Social Norms Research Paper
Norms
Norms in a social setting can be described as customs or values representing what knowledge different individuals possess of what other people do (Hechter, 2005). They are regarded as forms of informal understanding or rules on the part of the individuals involved. Norms can be easily recognized from small group settings such as an office in order to improve add on the expectations or study them separately. Lots of norms exist in our daily lives and a good example may be the line made by students every day at the cafeteria during lunch hour. Another example of a norm is how quiet bank halls are since nobody likes to talk loudly or shout in these halls.
I chose to try and break a norm during one of our recent family gatherings that included …show more content…
The younger group was left to talk in low volumes at the back or inside the house as this felt more comfortable and easier than interrupting their elder counterparts. This was a case of accommodation in the society. According to Ogburn & Nimkoff (n.d), accommodation is the situation in which people have accepted their relative positions in social situations. That is, some are accepted as the dominant group, while the rest are the minority. Consequently, this acceptance led to acculturation in the society – the situation in which the minority group accepts the values of the dominant group (Ogburn & Nimkoff, n.d). It was saddening to notice this pattern. The young members either kept to themselves or shared what they hard with their fellow youths, unless an elder person made direct contact with them. The sharing of meals was conducted by the elders only and the rest only had to carry on what they were …show more content…
He asked whether I was taking an interest in the business or I was asking out of curiosity. I replied that I was thinking of joining him in the business later. His friend, a man of Asian descent was still in shock as he looked at us exchange grins. A group of other members had seen me approach my uncle and had taken interest in what was happening. Once my uncle and I got comfortable and started conversing socially, people did seem to mind me anymore. However, every now and then I could catch my sister-in-law whispering something to my aunt while looking at us. At this moment I knew I had caught the attention that I so needed to achieve my objective. I asked my uncle why no young member of the family ever talked to the other members as freely as we had done for the past 10 to 15 minutes, he said that that is just how it had been in the society. This helped me understand how assimilation works. According to Shepard & Greene (2003), assimilation is the process through which the entire culture conforms to a specific way of being, which is passed from generation to
Norms in a social setting can be described as customs or values representing what knowledge different individuals possess of what other people do (Hechter, 2005). They are regarded as forms of informal understanding or rules on the part of the individuals involved. Norms can be easily recognized from small group settings such as an office in order to improve add on the expectations or study them separately. Lots of norms exist in our daily lives and a good example may be the line made by students every day at the cafeteria during lunch hour. Another example of a norm is how quiet bank halls are since nobody likes to talk loudly or shout in these halls.
I chose to try and break a norm during one of our recent family gatherings that included …show more content…
The younger group was left to talk in low volumes at the back or inside the house as this felt more comfortable and easier than interrupting their elder counterparts. This was a case of accommodation in the society. According to Ogburn & Nimkoff (n.d), accommodation is the situation in which people have accepted their relative positions in social situations. That is, some are accepted as the dominant group, while the rest are the minority. Consequently, this acceptance led to acculturation in the society – the situation in which the minority group accepts the values of the dominant group (Ogburn & Nimkoff, n.d). It was saddening to notice this pattern. The young members either kept to themselves or shared what they hard with their fellow youths, unless an elder person made direct contact with them. The sharing of meals was conducted by the elders only and the rest only had to carry on what they were …show more content…
He asked whether I was taking an interest in the business or I was asking out of curiosity. I replied that I was thinking of joining him in the business later. His friend, a man of Asian descent was still in shock as he looked at us exchange grins. A group of other members had seen me approach my uncle and had taken interest in what was happening. Once my uncle and I got comfortable and started conversing socially, people did seem to mind me anymore. However, every now and then I could catch my sister-in-law whispering something to my aunt while looking at us. At this moment I knew I had caught the attention that I so needed to achieve my objective. I asked my uncle why no young member of the family ever talked to the other members as freely as we had done for the past 10 to 15 minutes, he said that that is just how it had been in the society. This helped me understand how assimilation works. According to Shepard & Greene (2003), assimilation is the process through which the entire culture conforms to a specific way of being, which is passed from generation to