Social interaction proceeds fluidly in everyday life,
because people have shared definitions of and expectations about routine
situations. As we go about our day, we generally assume that people are going
to behave a certain way and observe certain norms. When they don’t, we may
sometimes know how to respond, because we have seen that kind of violation
before. For example, if someone cuts in front of us in line, we probably
already know how we would react to that breach of common courtesy.
But other norms are so ingrained and automatic that we can
hardly imagine anyone breaking them. Because we have never been confronted with
the behavior, we have no pre-set idea of how to react when someone fails to
behave “normally.” For instance, if you were sitting in a near-empty
movie theater and a stranger suddenly sat down directly beside you, how would
you react? Chances are, you have no idea, because it’s just not something
people do.
This assignment calls for you to breach a social norm,
either by doing something one is not supposed to do, OR by not doing something
that is considered standard behavior in that particular situation.
Example like taking
drugs etc
1) In your paper, under the subheading of Method: Include a
1 paragraph overview explaining what you did and how you did it. Explain which norm you violated—i.e., what is
normally done vs. what you did differently.
2) Under the subheading of Findings: Include a 1 page
analysis that includes:
Your personal feelings: how did you feel before engaging in
your norm violation, during it, and afterward?
Other people’s reactions during the violation. Did anything
unusual or substantial happen because of the norm violation? How did you know
what people were thinking and feeling about the violation? Were there any
notable patterns that arose in people’s reactions?
3) Under the subheading of Discussion: Include a 4 page
analysis in which you reflect on your findings. Using the course concepts and
ideas discussed and read thus far, how can you understand and interpret the
interactions of others? How can you
understand your own experience/feelings about norm breaching? In this discussion, you must:
Clearly apply at least 3 relevant sociological
concepts/theories from our course materials/readings to the deviant behavior
you analyzed in this experiment.
Clearly apply findings from at least 5 meaningful up-to-date
resources, 3 of which are from reputable academic journals, to the deviant
behavior you analyzed in this experiment.
NOTE: do not include the actual notes you took during the
observations. You need to analyze and discuss the notes, but not include/list
them in your paper.
Do not use unverifiable, secondary sites such as Wikipedia,
about.com, ask.com, and similar. Use our course materials, peer-reviewed
journal articles from the library, and other scholarly sources.
Your presentation should utilize sound critical thought and
it should include appropriate APA in-text citations and full APA references at
the end.
