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SOCIAL NORMS
Norms
Definition: Group norms are the informal rules that groups adopt to regulate group members behavior. We can identify norms when they are violated:
Wait for your turn. Remain quiet on the bus. Maintain interpersonal distance. Assume a somber demeanor during a funeral.
Norm: Individual and group judgments in an ambiguous situation. Stimulus: A stationary point of light appears to move in a dark room without any external frame of reference. Questions: Individuals first asked to estimate how far the light moved alone (100 times) and then again as a member of a group.
Results (Individuals)
Individuals established a personal norm that guided their judgments about how far the light was moving. Each individual had their own estimate of distance based on their personal experience.
Question: Would each individuals judgments become more similar when making estimates as a group?
Subjects who saw the confederate litter into the fully littered environment would litter more than those who did not see such littering. Subjects who saw the confederate litter into the clean environment would be less likely to litter than those who did not see such littering.
Prediction 2:
Injunctive norm: People should litter or they should not litter. Descriptive norm: The parking garage is littered or it is not littered. Confederate carried a large handbill and threw it on the ground.
Results (continued)
Confederate threw the handbill into the clean environment, thus calling attention to the descriptive norm:
IT IS NOT OK TO LITTER HERE! Only 6% of the subjects littered. 14% of the subjects littered.
Implications
Norms can often be very subtle.
Are you always aware the you are following a norm? Are there situations in which you are more aware than others? (E.g. Picnic vs. Funeral)
Norms have a powerful influence on behavior when people are focused on the norms in a given situation.
Members of the community nearly unanimous in their support of the churchs restrictions on gambling, smoking and drinking. Yet, the author often gambled, drank and smoked in the privacy of peoples homes.
Pluralistic Ignorance
Definition: Individuals make systematic errors in their perceptions of the other members of a collective and their relation to those members. In other words,
Gamblers felt estranged from the town without knowing that they were actually typical. Students who felt deviant because of their views on alcohol were less likely to attend their college reunion. Male students conformed to the misperceived norm by drinking more.
A college campus can be more pro-alcohol than its students. Two campuses can differ on their attitudes toward alcohol even if their students do not. Norms on campus can change even if the attitudes of its students have not.
SOCIAL CONTROL
Social Control
All societies have ways to promote order, stability and predictability in social life. Without social control, social life would be unpredictable, even chaotic. There are two broad types of social control:
Internal External
Internal
Social Control
Internal social control lies within the individual, and is developed during socialization. You are practicing internal social control when you act according to your conscience (ie. you do something because it is the right thing to do).
Most people act according to this internal social control (ie. they do the right thing) most of the time.
External
Social Control
The process of socialization does not ensure that all people will conform all of the time. For this reason, external social control must also be present. External social control is based on social sanctions rewards and punishments designed to encourage desired behaviour.
Positive sanctions (eg. smile of approval, awards, raises) are used to encourage conformity. Negative sanctions (eg. criticism, fines, imprisonment) are intended to stop socially unacceptable behaviour.
Sanctions
Sanctions may be formal or informal
Formal (eg. low grades, awards, jail time) Informal (eg. ridicule, gossip, smiles)
Control Theory
Control Theory
Control Theory
Control theory looks at how some social structures have led to higher rates of deviance.
Communities where there are high rates of poverty, conflict and disorganization have been found to lack the structure needed to exert control over their citizens.
In these communities, there are often high rates of crime, mental illness, suicide and substance abuse.
Control Theory
Control theory investigates the ways in which behaviour is regulated, including the influences of family, school, morals, values, beliefs, etc.
It is this regulation that is seen as leading to conformity and compliance with the rules of society.
Control Theory
The mere existence of rules or norms cannot in and of itself explain conformity. Control theorists want to know why people conform to norms.
Clearly controlling forces are present in the lives of some people but not of others. Everyone gets tempted to break the rules, but not everyone does. Why?
Control Theory
Crime is the result of a loss of social control normally imposed through social institutions such as:
If such informal social control is weakened, formal means of social control (eg. criminal justice system) may be imposed.
Two control theories Containment Theory and Social Bond Theory have been developed to answer this question.
Containment Theory
Sociologist Walter Reckless (1967) suggested that people are drawn toward deviance for various reasons (frustration, media influence, poverty, etc).
These negative influences pull all individuals toward deviance in some way. There must, then, be some way of containing individuals within the norms.
Containment Theory
Reckless suggested that people could be insulated from crime
If properly socialized by his parents and peers, the individual will control (or contain) himself. The individual provides his own containment (controlling those natural impulses that could lead to the violation of norms). If the individual cannot contain himself from violating norms, his family and/or peers may try to contain him. If that fails, the other social institutions of informal social control may provide containment.
Attachment refers to sensitivity to and interest in others; it is how strongly we are tied to others. This requires sensitivity to the needs of others and an interest in their welfare. There are 3 prime locations for attachment: parents school peers
This refers to the extent to which we are committed to conventional forms of action (school, work, etc). Commitment requires time, energy and effort. The more we develop this commitment, the more we have to lose if we commit deviant acts and are caught.
This refers to the amount of time that we are involved in conventional activities (primarily through school, recreation and family). Involvement in conventional activities leaves little time for deviant behaviour.
This refers to an acceptance of conventional morality and a respect for authority. Beliefs refers to / implies adhering to such values as:
Sharing Sensitivity to others
they have too much to lose they have little time to break the law they are too sensitive to the feelings of others to victimize them