Breaking A Norms

Breaking a Norm Norms are behaviors that are accepted by society. They are actions that do not stand out, and they help shape how a society functions. For example, there is a norm that students walk into a classroom and they sit down in a desk, and they expect the teacher to stand at the front of the classroom. Without this norm, the student would walk into a classroom not knowing if they should sit in the desk, or stand at the front of the classroom. One of type of norm are folkways, which are very small norms that are broken often, and usually there is little or no repercussion for breaking them. The repercussion for breaking norms is known as sanctions. External sanctions are the punishments given by other people, such as making fun of someone for breaking a norm. Internal sanctions are punishments we give to ourselves for breaking a norm, such as feeling guilty. The extremeness of the sanction correlates directly with what kind of norm was broken. I broke a very small and somewhat unusual norm by opening my banana peel at the opposite end. Most people open their bananas from the stem, but I open mine from the bottom. During dinner last
I feel that sanctions are very good at enforcing norms, even for folkways, because most people do not want to be stared at, laughed at or made fun of. People know that if they stick to the norms then the sanctions can be avoided. Even though I am not a shy person, I didn’t really want to break a norm because I knew that I was going to be judged in some way, and I didn’t like that feeling of being judged over something that was so unimportant, especially by my friends. I was surprised that my friends were so weirded out by me doing something as simple as peeling my banana from the wrong end. However, this shows that it is very noticeable when norms are broken, and that society will judge even the smallest of