1. By: Ivy Finnegan Gender Roles Professor Dixon Variations in Social Norm Violations by Gender
2. SOCIAL NORMSWhen you go into a store, are you comfortable paying for your grocery order with change? If not, why is that so? There is no law to say you cannot do this. Are you comfortable cutting in line ? I’m not, even though it’s not against the law, it’s against the social norm for my culture.This is what makes me curious; what makes a person follow a set of unwritten rules for their group? Why do people conform to social norms? The answer is to fit in with their peer group. I’m fascinated with people who step outside the expected social behavior patterns of a particular group and do what they want instead of what others want.
3. PREVIOUS FINDINGSResearch has shown that women are more likely than men to seek help for mental health issues. According to Drapeau, Boyer & Lesage, women have a stronger sense of community and it’s more socially acceptable for them to seek help. Also, a study done on young children showed that they cannot accept the violations of social norms. Children under the age of 6 will invent magical reasoning instead. For example, when asked if it was okay for a little boy to take a bath with his clothes on, children older than six said yes, but that it was odd. Younger than 6 said he must be a super-hero(Browne & Woolley).
4. Females are more apt than males to violate social norms even with repercussions or social stigma. Hypothesis
5. METHODS I opted for an online survey database and constructed 7 main questions with follow up if the participants indicated they had broken the specific social norm. I posted this survey online and asked a random college course to complete it. I also posted it on several community based websites in random states, including New York, Oregon, Florida, California and Washington. As the questions listed on the survey could be considered personal, it seemed that an online survey would yield the best results. I wanted the participants to be honest and give feedback to their own experiences with breaking social norms and considering the stigma that can come from these violations, I felt that in a face to face interview might result in the participant not being forthcoming.
6. RESULTSWhile there were numerous societal norms that I could have asked, I chose questions that I felt might elicit the biggest difference between males and females. The questionnaire was labeled “Would you” and consisted of 7 questions, with follow ups. A total of 17 females and 24 males responded and gave some interesting feedback.
7. The questions asked were: If you really had to use the restroom and your genders was full or had a long line, would you use the other sex bathroom? Would you lie to prevent hurting someone's feelings ? Have you ever cut in line ? Would you marry a person who you were not in love with but that has financial security for your future ?Have you ever bought a large purchase with change? I.e. a DVD with pennies?. Would you hold the hand of a same sex friend if they asked you to, in public? Have you ever talked to yourself in public?
9. As you can see women claimed that they would and have broken social norms more often than the men surveyed. In the “lying to a friend” question some of the social repercussions included end of friendship, breach of trust but the most common answer for both men and women was guilt. In “holding hands with a same sex friend” the results were a noticeable difference. Almost all of the woman, 16 out of the 17 said they would while only 7 of the 24 men surveyed said they would. One answer for this was being thought of as gay while all other answers were “nothing” meaning nothing would be the social repercussion. This I though was interesting.One area that males claimed more violations than women was cutting in line. While the women were more concerned with people talking about them, the men thought that they would get yelled at or pushed more often.
10. Overall, I thought the results would be more extreme. I was very shocked to see that both males and females were comfortable using the other sex’s bathroom. I had to do this for a sociology project a couple of years ago and was extremely nervous about it. Also, the reaction I got from the men who came into the restroom was enough to let me know they were surprised to see me in there! I also thought that women would be more apt to do it than men because I figured men would be worried about offending the opposite sex and getting into trouble. One man did say he wouldn’t do it because he might get arrested. Interesting!If I were to do this survey again I would ask the participants what their sexual preference is . I think this would clarify the holding hands question because if a person was homosexual then holding the hand of a same sex friend would not be violating a norm for their social group.
11. REFERENCESBrowne, C., & Woolley, J. 2004. “Preschoolers' Magical Explanations for Violations of Physical Social and Mental Laws.” Journal of Cognition & Developments, 5(2), 239-260. Drapeau, A., Boyer, R., & Lesage, A. 2009. “The Influence of Social Anchorage on the Gender Difference in the Use of Mental Health Services.” Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 36(3). 372-384.Hockenbury, D. & Hockenbury, S. 2006. Psychology, Fourth Edition. New York, New York. Worth Publishing.
