Download Aim: What is deviance? - Hauppauge School District

Aim: What factors
influence conformist
behavior?
Do Now: Which
line on the
second card
most closely
matches the
length of the line
on the first card?
The Asch Experiment
Asch Experiment –
Conformity types
 Distortion of Perception: “The others are
right and I’m wrong.”
 Distortion of Judgment: “I think I’m right, but
everyone else is saying otherwise, so I
must be wrong.”
 Distortion of Action: “I know I’m right, but I
don’t want to go against the group, so I’ll
conform.”
What is conformity?
conformity – behavior that matches
group expectations.
Is decision making easier alone, or with
a group?


People often make riskier decisions
when with a group
 Less sole responsibility
Groupthink: poor decisions that result
from discouraging dissent.
What are some of the characteristics of
leaders?
Are some people natural leaders? Explain.
Leadership
 Leadership is best understood as a
characteristic of social structure, rather
than an attribute of particular individuals.
Leaders do share certain
characteristics:
 Original problem-solvers who are
comfortable acting on their own initiative.
 Self-confident
 Good at living under stress
 More talkative than followers
 Taller
 Perceived as more attractive
All small groups tend to
develop two distinct
leaders.
 Instrumental: Primarily concerned with
making decisions that will help the group
achieve its goals.
 Expressive (socioemotional):
Concentrates on keeping the group’s
morale high.
What rules encourage
conformity?
 Norms: rules defining appropriate and
inappropriate behavior. Norms are expected
behavior
 Folkways: norms that lack moral significance.
Violation of folkways do not bring serious
consequences.
 Mores: Norms that have moral importance and
that should be followed by members of a society.
 Taboos: The most serious mores. It is a norm
that is so strong that its violation demands
punishment by the group (or some think, the
supernatural).
 Law: Norms that are formally defined and
enforced by officials. Some mores become laws.
 What is Deviance:
 Make a short list of what you consider to
be deviant behavior.
Deviance:
 behavior that departs from societal or
group norms.
 It can include many types of behavior,
from criminal to wearing too much
makeup (considered deviant by some
religious groups)
 It can vary from group to group, or
society to society.
There are two types of
deviance:
 Negative Deviance: involves behavior
that fails to meet accepted norms. i.e.
criminal behavior.
 Positive Deviance: overconformity to
norms. i.e. perfectionism, or anorexia
 How is deviance controlled?
Social Control
 Internal social control: developed during the
socialization process. You do something
because you know it is right, or don’t do
something because you know it is wrong. This
is known as internalization of norms.
 External social control: based on social
sanctions-rewards or punishments designed to
encourage desired behavior.
 Positive sanctions: rewards, praise, smiles of
approval, increases in allowance, promotions
 Negative Sanctions: criticism, fines,
imprisonment, shunning
 Formal Sanctions: Sanctions mandated
by an official organization like
government or school. Ex. low grades,
imprisonment, official awards
 Informal Sanctions: Sanctions mandated
by social groups. Ex. ridicule, gossip,
smiles
Responding to Social
Control:
 How does peer pressure relate to our
discussion of deviance?
 Which do people most respond to?
Why?
 What reinforces internal social control?
 What reinforces external social control?
Theories of Deviance
 Functionalists argue that
deviance serves a positive social
function by clarifying moral
boundaries and promoting social
cohesion.
 Conflict theorists believe that a
society’s inequalities are
reproduced in its definitions of
deviance, so that the less
powerful are more likely to be
criminalized.
Why is what he’s doing
against the law?
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
17
Theories of Deviance
(Cont’d)
 Merton’s structural strain theory
argues that the tension or strain between
socially approved goals and an
individual’s ability to meet those goals
through socially approved means will
lead to deviance as individuals reject
either the goals (achieving success), the
means (hard work, education), or both.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Merton’s Adaptations
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Ritualist
Conformist
Innovator
Retreatist
Rebel
Which type are you? Do you follow socially accepted means and
goals? You’re a conformist. Doing the bare minimum? You’re
probably a ritualist. If you’re like WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers
and want to earn big rewards but have few scruples about how you
reach them, you’re an innovator. You’re a retreatist if you reject
all means and goals of society. You’re a rebel, like Che Guevara,
if you not only reject social means and goals but also want to
destroy society itself and replace it with a new paradigm.
Theories of Deviance
(cont’d)
 Symbolic Interactionist theories of
deviance focus on how interpersonal
relations and everyday interactions
shape definitions of deviance and
influence those who engage in deviant
behavior.
 Differential association theory states that
we learn to be deviant through our
associations with deviant peers.
Theories of Deviance
(cont’d)
 Labeling theory claims that deviance is a
consequence of external judgments, or labels,
which both modify the individual’s self-concept and
change the way others respond to the labeled
person.
 Labeling theory is also related to the idea of the
self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a prediction that
causes itself to come true.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Degradation
Ceremonies
 Labeling is often preceded by a
degradation ceremony - a ceremony in
which authority figure(s) who are
perceived to have legitimate power
devalue, degrade, or otherwise label a
person as deviant.
 What examples of degradation
ceremonies can you name?
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
23
Stigma and Deviant
Identity
 A stigma is Erving Goffman’s term for
any physical or social attribute that
devalues a person or group’s identity,
and which may exclude those who are
devalued from normal social interaction.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
24
Stigma and Deviant Identity
(cont’d)
 There are three main types of stigma:
 physical including physical or mental
impairments,
 moral signs of flawed character, or
 tribal membership in a discredited or
oppressed group.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Managing Stigma
 One strategy analyzed by Goffman that
stigmatized individuals use to negotiate
everyday interaction is called passing, or
concealing the stigmatizing information.
 Provide Examples
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Managing Stigma (Cont’d)
 Others have what Goffman called an ingroup orientation, where stigmatized
individuals follow an orientation away
from mainstream society and toward new
standards that value their group identity.
 Provide Examples
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Managing Stigma (Cont’d)
 Finally, others choose deviance avowal,
a process by which an individual selfidentifies as deviant and initiates his or
her own labeling process.
 Provide Examples
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Crime and Punishment
 Crime is the violation of a norm that has
been codified into law.
 Violent crime is a crime in which
violence is either the objective or the
means to an end, including murder, rape,
aggravated assault, and robbery.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
35
Violent Crime: Total U.S. Violent
Crime Rate, 1960–2008
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Crime and Punishment
(cont’d)
 Property crime is crime that does not
involve violence, including burglary,
larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, and
arson.
 White-collar crime is crime committed
by a high status individual in the course
of her or his occupation.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
37
Property Crime
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Crime and Punishment
(cont’d)
 In the United States the Uniform Crime
Report (UCR), an official measure of
crime collected and published by the FBI,
allows sociologists to study the
relationship between crime and
demographics like class, age, gender,
and race.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
39
National Recidivism Rates for
Prisoners Released
in 1983 and 1994
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Crime and Punishment
(cont’d)
 There is an ongoing debate about the
role of punishment in the criminal
justice system, a collection of social
institutions (legislatures, police, courts,
and prisons) that create and enforce
laws.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Different Approaches to
Punishment
 Deterrence is an approach to
punishment that relies on the threat of
harsh penalties to discourage people
from committing crimes.
 Retribution is an approach to
punishment that emphasizes retaliation
or revenge for the crime as the
appropriate goal.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Different Approaches to
Punishment (Cont’d)
 Incapacitation is an approach to
punishment that seeks to protect society
from criminals by imprisoning or
executing them.
 Finally, rehabilitation is an approach to
punishment that attempts to reform
criminals as part of their penalty.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Take Away Points:
 Deviance is the flip side of the same coin as
conformity
 We all conform and deviate.
 We mostly conform.
 Deviance is relative
 Since norms are defined mostly by those in power
departing from the norms they’ve established is a
process of social control.
 Therefore politics pervades discussions of
deviance.
Introduction to Sociology:
Deviance and Conformity
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Conclusion:
 In your opinion, who is more moral:
someone who responds to internal social
control, or someone who responds to
external social control? Why?