Social Norms And Conformity Summary

in today's society, we tend to divide ourselves into groups. One of the biggest divisions, seems to be our gender. Gender is something that has been debated, but one thing everyone can agree on is that we tend to shape everything around what is “normal” for our gender. When people find themselves outside these standards, however, is when things can become dangerous. As conformity is part of human nature, these standards can become extreme.

Aaron Devor in, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender,” argues that gender is a performance. He supports his argument by recognizing how society rewards, tolerates or punishes conformity to or divergence from social norms (widely accepted behaviors set by society). If a male fails to fall into his expected characterization of dominance and aggression or a female fails to act out in passivity and submission, they are at high risk of societal punishment.

Many individuals is faced with the decision of conforming or choosing personal desire, and it is not an easy decision. It is hard because being shunned by others for being different is not a good feeling. Choosing to conform over personal desire, often leads to loss. On the other hand, personal desire is what sets others apart and gives them joy. In the poem, “The Jackhammer Syndrome”, Al Purdy discusses the good and bad memories he has experienced. He goes through his memories of when he had fun and made mistakes, but he reflects on what he could have done better. The author of “The Jackhammer Syndrome informs against choosing the welcoming joy of conformity over the long-term gains of personal desire. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire may seem easy at first, but if the choice is to conform, the joy it gives will not last. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire Conformity may seem to give joy at first, but it does not last. When Al is playing pool with his brother, he wants to win badly, but losses. However when he did not care to win, Al wins! Conforming can lead to loss but personal desire has much to gain. If the choice is to conform, personal identity may be lost. In my life, I recognize several instances in which I found several similarities between Al and myself. I have made decisions that were not always good ones such as swimming across long distances with friends.

To start, I will discuss what social norms are. Societal norms are both unwritten informal rules that are accepted by people and written formal rules that are strictly enforced laws, of how people should carry themselves (Keirns, et al., 2016). Social norms are part of the socialization process. The socialization process is the way people “learn the norms and beliefs of our society” to fit in (Keirns, et al., 2016, n.p.). Some examples of social norms are looking into the eyes of the person you are speaking with, using silverware instead of your hands when eating, and saying excuse me when you belch in front of someone. Societal norms give myself and people guidelines of how to carry themselves in different situations. More importantly, social

John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”. This has been a puzzling idea for many; most of us are grown into some form of conformity at one time or another. At what point does following the rules become wrong? When is it too much? Over the years many people begin to question what the acts of following the crowd can mean; whether or not we need these orders, and structures to function; or whether it’s really worth losing yourself just to make everybody else happy. When does it become too much? And once is does, how do we break the cycle? This topic has been used throughout many different mediums; films, and literature, all alluding to the signs, and actions of when conformity is doing nothing

In society, children are taught expectations as to what is sociably acceptable: who to like, what to wear, and where to live, based on of the environment they grew up in. As children grow up, and go on through life, they then begin to impose these expectations onto the people around them. More often than not these societal expectations conform with that of a heteronormative mindset1. In a modern western context, heteronormativity is the notion that people fall into distinct genders, male and female, and lead natural roles in life all while conforming to the ideology of traditional binary gender roles. Such heteronormative bias asserts that traditional binary gender

Whether people are aware of it or not, society as a whole is silently dictating how people should live their lives from the inside through social norms, effectively removing the individuality and charm everyone has and promoting the ordinary while in actuality individuals should concerning themselves over what others are doing and focus on their own lives. Social norms are most of all a limitation to how individual people should be living their lives and most of which are not necessary to follow. Everyone has a choice as to whether or not they want to follow what everyone else is doing. Not only are social norms detrimental to the people who follow them, but they are also a hazard to civilization if norms are heavily relied upon. While

There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.

For some, conformity is an unthinkable evil in American society. All individuals living within a community conform in some way to social norms, yet to label someone a conformist is akin to labeling them ignorant and unoriginal. However, conformity - and its associated impacts - are as integral to the functioning of society as the principles of nonconformity. Conformity is often positively utilised to induce positive social change nationally and internationally. It prompts dissemination of workload, provides protection (‘strength in numbers’), and encourages strict rule enforcement. Although less appreciated than non conformists, conformists and their resulting principles play a vital role in the smooth conduction of society.

An instance in which I conformed to social norms or to peer pressure and did something that I later regretted is, whenever I was a Sophomore in High School I hung around the wrong crowd. This group of people was always influencing me to do bad things. One time we were driving around, one of the girls I was with decided it would be a good idea to cruise around the neighborhood and egg a bunch of cars. I kept saying “no, I’m not going to throw any eggs.” This girl said, “come on don’t be a goody goody, just do it.” So I did. I threw three eggs, all at different cars. I did this because I felt like I had to in order to conform to the group. This is also an example of normative influence because, I conformed to fulfill other people’s expectations,

Venerated poet, Maya Angelou, once wrote, “few survive, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of… conformity.” This is especially true in the education system, where impressionable youth submit to a doctrine of doing simply what they are told, doing as others do. Nearly all schools rain down this ruling, as in many cases it is necessary to their functionality, so as to avoid a becoming a system that runs on a mild form of anarchy. However, in many cases, the conformist rule is unnecessarily strong, and grossly impeding on personal freedoms, as I’ve seen myself within our own school.

Social psychology is the scientific study of how social groups affect an individual’s behavior, way of thinking, and feelings. There are millions of people in the world we live in and those people impact us at every stage of our lives. Babies look to the adults which influences their actions and even personality. Adults have to interact with others on a daily basis. Conforming is an example of how this works. When someone or a group of people do one thing, there is an urge in the individual to do the same thing. Now, whether that same thing is as simple as looking up at a cloud or joining the rioters who are smashing windows and beating people, can have varying degrees of conformity. Women seem to be more apt to conform than that of their male

Gender norms are a set of unspoken “rules” set by society where people are told to behave and act a certain way per their gender. For a long time, it has dictated the way one lead their lives, telling them how to behave and act. It is something that we are all exposed to no matter the age, race, or religion These gender roles have had a huge impact on the way kids grow up and often has a negative effect, taking a heavy toll on the person. Every community has some form of gender roles. Ultimately gender norms play a role in how we as civilians’ function in our society.

To understand why we have a sense of conformity, we must first understand value. “Values are used to learn people’s culture, ideas, and what they want out of life (Henslin 49). Every culture has similar and different values. “Norms are the expectations a group develops concerning the ‘right’ way to reflects its values” (Henslin49). An example of a norm would be personal space and speaking quietly in certain places such as a library. When norms are violated people often begin to question the person’s sanity and well-being based on how extreme the norm violation was.

We live in a society of expectations. These expectations subconsciously shape our mannerisms on a day to day basis. Stemming from these controlled mannerisms are social norms. Social norms are the traits that have come to be typical over time because they have been shaped by our surroundings and our everyday interactions. When a norm is broken, society reacts by entering into shock. In a social experiment, I tested the reaction of society when I broke a social norm.