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Society and Culture
Norms
Every society has expectations about how its
members should and should not behave. A norm is a
guideline or an expectation for behavior. Each
society makes up its own rules for behavior and
decides when those rules have been violated and
what to do about it. Norms change constantly.
How Norms Differ
Norms differ widely among societies, and they can
even differ from group to group within the same
society.
Different settings: Wherever we go,
expectations are placed on our behavior. Even
within the same society, these norms change
from setting to setting.
Example:
The way we are expected to behave in church differs
from the way we are expected to behave at a party,
which also differs from the way we should behave in
a classroom.
Different countries: Norms are place-specific,
and what is considered appropriate in one
country may be considered highly inappropriate
in another.
Example:
In some African countries, it’s acceptable for people
in movie theaters to yell frequently and make loud
comments about the film. In Canada, people are
expected to sit quietly during a movie, and shouting
would be unacceptable.
Different time periods: Appropriate and
inappropriate behavior often changes
dramatically from one generation to the next.
Norms can and do shift over time.
Example:
In Canada in the 1950s, a woman almost never asked
a man out on a date, nor did she pay for the date.
While some traditional norms for dating prevail,
most women today feel comfortable asking men out
on dates and paying for some or even all of the
expenses.
Norm Categories
Sociologists have separated norms into four
categories: folkways, mores, laws, and taboos.
Folkways
A folkway is a norm for everyday behavior that
people follow for the sake of convenience or
tradition. People practice folkways simply because
they have done things that way for a long time.
Violating a folkway does not usually have serious
consequences.
Example:
Holding the door open for a person right behind you
is a folkway.
Mores
A more (pronounced MORE-ay) is a norm based on
morality, or definitions of right and wrong. Since
mores have moral significance, people feel strongly
about them, and violating a more usually results in
disapproval.
Example:
Parents who believe in the more that only married
people should live together will disapprove of their
son living with his girlfriend. They may consider their
son’s action a violation of the moral guidelines for
behavior.
Laws
A law is a norm that is written down and enforced
by an official agency. Violating a law results in a
specific punishment.
Example:
It is illegal in most countries to drive a car while
drunk, and a person violating this law may get cited
for driving under the influence (DUI), which may
bring a fine, loss of driver’s license, or even jail time.
Taboos
A taboo is a norm that society holds so strongly that
violating it results in extreme disgust. The violator
is often considered unfit to live in that society.
Example:
In most countries, cannibalism and incest are
considered taboo. In some Muslim cultures, eating
pork is taboo because the pig is considered unclean.
Deviance
Where there are rules, there are rule breakers.
Sociologists call the violation of a norm deviance.
The word deviant has taken on the negative
connotation of someone who behaves in disgusting or
immoral ways, but to sociologists, a deviant is
anyone who doesn’t follow a norm, in either a good
way or a bad way.
Example:
Most people don’t graduate from college with a 4.0
grade point average, so sociologists view someone
who does graduate with a 4.0 as deviant. Likewise,
most Canadians get married at some point in their
lives, so someone who chooses not to marry is
sociologically a deviant.
Although deviance can be good and even admirable,
few societies could tolerate the chaos that would
result from every person doing whatever he or she
pleased.
Social control refers to the methods that societies
devise to encourage people to observe norms.
The most common method for maintaining social
control is the use of sanctions, which are socially
constructed expressions of approval or disapproval.
Positive Sanctions
A positive sanction rewards someone for following a
norm and serves to encourage the continuance of a
certain type of behavior.
Example:
A person who performs well at his or her job and is
given a salary raise or a promotion is receiving a
positive sanction. When parents reward a child with
money for earning good grades, they are positively
sanctioning that child’s behavior.
Negative Sanctions
A negative sanction is a way of communicating that
a society, or some group in that society, does not
approve of a particular behavior.
Example:
Imprisoning a criminal for breaking the law, cutting
off a thief’s hands for stealing, and taking away a
teenager’s television privileges for breaking curfew
are all negative sanctions.
Norms and Consequences
Norm
Example
Wearing
a suit to
Folkway
an
interview
Consequences
for violation
Raised
eyebrow
More
Only
married
couples
should
live
together
Conflicts with
family
members,
disapproval
Law
Laws
against
public
nudity
Imprisonment,
monetary fine
Taboo
Eating
human
flesh
Visible signs of
disgust,
expulsion from
society