- Describe the setting
- Physical- when and where is the norm violation taking place?
- Social- How many and what types of persons are observing?
- Describe the incident- tell what happened
- Summary & Interpretation
- How did you feel as you were violating the norm?
- Why did you feel the way you did?
- Did people react the way you expected? Explain.
- Did you encounter any difficulties in carrying out your assignment?
- What, if anything, did you learn about how norms exercise social control?
- Any other pertinent observations.
Posts due by Monday 3/11 before class
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ReplyDelete1. I was in a classroom for extra help. It was myself, the teacher, and one other girl after school yesterday. My teacher had asked me a question in order to understand the information and I made a random noise before I gave the answer. The other girl and the teacher had to do a double take to make sure they both heard it correctly. My teacher then laughed and questioned why I made the sound that I did. I felt awkward violating the norm because they both expected me to just give the answer and nothing else. The two other people reacted just the way I thought they would. Both of them heard it and laughed awkwardly because they weren't sure if it was a joke or an issue. Because it was the first time I was breaking the social
ReplyDeletenorm, it took some time for me to get up the courage to make a sound.
2. The second time I made a random noise I was at home with my parents and we were all sitting at the kitchen table. I made the noise and my mom looked at me funny, but it was my dad's reaction that I wasn't expecting. Before his next response, he also made a random sound and I laughed so much! I wasn't expecting that to say the least! I really wasn't expecting that from him. I think his reaction defies a social norm while the reaction of my mom was more along the lines of the reaction I was expecting.
1. I was at work with my aunt, who is a sixth grade teacher. Inside of her classroom, there were about twenty kids and my aunt. Before I walked in, I flipped my glasses upside down and went inside the classroom. As soon as all her students looked at me, they began to laugh uncontrollably, and I acted as if nothing was wrong. My aunt was laughing as well. I felt stance, but after seeing the children's reactions, I began to laugh with them. I was expecting this type of reaction, but it became so surreal when I actually went in and showed my face. Before I went into the classroom, I was nervous and felt a sense of discomfort. However, I raised up enough courage to walk in with confidence, and I made all of the kids laugh. I learned from this specific experience that our growing generation is exposed to the basic social norms in life and that since the children saw me breaking a social norm, it made them laugh immediately because I looked unusually and different.
ReplyDelete2. I went to my dad's restaurant with my sister, and before we went in, I adjusted my glasses ti their odd position, and my sister gave me the response which I was expecting. She said an a monotone voice, "You look so stupid." We walked into the restaurant and I greeted all of the waiters and waitresses and they just stared blankly at me. There were roughly ten sets of eyes staring at me. I felt uncomfortable, but since it was my second time doing it, I felt less uncomfortable. I knew that I was going to get the reaction I received because they were all older and more mature, so I was not expecting them to laugh, but wonder what was wrong with me. Since they were older, they are grown into all of their social norms and they know what is normal and what is not.
1. In school before a quiz was one incident and in a store in the crowded mall on a Friday night was another where I broke my social norm. In school, I was talking to my friend before a quiz, and about 4 girls may have heard me. In the store, it must have been about 10. All of my observers were female and anywhere from 16-25 years old.
ReplyDelete2. In school before the history quiz, I was asking my friend who I've known for twelve years what was on the quiz. "O M G Victoria is so going to fail. What does Victoria have to know? Victoria totally forgot there was a quiz today." Surprisingly, she laughed, and responded back in the third person saying, "Emily says you need to know this ha ha ha I like talking like this." Although not the response I was looking for, it was interesting to observe. I also saw a couple girls glare at me, but that was really all. The other incident was in the store Temptation which sells jewelry in the Palisades. The store is small, so it was crowded. I went up to a worker and said "Victoria is looking for a pair of flower earrings. Do you know where Victoria can find them?" the woman, about 30 years old, chuckled and asked who Victoria was. I pretended to look puzzled and told her it was me. When she brought me over to the section, I said "Victoria is looking for more...sparkly ones." Again, she smiled, but it was a little less this time. I eventually walked out of the store empty-handed. I saw people look at me and whisper to their friend and glance over at me.
3. As I was violating the norm, I felt very unnatural and out of place. So many times, I was tempted to just say "I". I felt looked down upon and weird. I think I felt this way because we usually think of people who speak in the third person as odd or full of themselves. I didn't like people judging me who didn't even know me. I kind-of expected people to laugh, but I didn't expect my friend to talk back to me in the third person. Also, I didn't expect people to actually comment on the side to their friend about me. I didn't encounter any difficulties besides the desire to just want to use correct grammar. I learned that norms are easy to follow for our specific culture because they come natural to us. Norms do exercise social control because by breaking the norm, you are acting almost "out of place" in society.
1 and 2. The first place I broke this social norm was in my house. I wanted to break this norm with people that I knew wouldn't judge me... so I thought. My dad, my brother and I were at the dinner table and I said "Giuliana had a snow-day today; she was so happy." I did this again today at the mall. I told my friend what I was going to do it so she would go along. We went into a store we've never been in (and never will again). I walk up to a worker with a handful of clothes and asked "Can you open a dressing room for Giuliana please?" When I went up to the cash register to buy something, the cashier asked if I found everything I was looking for and I replied, "Yes, Giuliana found everything."
ReplyDelete3. When I first broke this norm with my family, I didn't really think anything of it because I knew EXACTLY how they'd react; my dad and brother just looked at me and asked "Who are you? That guy from Seinfeld?" They didn't really think anything of it because they thought I was joking. Because of this, I didn't have any issue testing it out with them. However, I was really nervous when I got to the mall. My friend wanted me to do it in a store that we always go into; I objected. I wanted to go into a store that I would ever rarely go into so they wouldn't remember me. When I asked the worker to open a dressing room door, she just blankly stared for a couple seconds; she was definitely confused. Because my friend was with me she asked my friend if the room was for her. The cashier actually gave me this weird look (the are-you-serious look). The two workers reacted how I kind of suspected. I knew they would have some odd reaction because people just don't talk in 3rd person; it sounds weird and you don't sound as educated when you do it. I felt really stupid while talking in 3rd person. It was way more difficult to break the norm in the mall rather than at home because I didn't know the people in the store and that was their first impression of me: a girl who talks in 3rd person. After I walked of the store, my friend I just cracked up; I couldn't even believe I just did that. From this experiment, I learned that breaking social norms make people think a certain opinion about you. From the workers' facial expressions, I knew they thought I was weird. The norm that I broke wasn't even that big a deal; imagine if I broke a bigger social norm? I would have really gotten judged.
1. the setting in which I was breaking the social norm took place during school at lunch and the other took place at home. At lunch, the social violation was between my friend (also a junior) and I, and observers were other juniors and seniors at IHA. At home, the observer was my 18 year old brother.
ReplyDelete2. When breaking my social norm at school, I was talking to my friend and quickly switched to a low tone voice to answer her. She looked at me very perplexed, and before she asked what I was doing I started speaking in a high pitched voice. Still having a confused look on her face, she continued the conversation in a normal tone. When breaking my social norm at home, I was talking to my brother about his college. I asked him a question in a high pitched voice, and he told me I sounded annoying. I apologized in a low pitched voice, and again he told me that I sounded annoying.
3. As I was violating the norm of my tone of voice, I felt uncomfortable and as though I was being judged. I believe I felt the way I did because we are used to speaking in the "normal" way of tone, never really changing it, especially randomly in a conversation. I was surprised my friend did not ask me if something was wrong, but I am not surprised my brother told me I sounded annoying. I learned through this process that when you go against the social norm that is expected of you, you are judged right away. People will think something is wrong or tell you to stop. I also noticed that people will react to your violation of social norm mainly through odd looks instead of wanting to say something.
Describe the setting
ReplyDeleteThe norm first took place with just my mom and my sister in our house one morning. The second time it happened was at a party with alot of people around. The first time with my mom she went to hug me and instead of hugging her or doing anything back i just put up the peace sign. The second time people at the party tried hugging me to say hi and i did the same thing.
Summary & Interpretation
While i was violating the norm i sort of felt weird and awkward because it isnt something i would ever do normally. I think i felt that way because when it happened in my house my mom was confused and so was my sister. When it happened at the party everyone kind of gave me a funny look and walked away. I kind of expected people to react like that because my friends and family are very huggy so not hugging them back was something different for them. Through this i learned that social norms are a huge part of our society and they are things that should not be messed with. Just by violating a small one i realized how weird people feel when other violate social norms. These norms do control our lives i feel and when someone doesnt follow them then they are looked at in a funny way.
1.I was walking with two of my good friends in the hallway at school before homeroom. We were discussing what classes we had for the day when I randomly started to sing “Happy Birthday.” Immediately both of my friends gave me a weird look and awkwardly laughed. They kept asking me what I was doing and I just finished the song and went about the conversation normally. I was laughing as I was singing a little bit because it felt really awkward especially when they just kept looking at me with such confused expressions. They didn't understand what I was doing so I’m sure they felt pretty uncomfortable too. They did react how I expected because I think I would probably stare too if I was in this situation. It was a little difficult for me to carry this assignment out because I was a little embarrassed and I did need to work up some courage to do it. This showed me that when some social norms are broken, people don’t really know how to react. The people witnessing a social norm being broken are confused and don’t know how to respond in the situation. I think that some social norms, such as the way we carry out a normal conversation, are so instilled in us that when the routine is broken we don’t know what to do.
ReplyDelete2.I was at home with my older brother and my mom after school. My brother and I were sitting at the kitchen counter while my mom was cooking dinner. They were asking how my day went and after I said a few sentences I started to sing. They also looked strangely at me and kept asking why I was singing that. I was not as embarrassed as I was when I was with my friends at school. This is probably because I know that my brother and my mom are used to me acting somewhat random. I expected their reaction because I would react similarly. I did not encounter any difficulties apart from laughing while singing every once and a while. Because my family is used to me acting sort of weird, it wasn't as if I was breaking such a major social norm. However, it still was pretty strange for me to stop midway through my sentence to sing the song so I think that shows that no matter how close I am with someone, there still are social norms that are expected to be followed.
1. I was a little nervous about breaking the social norm so I decided to try it out with my brother. When he got back from basketball, I began to ask him about his game in a high pitched voice. He looked at me funny and said “what’s wrong with you, why are you acting weird” and walled away. I expected this kind of reaction from him because he knows me and he would just think that I was fooling around and would take it seriously.
ReplyDelete2. The second time I broke the social norm was when I was babysitting. When I walked into their house I began talking to the twins, in a high pitched voice. They both looked at each other checking to see if they were hearing the same thing. I kept on talking to them in the high pitched voice. Finally Ava, the more outgoing one, ask me if their was something wrong with my voice. I said no and they began laughing and laughing. I was really nervous to break the norm, that’s why I tried it out with my family first. I felt I sounded really silly as I was breaking the norm, because no one really talks in that high pitch of a voice. I knew the girls would start laughing and I knew Ava would ask right away because she is more outgoing, I was intersected to see how Cara would react because she’s more quiet and laid back, so I knew she wouldn't come out and ask. It was hard keep talking in the high pitch voice and stay serious when you know it’s silly and people are laughing at you.
My group decided to talk in third person. The first time I broke the norm, I was at my house after came home from school on Thursday with my parents. I said, "Jillian really hopes she doesn't have school tomorrow." My parents looked at me like I was crazy but continued with the conversation. I kept talking this way for a few minutes until they asked what was wrong with me. They seemed very confused and a little worried until I explained the assignment to them. It was hard for me not to laugh because I sounded pretty ridiculous. I felt very awkward. It was very hard not to use I, we, us, etc. and I had to think before I said anything. My parents pretty much reacted the way I expected. Although, I was surprised that they went along with it for as long as they did.
ReplyDeleteThe second time I broke the norm, I was at my friend's house on Friday night. I was watching a movie with my two friends and when it was over I said, "Jillian really liked this movie." They both started to laugh and look at me, thinking I was joking. I acted as if nothing was wrong and continued to talk in the third person. They both looked at each other and at me and continued to laugh. I kept it up until I started to laugh too and explained the assignment to them. They reacted how I expected them to. I assumed that they would think I was joking. This time it was even harder not to laugh because my friends were laughing. It still felt pretty awkward but it was easier to use the third person and less embarrassing the second time around. I think that this reflects that it can be difficult to go against mainstream society and break a social norm but it gets easier after you break the norm multiple times. I also learned that social norms are so engrained in us that it can be hard to break them.
Interaction 1:
ReplyDelete1. For my first social norm violation, I was at an art show with my cousin. It was really crowded since it was the last day of the show being open and it was also during lunch time. Many of the people there were older couples and many of the artists who are very serious about having their work shown in the show.
2. My cousin and I were talking and looking at this sculpture that somebody made out of glass, and crayons and twigs. She asked me how much I thought it was worth and I said "*quack* 5,000 dollars". She looked at me weird and then starting cracking up. The people around us began to stare since I quacked and she was laughing obnoxiously.
Incident 2:
1. My family went car shopping this weekend. It was late so not many people were there looking at cars but many of the employees were around getting ready to close up.
2.One of our friends owns a dealership and he asked me if I liked the car and I moo-ed and said that I really liked the car. Since he doesnt really know me well, he couldnt really react without giving me a strange glare and questioning my sanity. The only people around at this point were my parents and brother and they just ignored the noise.
3. I violated the social norm of answering people's questions normally by adding in noise before I gave an answer. I felt weird doing it, but I also kind of enjoyed it because I knew I would get a not-normal reaction out of people and catch them off guard. I learned that norms exercise social control because it guides us in how we are supposed to act when out in public because people will judge your behavior if it isnt what everyone else would do.
1. During this attempt I was coaching cheering leading in my grammar school gym. I was with 12 4th and 5th grade girls and my assistant coaches, my mom and a 4th grade mom. I began to sing "Happy Birthday" when they were in the middle of a cheer. One by one, they stopped cheering and just stared at me. This attempt was kind of fun because I got a chance to just be silly with people I knew wouldn't judge me. I figured the girls would just laugh but they just stood their confused which actually made it funnier. I didn't think this incident was hard because I knew all the people present very well. I learned that violating social can either be fun or humiliating; it all depends on your attitude and environment.
ReplyDelete2. This incident was not as enjoyable. I was at work (as a waitress) when I decided that I would go for it. I was surrounded by about 50 random people in the dining room and some of my coworkers/friends. When I wasn't too busy I decided I'd just sing. I felt very uncomfortable because I didn't know most of these people. However, their reaction was not was I did expect, but one I probably should have seen coming. Everyone sang along. Working at a restaurant, we encounter birthdays all the time and singing that song is not uncommon. This was a more difficult attempt but looking back on it, it's funny. I learned that it can be dangerous violating social norms in a professional setting...especially in the presence of your boss.
1. My group decided to wear our clothes inside out. The first attempt was when my mom. We were getting ready to eat dinner and I came downstairs with my t-shirt and sweatpants on inside out. At first she didn't really notice but then said to me you do realize your clothes are on inside out. I answered simply with an "i know" and she looked at me weirdly and questioned why I was doing this. She thought I was being lazy and that it made me look like I didn't care about how I looked. Breaking this social norm with my mom was an interesting experience because she knows that I would never wear my clothes inside out on purpose.
ReplyDelete2. The second situation was with my cousin. We were hanging out and I had my sweater and shirt on inside out. We were about to leave my house to get lunch and she said to me, your shirts inside out, go change it before we go out!..I acted like it was no big deal and kept walking out the door. She was confused as to why I insisted on wearing my clothes inside out. It was never something I would normally do. My cousin eventually blew it off and stopped asking questions on why I was wearing my clothes inside out.
It felt weird to violate the social norm because it is something I would normally never do. I think both my mom and cousin were confused as to why I was purposely wearing my clothing inside out rather than it being a mistake.
The first setting was at the rink with my friends. The second setting was at a family party in front of my cousins. My group decided we wanted to wear our glasses upside-down. Both times i did this people just started and laughed but didn't tell me that my glasses were on the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteWhen i was with my friends, I was sitting down reading something and i grabbed my glasses and put them on upside-down. My friends just stared at me and didnt say anything about them being upside-down. When i was with my family I was a little bit shy just because it was at a baptisim and there were a lot of people there who i did not know. So when i put the glasses on my cousin asked why i was wearing my glasses weird and i told him that i always wore them like this. He took his off and flipped them over too. I was trying so hard not to laugh because i know that if i saw someone with there glasses on upside-down i would laugh so hard. I thought that it was very interesting when my cousin flipped his glasses over because you cant see out of the glasses when they are like that but i guess that he was just doing it because i did it.
My group decided to wear our clothes inside out. We originally planned to wear our school sweaters, but since we had a snow day (yay), I tried it out on my family. After getting dressed in the morning, I came downstairs to see my mom's reaction. She actually didn't notice for a little while. Once she finally did, she simply asked, "Why is your shirt inside out????" while laughing. I admitted shortly after that it was a assignment from school and went through the whole "social norm" story. She thought it was pretty interesting but made me put my shirt on correctly.
ReplyDeleteWhen my dad came home from work, I redid my shirt. My dad is not that observant so it was interesting to see how long it would take. It was funny waiting for him to notice. He finally did and asked "what's with the shirt?" Both my mom and I then went through the whole story again. He thought it was kinda weird to do that.
I prefered breaking the norm in front of only one person and with someone I knew I could explain why I looked weird. If I went out like that in a mall, people would think I was just weird and I couldn't explain why I was wearing my shirt inside out. That would have made me feel quite uncomfortable.
(1) The first encounter I had, violating a social norm, was when I went to pick my sister up from SAT tutoring. I walked from my car to the door of the tutor’s house and when my sister came out her eyes got wide and she gave me a sort of shameful stare. Her tutor then came up behind her, because she wanted to say hello and she tried really hard to ignore my hair, but I knew what she was staring at. As soon as the tutor closed the house door my sister asked what was wrong with me, because my hair frightened her and she didn't understand why I would ever pick her up looking like that. I felt kind of awkward violating the norm, because of the response I got from my sister and her tutor. They reacted how I expected them to, because I knew that it was weird seeing a high school senior with her hair in all different directions. I also learned that norms are implied, yet accepted by everyone and when they are broken people act differently and judge immediately.
ReplyDelete(2) My second encounter was with my mother, she had just gotten home from work and when I went to say hello I had my hair in four pony tails. She looked at me and then asked what was wrong with my hair. She didn't approach me like usual and she just stared at me and waited for a response; it was almost like I had a disease. I felt really weird at first, but then when I saw how my mom reacted I felt taken back, because of her reaction. I was not expecting that reaction from my mother, because I expected her to go with it. I guess social norms are more important to her given her reaction and I don’t think she would appreciate me breaking them again.
My group decided to break the norm of language. We broke out into Happy Birthday in the middle of conversation, to random friends.
ReplyDelete1. My first experience was at the parade line up for the Mid-Hudson parade with my JLAOH division. There was a men's division (20 people) in front of us and a woman's behind (15 people). Me and my friend were talking and other members (10) were standing with us. I broke out into song while we were talking about our breakfast and I just broke out into song while she was complaining about burnt bacon. Her birthday is on July 10th. She just looked at me and stopped talking, waiting for me to stop. While this is happening, other people around us (we didn't know all of them) began singing as well. It was really funny. I felt as if I was violating a norm because I both sang Happy Birthday on the wrong day and I interrupted her while she was talking. It felt wrong because I felt bad about interrupting her and also convincing people it was her birthday on the wrong day. People reacted the way I expected because she stopped and waited while others though it would be rude if they didn't join in. There were no difficulties it was just awkward when she explained to strangers that it wasn't actually her birthday. I learned that norms help with social control because it tells people how to and not to act in public. Even if you don't know if it is someones birthday, it is common to just join in.
2. My second interaction was very different. I began singing while having a conversation while in the car with my friend (the one mentioned above) and my mom on the way home from a St. Paddy's day party. I sang to my mom this time. I interrupted her while she was speaking and while I was singing she got very angry. I had not only interrupted her but I had also started singing for no reason. I felt that interrupting her violated the flow of conversation and after she calmed down, we all just sat there in awkward silence, no one knew what to do. My mom actually reacted the exact way I though she would. She was unhappy that I had interrupted her. I learned that keeping with the natural flow of conversation and not interrupting people, as well as not singing at random times, helps keep social control because it gives us a way to communicate without unnecessary problems or topics.
It was really interesting to see how different social situations brought about such different reactions.
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1. As I was waiting for my friend, I was at home in the living room with my parents. I came downstairs wearing my zip up inside out and sat with my parents. We were having a conversation and I was thinking to myself, “Do they not notice my shirt?” I was even walking around at some points and my parents were looking directly at me. My friend finally came and my parents still did not notice. I felt comfortable wearing this shirt inside out because it was not really a major risk. I was really surprised my parents, especially my mom, did not notice my shirt being inside out. I thought it would be pretty obvious due to the fact the inside tag was clearly visible. I was shocked my mom did not notice because she is that kind of person that notices everything especially in things I wear. This incident made me come to the conclusion that my parents probably thought my shirt was designed the way it was.
ReplyDelete2. The second incident was with one of my best friends and we were going for a run outside in the afternoon. I was wearing my fleece inside out. We were literally together for an hour already and then she finally asked, “What is up with your shirt?” I just shrugged and she gave me a weird look then went onto another subject. I was interested in wearing my shirt inside out around her because she is a huge fashion lover. I was not surprised by the way she reacted because my friend is the type of girl that says what’s on her mind; however, I was surprised it took her a long time to realize the way my shirt was. I learned from this incident that she probably waited to say something about my shirt until she was 100% sure it was inside out.
These incidents showed me that an inside out shirt is not a major break from the social norm. It seemed that people were not bothered by my inside out shirt and just ignored it because they thought it was the design of my shirt or it was not a big deal.
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ReplyDelete1. The first place where I put my hair up into four large pig tails was on my way in the door, home from school on Thursday. My parents were expecting me to walk in with my hair either in a bun or down, so when I strolled in with four huge pig tails jutting out of my head they were obviously taken by surprise. I felt really strange walking into my house, but I tried my hardest to keep a straight face and act natural. My parents looked at me, then did a double take, and just asked what the heck I was doing. I felt really uncomfortable with my hair up like that, so I told them it was to see their reaction for a sociology project and took it down right away. This is the typical reaction I would expect from them though, because it's not like they were offended or upset or unfazed by it. They just asked what was wrong and I answered!
ReplyDelete2. The next place I did it was at a swim meet. I walked out of the locker room with my hair up in four ponytails... some people just stared at me, others ignored me, and my friends made fun of me and asked why I was being so strange. There was a huge group of people present so the reactions really varied. Since people tend to act strangely at swim meets to begin with, I guess the people who ignored me were simply used to seeing weirdos walking around violating social norms. The people staring were probably just confused as to why my hair would look like that, and my friends knew me well enough to know that I'm not a "violating social norms" kind of person. I was really embarrassed to walk out into a huge crowd of strangers looking like that because I could feel so many eyes watching me, so this entire exercise really taught me how powerful social norms can be. Violating one can make a person feel like a total outsider, completely unaccepted by the people around them. This was a really interesting experiment.
1. The first person I did it too was my boyfriend. When I go to his house, he always hugs me as soon as i walk inside. So I decided why not try out violating the social norm on him. When he opened the front door, he started to go in for the hug and i just stepped back and held up a peace sign. He was so confused and in shock that he almost seemed offended that I didnt hug him! I tried my hardest just to act normal about what just happened but we ended up laughing about it. i felt kind of scared to violate this social norm because i wasnt sure as to how he would react. he was very confused as i expected him to be but overall it just made for an awkward few minutes at first.
ReplyDelete2. The second person I violated the social norm with my boyfriend's mom. We were in the kitchen and she was leaving to go teach her yoga class and started giving everyone hugs goodbye. She is such hugger that i thought it would be funny to see how she would react. When she went to hug me i just stepped back and held up a peace sign. She looked at me and was like madison what the heck are you doing?! get outta here! she thought it was so funny and she actually started doing it to her other sons when they would try to hug her, she would just hold up a peace sign. This made me realize that hugging is such a normal thing that just stepping away from a hug people get all freaked out like something is wrong. i liked this assignment. it was fun and easy to do.
1. The first person that I violated the social norm with was someone at the mall. I was going shopping during the day and decided to wear my hair in four pigtails. There were hundreds of people at the mall. I was walking around and went up to someone at a stand to ask about a shirt. I felt weird and out of place when I wore my hair like this because I got a lot of scared looks. I felt like this because people kept starring because I did not look like everyone else. I expected for people to react this way because most people do not go walking around with four pigtails in their hair.
ReplyDelete2. The second person that I decided to violate this social norm with was my sister. My sister is brutally honest so I thought it would be a good idea to see what she had to say about it. We were getting ready to go out when I decided to put my hair up in four pigtails. When she saw my hair she laughed at me and said "ew, what's with your hair?" I tried to stay serious and ask her what was wrong with my hair. She told me I looked disgusting and to take it out. I knew that violating the social norm was something most people do not do. I feel that violating the social norm is not done because people feel out of place and get starred at for being different. I knew there would be confused reactions when I violated this social norm.
1. The first group of people I did it to were my mom and my two sisters. We were on the car ride back home having lunch. We were conversing normally and then out of no where I started to talk in third person. My older sister started to stare at me and so did my younger sister, and then my mom looked concerned when I started talking. Then they all started laughing when I would say something like "Kelsey thinks that.." or "Kelsey would never do such a thing..". I actually felt a little strange in the beginning when I started to violate the norm, but after a while I didnt really feel weird. I guess when you are doing something out of your norm in the beginning then it probably feels strange, but like with anything else when you do something after a while then you get used to it. Yes people did react the way they expected, laughing and giving strange looks; society doesnt normally hear people talking in third person all the time and when that does happen then they feel uncomfortable.
ReplyDelete2. The second person I violated the social norm was with my boyfriend. We were just hanging out having a normal conversation and out of nowhere I started to speak in third person and without any contractions. Again he stared at me in a strange way and then after a while he started laughing. He asked me why I was speaking that way, and I answered him back saying that I didnt know what he was talking about. I decided to violate the norm with my boyfriend after I did it with my family because I knew that if I did with my boyfriend first I would have started laughing and not completed my assignment. Then after a while he started to talk in third person with me and then I started dancing. I didnt realize that speaking in third person was such a strange thing and that it made people uncomfortable. But I liked the assignment and it was interesting to do.
i violated a social norm during at home only, i was going to at school but then we had the snow day. about six or seven people observed me including my family, two of my neighbors and the ups guy. to break a social norm i wore my shirt inside out. i didn't really care that i was violating the norm as i did, i actually forgot my shirt was inside out until someone would point it out. i think i felt the way that i did, because i feel like in iha it isnt that big of a deal, a lot of the time i see girls come into school with their shirts inside out because they just didn't notice while they were running out the door, so i didn't find anything too different about it. for the most part people did react the way i expected, with them first giving me weird looks and then telling me that my shirt was inside out. the only real difficulty i had with the task was when ups showed up and started to act really awkward and i couldn't figure out why until ten minuted later when i realized that my shirt was still inside out. while i was breaking the social norm i found that people got a little bit annoyed if i refused to fix my shirt, my mom went as far as to say i look like a slob. i think my mom was right though, because social norms help with social control, because i broke one my mom wanted me to fix it.
ReplyDelete1.The first person i chose to sing happy birthday to mid-conversation was my manager at work. i violated many social norms when choosing to do this at work. not only is it a place of business, but it was also while discussing work with my boss so surely he was not expecting me to stop discussing inventory and begin celebrating his birthday in song (it clearly wasn't his birthday). after choosing to do this things became very awkward between my boss and i because he was so very confused but by the end of the day we were both laughing about it. my co-workers were around to witness it and they were also very confused as to why i would chose to do such a thing. seeing everyone's reactions made me feel severely uncomfortable. being that it was a workplace i did expect people to react the way that they did but nevertheless it still made me feel weird.
ReplyDelete2.The second person i chose to sing happy birthday to mid-conversation was my mom. we were talking about what i was planning on doing Friday night and all of a sudden i broke out into happy birthday. my mothers birthday was last week so she grew very tired and annoyed by the constant birthday celebrations all week so by the time i chose to conduct my experiment she was very irritated. she was also very annoyed that i cut her off as she was trying to talk to me. she found what i did weird but not nearly as weird as my boss did being that her birthday was just last week. i had a feeling she was going to react this way because she doesn't like her birthday very much to begin with.
I violated a social norm on thursday when i skipped school and stayed home. I went to watch film with my basketball team after school and i went with my hair down and blown straight, and a full face of makeup, around 15 observed me and i interacted with most of them. they were skeptical and confused as to why i would look so nice to come to watch film for practice and they were almost mocking me because the social norm is to look plain and messy after school and not look nice at all and i was doing the opposite. I think they reacted just as i thought they would with surprise, confusion, and inability to undrrstand why you would do something outside of the social norm. i feel that alot of people have trouble with accepting others when they see them doing something outside the social norm because as a society we are conditioned to accept the social norm and nothing less.
ReplyDelete1. I was sitting at my house conversing with my best friend on Friday during the snow storm. There was nobody else at my house besides me and her so the area was quiet except the television. We were sitting watching tv and when I decided to start talking about the show I changed my voice pitch while I was speaking. She didn't recognize it that much at first and then I kept doing it and she started laughing because she thought my voice was cracking. I remained serious but kept switching the pitch of my voice. I continued to do this for about 5 more minutes and then I couldn't do it anymore. She was having difficulty keeping the conversation with me because it was hard not to get distracted by the way I was talking. Not only was she getting confused but almost aggravated at the fact that she wasn't able to have a normal conversation with me. Even though we don't realize it, we have a social norm for language. To talk in one pitch or tone is too normal for us and if someone begins to speak in a range of tones, they becomes uncomfortable and hard to converse with.
ReplyDelete2. The second person I did it to was my boyfriend and his brother. They both wanted new shoes so we all went to the mall to look for some. As soon as we got to the mall I decided that once we were looking for shoes I was going to try this out on them. We walk into the shoe store and I begin pointing out shoes to the both of them and seeing which ones they liked. I was switching my voice from regular to low, rather than high so they wouldn't think that it was my voice cracking like my best friend did. In the beginning I don't think they were paying that close attention to my voice and then one of the times I spoke they looked at each other and started laughing hysterically! They asked me what I was doing and why I was talking like this but I just continued to talk like that. After I picked up another pair of shoes and started talking my boyfriend playfully ran behind me laughing, covered my mouth, and told me to stop talking like that because he can't even talk to me right now. All three of us then laughed and I began talking normal to them.
I realized in both cases that the person(s) I was doing this with got annoyed and could not hold the conversation. I never realized that just switching a tone of your voice is equivalent to violating a social norm. I found it interesting to see how speaking is so normal to us and when someone talks weird or has an unusual voice we find it hard to speak with them.
The first place I violated a social norm was while I was closing at work. I was standing with one of my co-workers and my manager. My coworker was in the paper and he was talking about it with my manager. I said, "Shannon wishes she was in the newspaper." First, they both looked at me kind of weird but went on talking with each other. Then I said, "Do you want Shannon to bring the garbage to the back?" This time, my co-worker asked why I was talking like that. I said, "Shannon doesn't know what you're talking about. This is how she always talks." He said that I was talking in third person and why I was doing this. I said that "Shannon doesn't know." and walked away. Things will definitely be weird at work next time... The reactions I got were what I expected. First they looked confused, which I thought would happen. I also knew that someone would confront me and ask why I was speaking in third person. They didn't seem offended or mad, they just thought I was strange, which is what I expected. They didn't seem to care that I was speaking like that they were just confused.
ReplyDeleteThe next place I violated the social norm was at home later that day. I was sitting with my parents and little sister. I knew that since I was so close with my family, they would judge me. I said, "Shannon doesn't want to watch Big Bang Theory." My mom, a teacher, got annoyed and told me to stop talking like that. Next, I said "Shannon is thirsty, she's going to get a glass of water." This time, my sister, being her charming self said, "Shannon is an idiot." My dad just sat there and watched while I spoke to my mother and sister in the third person. Everyone reacted as I thought they would. My mom tried to correct me and tell me I was wrong, but I kept speaking i third person and my sister got annoyed with me and called me names.
I think this experiment was very interesting and I think it was interesting to see how people in different aspects of my life reacted to me breaking social norms.
Violation # 1: Friends house
ReplyDeletea. Physical- when and where is the norm violation taking place?
Sunday afternoon, went over to my friends house of a lunch, showed up on her doorstep with my glasses on upside-down.
b. Social- How many and what types of persons are observing?
Two people saw me violating the social norm by wearing my glasses upside down. One of my friends and her mom were the only people to see me. She is a very close friend to be, being within my primary group of friends.
When she opened the door she was initially very confused, she did not say anything, she just looked at me with a puzzled look, and greeted me confused. Then she just looked squarely at me and asked me if I realized my glasses were on upside down. I laughed it off and just began acting and talking like everything was completely normal. In a way ignoring her confusion because I wanted to see how far I could go with this. She went along with me and did not say anything for a while. When her mom walked into the kitchen she just looked at me with a similar puzzled expression, and the just walked away. She did not say anything but with the look on her face it was safe to assume that she thought I am crazy. Then my friend just looked at me again and said, something along the lines of, “seriously what are you doing?!.” Then I took of the glasses and we had a good laugh over this clever assignment.
I felt initially awkward about violating the norm, just because of my friends facial expression, she was just puzzled at what I was doing. I was being judged and criticized by her, just with the look on her face; she did not even have to say anything. When I tried to brush it off like nothing was wrong I kept feeling awkward and judged. I felt the way I felt because I was violating a social norm, and getting weird looks from her. I was not really sure what was going to happen, but I know that her personality is very calm, and inquisitive, so she did not have a huge dramatic reaction. I kind of know already that she would just be confused with me. I encountered difficulties when she straight up told me my glasses were on upside down, and I had to play it off like everything was normal. I learnt that someone’s reaction to someone violating a social norm is in a way proportional to the social norm being broken. Her reaction to me was I think appropriate.
Violation # 2: Family dinner
ReplyDeletec. Physical- when and where is the norm violation taking place?
I violated the social norm at my family dinner on Saturday night.
d. Social- How many and what types of persons are observing?
8 people were observing, my aunt and uncle, my parents, sister, and three younger cousins.
At first no one even seemed to have noticed, or maybe they choose not to, however to me it did not seem like anyone was even paying attention to me. I went to go play with my cousins, and it was one of my little cousins that realized and asked me if I knew that my glasses were on upside down. She seemed unsure though, and I think it is because she felt out of place questioning, or correcting me. But no one else had a response.
I did not feel as awkward as is did when visiting my friend because I am really close with my family, I kind of already knew they would not be a questioning as my friend, but I was just interested in seeing who would say something first. Most of them ended up just ignoring me. I felt and became very inquisitive, because I really wanted to see who would say something to me about it and who would not. My little cousin had one of the only reactions, but she seemed unsure about herself and I think that it is because usually the one listen to me, not correcting me. I could also see the effects of authority in this reaction, because in a way I am an authoritative figure to her, as an older cousin, and babysitter, and this was shown because of how unsure she was in saying something to me. I did not encounter any difficulties with this one violation. I think that my little cousin showed social control, because she did not directly tell me that my glasses were on upside down, and she was hesitant to even say anything. I think this is because of the way she sees me and older cousin and little kids are not going to go and correct someone else, because they are taught that they are supposed to listen to people who are older than them. Overall I thought it was interesting to see the roll of authority come into play during this assignment because of the people I put around me.
Violation 1
ReplyDelete1. A.This norm violation is taking place at school in a classroom first period.
B.I am speaking to my teacher with my classmates in class during a discussion about a play we are reading.
2.We were discussing a play in English class and I raised my hand to answer a question. I made a weird noise in the beginning of my answer and then followed up with the actual answer to the question she was asking. She looked at me, paused, and then commented on my real answer. She didn’t comment on the weird noises. Some girls looked at me, some girls were smiling, and other didn’t even react to it at all meaning they weren’t paying attention or they didn’t even notice the noise I made in the beginning of my answer.
3.
- I felt a little nervous and awkward before I violated the norm. I had to get myself ready for it. It felt and sounded weird doing it.
-I felt the way I did because I am violating a norm. Most people, especially in English class, don’t make weird noises before they answer a question. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it because it’s not something I participate or do every day. It was different and new.
-People reacted the way I expected because my teacher didn’t question the noise, and I didn’t think she would because she probably didn’t think I did it on purpose and if she said anything to me in front of the class she probably thought that she would embarrass me or make me feel bad. My classmates’ reactions were expected because it was first period and I knew that some girls weren’t paying attention and wouldn’t even catch onto the fact that I was making weird noises. I knew some girls would smile or look at me strangely because of the weird noise. I thought that reaction was “normal”. I was sure that some girls would laugh, but no one did. I thought this was because they didn’t think it was intentional or that they didn’t want my teacher to get annoyed with them.
-I did not encounter any difficulties in carrying out my assignment because all I needed way myself and my voice. I was a little nervous in doing so, but I did it successfully.
-Norms exercise social control because by doing this norm violation I didn’t feel like myself. I felt out of my comfort zone and I felt like I was doing something wrong, where in reality, I was doing nothing wrong. Norms, in a way, define who we are. Norms are what we do daily and how we do things. They are what is accepted in society. They control us; they control how we do things.
-I don’t have any other big observations. I knew some people would notice the weird noise being said before my answer, and I am glad they did. I am also glad that no one laughed even though I expected at least a person to. If someone laughed I would, in a way, feel inferior to them for that split second because I was different. If someone laughs at a person because they are different or violating a social norm, which makes them different, they are being treated inferiorly by the person laughing. Even though I know that if someone laughed at me simply participating in this assignment I wouldn’t be considered inferior to them, but it just gets me thinking like that.
Violation 2
ReplyDelete4.A. This norm is taking place at my house at my kitchen table during dinner.
B. While I am doing this norm my parents are at the table, my two brothers, and one of my sisters.
5. During this meal I practiced this assignment several times. My dad asked me something about school and I made a weird noise and answered. My mom looked at me funny and asked me what was that noise and I made another weird noise and replied by saying “nothing.” My brother asked me to get the butter from the fridge and I made a weird noise and told him no. He started laughing and was like what are you doing and then got up to get the butter. My mom asked me another question during dinner about accepted students day at one of the colleges and I made another weird noise then answered her actual question and she then told me to stop while laughing.
6.
– I felt a little goofy violating the social norm to my family because I obviously know them a lot better than I know most of my classmates in my English class and my English teacher. I felt a little weird also violating this norm. It made me feel awkward and out of place because I never make weird noises before I answer questions. It was unlike me. I was violating a social norm.
- I felt the way I did because I was violating a social norm and it was unlike me. I wasn’t acting the way I usually do. I felt out of place.
-People reacted the way I expected because since my family is close to me and can say things to me without thinking they questioned why I was making that noise, and what was the noise. I also expected them to laugh because making the noises is a bit funny and unusual coming from me.
-I didn’t encounter any difficulties while carrying out this assignment. I was more comfortable doing it in front of my family than in English class to my teacher but I still felt out of place and awkward because I don’t normally do it; I am violating a social norm!
-I learned that norms exercise social control because norms are what is acceptable in society and if you violate them you are looked at funny or questioned as to why you are doing what you’re doing. Norms don’t let you go outside of your comfort zone.
-I don’t really have any other observations than how this violation of social norms left me a bit uncomfortable and feeling awkward and out of place at times. I enjoyed this assignment because it lets me get a glimpse of what some people who have disabilities have to go through every day until it becomes a norm for the people around them. Violating a social norm is a brave and difficult thing to do!
Violation #1
ReplyDelete1. a. In class
b. approx. 30 students or so (though it was in a small group)
2. We have to make a presentation about a end of life case so we were talking about that and I just started talking to the girls in my group. They seemed kind of weirded out and asked me what was going on.
3. a. I felt really weird and it took a lot of self-convincing to go for it and just start talking in 3rd person.
b. I think I felt really weird not because I'm afraid of violating social norms so much as I hate not to speak or write well. It's kind of like how grammatical errors make me twitch so incredibly much it's actually ridiculous.
c. for the most part, they did. I expected my classmates to be really surprised, though they reacted a little bit better than I expected.
d. Like I said, I was really nervous about speaking in the first person because its outside my personal norm and makes me sound uneducated.
e. social control works better with people you are not close to but still care about.
Violation #2
1. a. at my lunch table
b. 7 or so of my friends
2. I just started talking in 3rd person at lunch. For the most part they kind of just laughed at me and asked what I was doing, but for the most part didn't seem particularly shocked.
3. a. I still felt weird doing it, but a little less so than in the 1st violation
b. I think I was more comfortable because I know my friends really well and we are all a little weird and we all know that.
c. They pretty much reacted as expected. I know that they are really comfortable with deviance and are some of the most deviant people out there in school. (which is how I like it. Too much conformity is boring)
d. same as violation #1
e. social control does not work the same in the same situations. It doesn't work as well among close friends.
My first encounter was at the library. I walked into the library with my glasses on upside down and instantly got weird looks from the people working behind the desk. I instantly felt awkward and had instant spotlight effect, I felt this way because I was doing something out of the norm that caused me not to fit in. A difficulty I had in carrying out my assignment would be trying not to laugh at myself and others reactions around me.
ReplyDeleteMy second encounter was at my lunch table during lunch with my friends. In the middle of nowhere I just turned my glasses upside down and they all instantly began to laugh. I was violating the norm because you rarely if ever see someone with their glasses on the wrong way. I didn’t feel embarrassed like I did in the library because this time I was around friends and was more comfortable. My friends did react the way I expected, at first they were confused than they thought it was comical. A difficulty aspect of this was trying not to laugh with my friends and trying to pull off that nothing was out of the norm.
When someone was to try and shake my hand, i held out the peace sign instead. I performed this at home and at my basketball game with all the parents. I instantly felt awkward doing this, because shaking ones hand is meant to be a polite gesture and i felt as though i was being rude and weird. A difficulty i had performing this was when the older people would try and shake my hand. I think this was difficult for me, because they are me elders and i hated being rude to them. I did anticipate the reaction of the people i did this too. They were all confused and taken back by my gesture and felt awkward just as i did. Overall i was successful in breaking a common norm.
ReplyDelete