The document provides an overview of sociology, focusing on the concept of social norms, which are the unwritten rules governing behavior in society. It categorizes norms into mores, folkways, and laws, and discusses their functions in maintaining society and facilitating individual behavior. The importance of social norms is emphasized as essential for survival, societal functionality, and reducing decision-making overload.

1. Much of the presentation is based on
Sociology Overview: An Introduction to the
Discipline of Sociology—An Online Course
Imran Ahmad Sajid

2. • Social norms are the unplanned, unexpected result of
individuals' interactions.
• Social norms [are] …a kind of grammar of social
interactions.
• Like a grammar, a system of norms specifies what is
acceptable and what is not in a society or group.
• Analogously to a grammar, it is not the product of
human design and planning (Bicchieri, 2006).

3. What would happen if?
• You cut into the middle of a line by yourself and
stayed in line for at least 2 minutes?
• You sang loudly on a public bus?
• You positioned yourself 6 inches from an
acquaintance’s nose during a conversation?
• You laughed during a funeral?
– How would other people behave?
– How would you feel?

4. Norms
• Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the
behaviours of its members (Macionis, 2012).
• Social norms [are] the customary rules that govern behavior in
groups and societies (Muldoon and Bicchieri, 2011)
• Norms refer to group shared expectations (Young and Mike,
2012).
• Social norms are customary rules of behavior that coordinate
our interactions with others (Durlauf and Blume)

5. Two types of Norms
• WG Sumner.
1. MORES: norms that are widely observed and have
great moral significance.
• Mores include Taboos… e.g. adults should not walk in
public without dress.
2. FOLKWAYS: Norms of routine or casual interaction.
• e.g. ideas about appropriate greetings and proper
dress.
• Mores distinguish between Right and Wrong, Folkways
draw a line between Right and Rude.
Norms
Mores Folkways

6. 3. Laws: are norms which are designed, maintained and
enforced by the political authority of a society.

7. • A student who does not wear a pair of shoes in the
classroom may raise eyebrows for violating folkways….
• It would be a violation of Mores if he comes to the class
only wearing the shoes.

8. How Norms are Enforced?
1. Coordination motive (e.g. driving on left side to avoid
accident)
2. Threat of social disapproval or punishment for norm
violations (e.g queuing in bank to deposit fee)
3. Internalization of norms of proper conduct (e.g giving
tip in hotel)

9. FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL NORMS

10. Function One:
Social norms make it possible for the human organism
to survive.

11. • The newborn infant does not enter the world with the
full equipment and capacity to respond appropriately
to everything it will encounter in its environment.
• It would not survive without the social norms that
influence adults to take care of it.

12. Function Two:
• Social norms are the means by which society is
maintained and the needs of its members are fulfilled.

13. • Unrestrained, our biological needs and inclinations
would encourage or perhaps guarantee anarchy.
• When norms control behavior, people in a culture are
constrained to fulfill societal needs, sometimes at the
expense of their natural drives.

14. Function Three:
Social norms make it possible for much of individual
behavior to become automatic, greatly reducing the
number of personal decisions to be made.

15. • In the process of internalizing the norms of one’s
society, an individual learns countless time-tested
procedures for the maintenance of life, health,
comfort, and propriety.
• Once learned, they can be applied automatically in
appropriate situations.

16. • Two examples—
– You do not reflect, each time you wish to greet a friend, on
whether to extend your right or left hand.
– When driving a car, you no longer stop to consider whether
to stay in the right or left traffic lane.
• These procedures were decided for you and you are
habituated (socialized) to them.

17. • By accepting and following a cultural pattern, Cooley
(1964) says, we get “the selected and systemized
outcome of the past” (p. 297).
• Social norms provide rationality to our behaviors and
free us from decision-overload that would result from
our daily “human interactions” (Dressler, 1973, p. 3).

18. Other Functions
4. Control Behaviour
5. Helps in Self-Control
6. Safeguard values
7. help to set standards and rules for people to follow.
8. help people act in a way that's productive

19. • Social norms provide value to society beyond the
simple “what is proper?” purpose.
• Social norms are an integral part of the
normative/survival processes of society.
• Society could NOT survive without social norms.

20. References
Carroll, M. P. (1972, October). Considerations on the analysis of variance
paradigm in sociology. Pacific Sociological Review, 15, 443-459.
Cooley, C. H. (1964). Human nature and the social order (rev. ed.). New
York: Schocken.
Denisoff, R. S., Callahan, O., & Levine, M. H. (1974). Theories and
paradigms in contemporary sociology. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock
Publishers.
Dressler, D. (1973). Sociology: The study of human interaction (2nd ed.).
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Rose, A. (1967). The relation of theory and method. In L. Gross (Ed.),
Sociology theory: Inquiries and paradigms (pp. 207-219). New York:
Harper & Row.

21. Dr. Ronald Keith Bolender, Presenter
Dr. Bolender' s Portfolio
To contact Dr. Bolender, ronald_bolender@yahoo.com