Violation Of Social Norms

In our society we go about our days normally and usually do not realize that we are all part of the norm of the society. We all function in ways to structuralize our society and make it run smoothly. We view norms as being “arbitrary rules for behavior that are adopted because they are valued or reinforced by the culture” (Caildini 1998). These are rules that we were taught as children and learned throughout our lives. We observe what people do and we conclude on what is a norm and what a violation in human interactions is. Norms vary throughout the world and what seems to be socially acceptable here might be completely offensive in another country. Folkways on the other hand are norms that are not enforced as strongly as a regular norm. Values
on the other hand are what we long for and what we do not have no desire for (Henslin 2015). This in cases is what helps people follow the rules for the norms of our society and creates ideals that each person in the society can work for. “Mores are norms to which groups demand conformity because they reflect core values” (Henslin 2015). Mores play an important part to the values in our society. Sanctions are “either expressions of approval given to people for upholding norms or expressions or disapproval for violating them” (Henslin 2015). Once we witness a social norm violation being made we react in different ways to the situation. We tend to be angry or shocked at the fact that someone is breaking the rules and wearing certain clothing that is not acceptable in public, or chewing with your mouth open, etc.
In every different environments we act a certain type of way because that if the norm of the place.
In my case I did my observation at an urgent care waiting room while my little sister was waiting to be called inside. The wait to a see a doctor was about a three hour wait and the waiting room was extremely full with families that all seemed to have the same thing. There was a young man about the age of sixteen or seventeen sitting in on of the corners with his mother and two brothers and he decided instead of listening to his music quietly with earphones or headphones he decided to listen to his music out loud. This young man did not seem to care that many people were sick and was just ignorant about his surroundings. The music he was playing was hip hop and rap music which parents seemed not to like to hear around their children with all the profanity inside each song. This happened for about forty five minutes and people started whispering stuff amongst each other, grunt, or they would actually just stand up and leave that room and sit somewhere else. Although the music was loud and disturbing people in the room no one decided to stand up and tell him turn down the music. After the forty five minutes someone yelled across the room to turn down the music and the young man did for five minutes and continued to play his music. A nurse eventually escorted him outside the room since he wasn’t a patient and was disrupting the
environment.
This was a norm violation because normally when you go into a hospital like environment you are usually quiet and respect others personal space. One thing that did come across my mind was the fact that this went on for forty five minutes and everyone was waiting on each other to react to the situation at hand. Since there was a large group of people in the room people depended on someone else to stop the problem instead of standing up themselves. It is described as “larger groups, including the triad, students felt a diffusion of responsibility: Giving help was no more their responsibility than anyone else’s” (Henslin 2015). Another norm violation I witnessed was one at a restaurant where a similar reaction was made. I went out to dinner with a few coworkers to enjoy some food at Denny’s one afternoon after we all got off work. We were seated and we went along and ordered our food and waited while the waiter came back with our food. While we waited for the food to come a mother started scolding one of her children and we just tried to ignore it as others did at the restaurant. Although everyone tried to ignore it, the mother started yelling at the child to eat his food or he would get a whooping once he got home. Everyone in the restaurant began to talk amongst each other about what was happening while a lot of people were watching just in shock and she continued to yell at her son. Not only was she yelling but she was also using a lot of bad language terms to her son that was probably around the age of eight or nine years old. The setting at the restaurant was getting very uncomfortable that one man stood up walked over and told the mother that if she did not lower her voice he would call child protective services to check this situation out.
This situation was a norm violation because in a restaurant environment you act and dress the part. Her being a mother should have been setting an example to her children instead she was the one committing the violation and did not find it wrong in any way. The negative sanctions in this situation were obvious. The mother was acting out of her norm character in this society and others in the restaurant reacted in shock or even in an angrily way. She was not behaving as a mother instead she was acting like a teenager.
The norm violation I committed was actually done during one of my shifts at work.
I work mornings at Krispy Kreme where I usually work drive thru and work the register. I decided that everytime I would talk to a guest either in the front or at the window I would yawn so much I could barely keep a conversation going. No one who I worked with knew what I was planning on doing which gave me a great result in total. At first when I would yawn the first time most guests would comment jokingly about lack of sleep the night before and would be understanding. After the first few yawns many people started looking at me differently and would actually comment with “excuse you” or “am I boring you” after a while my coworkers started noticing it and my manager actually asked me to drink a cup of coffee to wake myself up. I continued to do this for the rest of my shift and by the end my manager told me to meet her in the office. It turned out that I had 5 complaints about my yawning and how incredibly rude it was to do that in front of them. Once I told my managers about what I was doing after they completely understood and helped me with my
observations.
This was a norm violation for the simple fact that in our society after we sneeze, cough, or yawn we either cover our mouths or say excuse me. It seemed very unsanitary and very rude to do this in front of people and especially in front of people that are buying your product. I was not following the regular folkways of customer service and came off as a rude and inexperienced worker. It is rude to yawn right after someone is talking about their mornings and their kids after you happened to ask them about that. It was an negative sanction because its unacceptable to this society to act in this way.
In conclusion norms are the structure that sets our society and keeps it running smoothly. Once you disrupt a norm in society we begin to lose the structure and we see people react negatively about the situation. We learn how to act in our society and once we see others acting against a norm we begin to look at the negative sanctions that come along with the violations.