Observation about How Norms Are Practiced in a Society - Research Paper Example

? Observing Norms Your School Department, This paper is a partial fulfillment for the ________, under Professor ________. Abstract A norm is a social rule. Norms are made to maintain harmony in a society. This paper is an observation about how norms are practiced in a society. An experiment is taken to observe how it is done and maintained and at the same time, it documents how people react in case that norm is broken. Observing Norms Societies are governed by laws and rules that were made by its participants to regulate and maintain behavior in a said group or society. They act as social controls and they are maintained by social sanctions. When one is in a group, it is expected that he/she would follow, or at least act acceptably, the rules of behavior in the said group as they represent the do’s and don’ts of a society. Failing to do so would mean deviance. Deviance is “nonconformity to a set of norms” (Appelbaum). Sometimes, when nonconformity is too much, it is stigmatized. Social stigma is a reaction to someone who is differing in norms. Sometimes, when the violation is too intense, the deviant is outcast in the society, or worse, punished. However, there are also norms that can be irrational. They can be even pragmatic. Most manners are like this. For example, in Asia it is polite not to look someone directly in the eye while talking, but not so in the United States. However stringent sometimes norms are actually highly contextual and variable. They change according to the society’s needs and interests. They often change from one generation to the other (hence, the generation gap) or from one social class to another. Norms vary from place to place. However, there are some universal norms. These taboos are usually prohibition of certain kinds of human activity. They usually relate to sex and death like adultery, incest, murder, cannibalism, etc. These taboos are exceptionally useful is keeping harmony in a society as it keeps deviant acts like crimes from happening. For this activity, I am required to observe two norms and break one. This would entail being in a public place and observing the participants in it. This would include observing the norms and the patterns of the people in it. Along with the norm-observation is the norm-breaking. Basically, anything that opposes the norm is breaking it. This activity would note everything from the people’s behavior on that said norm, to their reaction to the norm-breaking. To ensure safety, the norm I chose to break does not involve the law. For this, I went to the local public library. A library is one place where it has so many rules, most of them nonverbal as it were handed down from generations, as norms. Like societal rules like falling in line in a shop and saying thank you after a favor has been done, library rules are there to maintain the order of the establishment. Breaking the rules would mean social sanctions, whether it would be by the visitors in the library or the librarian as well, would be a question. The library has many implicit and explicit rules. For me, the major thrust of having rules in the libraries is this: having people enjoy a piece of silence and calmness that they would not get in the comforts of their own private spaces. Eating is strictly prohibited to preserve the integrity, cleanliness of the place and also not to distract other people. Being silent is upheld so that other library users could concentrate. Thus, distracting people would be the ultimate symbol against the order of the establishment. The manner in how to distract them is where the norm breaking comes in. Norm breaking usually distracts people because of the different behavior. Difference is the key. It could be anywhere from not wearing shoes inside the library or to smoke cigarettes in the library. For this activity, the norm to break is keeping silent in the library. Not only it is an explicit norm, it is also an injunctive norm and it hasn’t changed. At some point being noisy in the library felt like acting on a taboo. I entered the library at around ten in the morning. The place is clean and quiet, peppered with an occasional cough. There are quite a number people, mostly students. There are also senior citizens and those who came to use the internet. Most people are young (students) and middle class. Sex is evenly distributed. As expected, there was no one who came by to chat with anyone, especially with the librarian, who looked assertive. The library staff was there, but they do not quite figure in the scenario. Since 10 am is within the time frame of the issue/return activities (9:30 am to 5:30 pm), there are a lot of students who come and go, usually staying and browsing for fifteen minutes to check on the books they are borrowing, or to just return the books. The lighting is okay, making it easy to read and search for literature, although more light is needed in some areas. The temperature is ideal, considering that it was maintained by an air conditioner. The furniture is basic and ergonomic, purely functional. The environment is cool and casual, and no one seems to care; everyone is acting indifferently and each has its own world. This indifference, though, would be tested when someone makes a racket inside the library. So after thirty minutes of reading and observing and taking down notes, I went to a shelf, gathered a few hardbound books and dropped them. There was a loud noise but since no one was in the nearby vicinity of the shelf, no one bothered to shush me. They probably thought that it was an accident and they let it go. The next step was to talk loudly. However, since I do not know anyone to talk to in the library, and I don’t think someone will talk to a stranger in a library except when borrowing books from the librarian, I decided to call a friend. Take note that mobile phone usage are prohibited to use in the library, as well as talking loudly. So I went to a table with a stack of books. I chose a table with five people on it and sat beside a young man who was reading something about black holes, and proceeded to call my friend. The call went for around five minutes until the whole table silenced me. At the first few seconds, my seatmate looked at me apprehensively, probably because of the “do not use mobile phones” rule, and this changed by giving me an annoyed look by the end of the first minute. When my phone conversation lingered, two people joined my seatmate in giving me the annoyed look and another issued a “ssshhhh” to me. When it was around four minutes into the phone conversation, I laughed really loudly and someone from the table stood up and went to the librarian. The others stood up and went to other tables. Then the librarian came to the table and reprimanded me by giving me a lecture and threatening to suspend me from the library .I later explained that this was for a paper but went out of the library anyway. This activity prompted several observations. One is that breaking norms have some sort of punishment attached to it, may it be formal (suspension from the library) or not (embarrassment). However, some violations can be overlooked, like the ruckus caused by the falling books. Some norms, like maintaining the silence in the library, even if explicit, are so internalized that we do not need to read them in the rule books. They were aspects of culture way before we existed and it has been assimilated in our behaviors that we feel it is wrong (embarrassed) when it is disobeyed. The library acted as a microcosm of the society. Making noise in the library meant committing deviance and committing deviance meant getting punished or sanctioned. Deviances are acts that disobey the norms, purposively or not. The people in the library, specifically the ones in the table, represent the society and the librarian may as well represent the government or the police (the one who keeps order and maintains the laws/norms). As norms are part of culture, it is destined to change according to the needs and demands of the society. It is cumulative and it transcends generations. That is how is survives and will continue to survive, however as it is dynamic, it is also static, as humans are reluctant to change, especially in modifying behavior. Hence, laws with heavy sanctions are put up to maintain order and status quo. The rule about mobile phone usage and keeping the silence in the library was designed to maintain the calmness and to prevent other people from getting distracted in the library. This is a good thing and it is worth maintaining. References: Appelbaum, R. P., Carr, D., Duneir, M., Giddens, A.(2009) "Confomity, Deviance, and Crime." Introduction to Sociology, New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Bicchieri, C. (2006). The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms. New York: Cambridge University Press Culture (2011). Sociology Guide: A Student’s Guide to Sociology. Available from: http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Culture.php Posner, Eric. (2000). Law and Social Norms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Read More