Sociology 101 Social Norms

Harry Patel 9/03/2008 Sociology 101, section 8 Social Norms: Conformity and Deviance One of the norms I broke was talking to someone in a public bathroom, while peeing. It was very ocward talking to the guy next to me. One of the reason I felt ocward talking to him was because, you are not suppose to talk to the guy next to you. While you are doing your business you look at the wall in front of you. When you are done you wash your hands, and leave. No one talks to anyone they don’t know, even if they do know the person next to them they won’t talk to them while they are peeing. No one was taught to do this, you learned by observing. But when the guy next to you starts talking you don’t know how to react. That’s how the guy next to me reacted. First of all this field stimulation took place in AMC Theater bathroom, right after the movie Eagle Eye finished. My prediction before starting the field stimulation was that no one will talk to me and pretend they didn’t hear me. When I enter the bathroom there were few people in the bathroom all the urinal were full because I had to do the field stimulation I waited for one of the urinals to open up. While I was waiting for the urinals to open up I didn’t want to do the field stimulation. The reason I didn’t want to do it was because there were lots of people in the bathroom, and I didn’t want anyone to get mad at me. One of the guy finished and stepped away from the urinal washed his hand and, like what you are suppose, to do he didn’t talk to anyone. I walked over to the open urinal and started doing my business. The guy next to me was done and walked away, right when I got there. This guy in his late 20’s started using the urinal next to me. I didn’t know what to say at first. I was thinking about just saying Hi. I couldn’t get myself to say it, but finally very scared and nervous I said hi. I don’t know if he heard me or not, but he didn’t say anything. So I got even more nervous. I said it even louder hi. He gave me a