Social Norms Term Paper

Social norms are rules of conduct that materialize based on a society’s values. Social norms are not always the same since different societies have different values. Without social norms there would be chaos; social norms make society’s behavior predictable, for the most part. Most of our society likes predictability; it helps to make us feel safe. Each person is taught social norms through contact with other human beings. The family is one of the first avenues by which children begin to form their understanding of social norms. Parents are constantly teaching their children what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. I will never forget the time that my son asked me, very loudly as a woman walked by us with super short hair and dressed in men’s clothing, “Mommy, is that a boy or a girl?” I was mortified. Of course, I had a talk with him about not talking about people when that person is within ear shot. In addition to the family teaching children social norms, we continue to learn spoken and unspoken social norms throughout our entire lifetime. We learn social norms in school, in friendships, at work, in libraries and hospitals, to name a few. We pick up on what is acceptable by reading signs, listening to instructions from people and watching how others behave in certain settings.
The term deviance is used to describe the breaking of any social norm. Most ley people would say that deviance has a negative connotation to it; however, sociologists do not tack on any judgment when using the word deviance. Deviance is used to describe the smallest to largest infractions of norm breaking. A small infraction might be standing too close to the person in front of you in line. This is an example of breaking a folkway and is frowned upon by most Americans but not exactly punishable by law. An example of a large infraction would be rape which is an example of the breaking of a mores and is unacceptable to our culture and punishable by law. “In short, norms bring

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