Values, Norms, And Norms

“I don’t believe we were put here with all of our differences to conform to a uniform state of mind” ~Sonya Teclat. Conformity is when people change to act the same as other people in their society. The government, media, and social groups are a big part of the society. These things encourage people to conform. One of the books that have people conforming is Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson. In Among the Hidden Jen, one of the characters is very outgoing and brave. Luke another character is very shy, once he meets Jen he conforms to be brave like her. In addition, society encourages conformity through government, media, and social groups.

Conformity is a form of social influence, when we conform we act and think like members of our group. Often people even alter or change their personal beliefs to match those around them. When we conform we feel pressured to fit in with others, to be a part of the majority. While we may still have contradicting beliefs towards things, we change our behaviors and actions to match what everybody else is

The act of people conforming is seen every where. Any activity performed by someone that is “in the ordinary” is them conforming to the norm. In the crucible, all the girls conform to the norm, set by Abigail Williams. When Abigail faints, the girls faint, when Abigail screams, the girls scream. They mirror her in her every action due to their fear of what would occur if they did not. Same concept is seen today, for example, when you shower regularly you are conforming to the norm. You shower in fear of judgement if you were not to shower, and you shower in following the actions of others. This common action of following in others footsteps affects us by causing people to become identical and influencing people to ignore their personal morals and follow the mob of society blindly. People force physical change upon themselves due to fear of being that one

Because humans crave attention of others, they live their life and conform to whatever the majority of the people around them says. Asch’s Conformity Experiment, which was when they hired eight actors and one test subject and gave them all a test and told the eight actors to say the wrong answer, they found that the test subject would usually conform to the majority vote even if it was wrong. This showed us that people would usually conform to the majority answer on a test, even if it was wrong. Even in high school, students conform to make themselves look cool and conform to things even if they know it’s wrong. Asch’s experiment and american high schools prove to us that humans don’t want to stand out and we just want to fit in and get attention.

Everyone has been there before. You 're walking in public, whether it be in a school setting, a workplace, or elsewhere, and you feel an overwhelming feeling of being watched and judged. Whether it is your dabblings in romance, performance in sports events, clothing, or otherwise, we feel the need to compare ourselves to and identify with the societal “norms” around us. It is better to thrive as a sheep than to starve as a wolf, as the saying goes. This is what is known as conformity and it has been with us from time immemorial.

Second, society teaches us to conform by not thinking for ourselves. We are simply told how to solve a problem or accomplish a task. We are never taught why

Conformity is submitting to the majority to fit in, usually because of fear of rejection. For myself I used to want to be accepted by people in school, I felt as though I had to dress like other girls and talk like everyone else in order to get friends and to be liked. To listen to all rap music like everyone or have to watch the Kardashian reality show in order to fit in and have something to talk about with people because that is considered “cool”. When you are different you are made to feel bad and not accepted and it hurts. I am slowly starting to realize that I don’t need to act like everyone else because the people who accept my difference, as well as their own, are my real friends and no one else should matter. Thoreau

According to Webster Dictionary, conformity is defined as, “in compliance of rules, laws, or standards.” Mark Twain’s, “Cone-pone Opinions,” demonstrates how society reacts to new conformities; individuals eventually conform to popular ideas and inevitably abandon these ideas for something greater. Twain states, “It is our nature to conform; it is force which not many can successfully resist.” (Twain 2). The reason people conform is not for self-approval, but rather, for the approval of others.

Conformity exists to satisfy the insecurity of others. For instance, Cyrano creates a facade hide his insecurity. “Me whom the plainest woman would despise- Me, with this nose of mine that marches on Before me by a quarter of

So why exactly do we conform? Author Doris Lessing provides an answer to this question in her article, “Group Minds.” Lessing describes how westerners conform and how it affects their individuality. Social psychologist at Rutgers University, Solomon Asch provides similar ideas, but in a more scientific manner. In his article, “Opinions and Social Pressure,” Asch studies how men conform to the social pressures of a group.

In this essay, I will be discussing my observations on two norms violation I have observed and personally committed to observe our societies reaction. In order to evaluate the publics reactions a professor name James Henslin defined a norm as a “expectations of ‘right’ behavior” (49). The way I see a norm was something that our society would never do every day. A norm is not the only violation. Folkways, for example, are “norms that are not strictly enforced” (Henslin 51). Mores are “norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the wellbeing of the group” (Henslin 51). Just because norms happen everywhere does not mean it is the same violation everywhere. What we may considered something that

The causes of conformity among individuals have long been debated and researched in recent decades. It is for this reason that conformity is an intriguing psychological concept. It causes sound-minded individuals to go against their best judgement, to engage in behaviour which they usually would not engage in, even accept and welcome an idea they internally disagree with, all in order to not be a deviant from the group. It is thus interesting to look at the factors which cause people to conform, to do what they see others doing, to rely on the judgements of the group, and to ignore their own senses and perceptions. It is the reasons for the individual's desire to conform that I will be discussing in this paper.

Everywhere around the world exists some form of structure, pattern, or organization. There is always a certain degree of conformity for every object and living being; likewise, humans prefer to “blend in” by following a trend or standard. It’s an unavoidable tendency that humans follow subconsciously. In the same way a sunflower requires sunlight to survive, humans depend on preset standards to thrive. They have a potent desire to live up to expectations, to become a clone of another, to purchase the same brands, etc. It’s an endless cycle of rules and its followers.

Human behaviour is significantly shaped by norms and values. Values define a society, things people strive for and attach great meaning and significance to. Norms set rules of behaviour designed to express a commitment to the society’s underlying values. The interaction between norms and values produces modal personality types in a culture or society with specific drives, motivations, expectations and propensity towards certain patterns of behaviours. The history of education in Jamaica is perhaps best understood in the context of the island's colonial past which some what shape the norm and value of the society. The education system and its administration was created after the British system; and many of the developments in the history of Jamaican education can be seen as responses to events such as the abolition of slavery 1834, the advent of suffrage in 1944, and the achievement of independence in 1962. Much of the recent history of education in Jamaica has been driven by the perceived need to develop "homegrown" responses to economic, social, and political pressures on the island and in

Have you ever thought why you shake hands when you meet someone, why you do not curse in polite conversations, why you don’t pick your nose in public, or why you say please and thank you? All of these examples are part of our society norms, our culture, and our beliefs. What are norms? What are they for? What do they do for society and individuals and