, and me, backwards. More than a few asked if I was
alright and even asked my friend, who was acting as if he did not know me, knew what was was
wrong. I even conducted a few controlled experiments where I rode the elevator forward to see if
people would react to me then, but not a single person outside of the experiment even
acknowledged my existence. I would have thought that in a place like L.A. County, people would
be too busy to notice others, or people would have been raised to mind their own business and
keep to themselves, but apparently abiding my social standards and making sure that others do as
well is a higher priority. I suppose one can use conformity as a reasoning for these results. Society
as a whole has learned to conform to social standards and change their behavior to fit in so they
aren't so different from others, so as not to be the odd one out and when they see others behaving
differently than themselves, or as the society that they're in, they're labeled as "weird" or "strange."
Behaviorists might say
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5. Breaking Social Norms
Norms– Social norms are forms of behaviours commonly found in all different culture or society,
norms are behaviours that are expected to be 'normal'. Norms are social expectations that provide
us with very clear guidance on how to behave in day to day life. So what is classed as being
'normal'? You get two types of norms 'informal' and 'formal' norms, informal norms are accepted
ways of thinking and behaving but are not written down anywhere such as waiting in a Que.
Formal norms are laws found in society, it's illegal to take goods from a shop without paying.
Norms explain why people do what they do in given situations. Values– Values are a set of general
guidelines that underpin social norms. Values are ideas about the correct behaviours
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6. Social Norms Essay
Ranjeet Chaudhari SOCIOLOGY–100–03 NORM BREAK From a sociological perspective, social
norms are informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society. Norms are
social expectations, establishes rules of behavior or standards of conduct. Norms explain why
people do what they do in given situations. Norms are regarded as collective representations of
acceptable group conduct as well as individual perceptions of group conduct. They can be viewed as
cultural products, customs, traditions which represent individuals' basic knowledge of what others
do and think that they should do. Norms are usually done for research purpose to see that people
think and how they react....show more content...
The Social norm here is that people want to eat their food in peace and they don't want any
distractions or problems while eating food because that food is important to them and they
bought is with their own money. First of all, before doing the norm break I want to choose what
type of people should I do norm break. First, I want to try my norm break with White Elder people
because I work at the mall and I have had many elder customers who were all nice to me. And I
want to try my first experiment with White elder people and continue few more experiments with
other people of different ages and race. I go to the place where people sit and eat their food, I
don't want to sit on the same table as them which might trigger them and make them mad. I will
just sit on the near by table by facing them while they eat their food and stare at them. There could
be different types of possible reactions from different types of people which may vary in their
level of understanding, may influence by their experience if they have been part of social norm
breaks before. People could be mad at me, tell me to leave, change their sit, or maybe they could
offer some of their food to me, or people might get confused. People might think why I am staring
at them, they might see me as a weirdo, might call police if they feel unsafe I hope that doesn't
happen. If someone would look at me while I am eating my food I might
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