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In sociology, a norm, or social norm, is a pattern of behavior expected within a particular society in a given situation. The shared belief of what is normal and acceptable shapes and enforces the actions of people in a society. The very fact that others in one's society follow the norm may give them a reason to follow it. Important norms are called mores. Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ...
A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned...
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ...
A society is a group of human beings distinguishable from other groups by mutual interests, characteristic relationships, shared institutions and a common culture. ...
Belief is assent to a proposition. ...
The term mores (pronounced mor-ayz) as used in Sociology is a plural noun. ...
Levels of enforcement, in decreasing order:
- Violations of norms are punished with sanctions, possibly enforced by law.
- Violators of norms are considered eccentric or even deviant and are stigmatized.
- Alternatives are not presented as equal, the "normal" situation is assumed (e.g. somebody's lover is assumed to be of the opposite sex, a president is assumed to a man, a not-so-young adult is assumed to be married or to have been married, a couple is assumed to have or want children)
A norm may or may not have a rational justification or origin. Norms with common sense origins may, over time, lose their original context as society changes: an action that was once performed because it was necessary to survive may over the years become a social norm, even once the circumstances that made it necessary for survival are no longer applicable. There are at least two reasons for the stability of a norm. First, people are educated via their socialization process to follow a norm and most people will not oppose it. Second, even if a person does not feel like following a norm, it may be in his best interest to follow it anyway. Sanction is an interesting word, in that, depending on context, it can have diametrically opposing meanings. ...
Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow...
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being normal. ...
Deviant behavior is behavior that is a recognized violation of cultural norms. ...
The word stigma (plural stigmata) has more than one possible meaning: a mark such as that made with a branding iron in botany, stigma can mean a part of the female part of a flower; that part of a pistil which has no epidermis, and is fitted to receive the...
The term common sense (or as an adjective, commonsense) describes beliefs or propositions that seem, to most people, to be prudent and of sound judgment, without dependence upon esoteric knowledge. ...
ConTEXT is a freeware text editor directed at programmers. ...
Survival is a Bob Marley album, released on October 2, 1979. ...
Socialization is the study of animal and human behavior (ethology, social psychology, and psychology) is the process by which human beings or animals learn to adopt the behavior patterns of the community in which they live. ...
Traditional norms such as the Golden rule have been followed by many people over a long period of time. Therefore norms are closely related to customs. On the other hand, a norm may arise as a formal description of an implicitly followed custom (see custom (law) for example). Golden Rule has several meanings: Golden Rule - in philosophy and Christianity (Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, verse 12), an ethical statement, also known as the Ethic of Reciprocity. ...
In law, custom, or customary law consists of established patterns of behaviour that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. ...
In social situations, such as meetings, norms are unwritten and often unstated rules that govern individuals' behavior. Norms are most evident when they are not followed or are broken. This is often experienced when an individual finds him/herself in a foreign country, dealing with a strange culture where the norms are different. By the same token, import of cultural products in a culture may confront its people with different norms than they take for granted. Cultural import may then be seen as a threat to cultural identity. Meetings are sometimes held around conference tables. ...
The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ...
Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as she/he is influenced by her/his belonging to a group or culture. ...
In some groups, norms are consciously prescribed as a set of ground rules. The term group can refer to several concepts: Look up Group in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In music, a group is another term for band or other musical ensemble. ...
Ground rules are a common set of agreed standards in some process, such as negotiation, mediation, psychotherapy or facilitation, that allow meaningful dialogue to proceed with the aim of minimizing conflict. ...
Persons skilled in facilitation assist groups in recognizing norms, as well as establishing norms to promote greater group (or team) effectiveness. In organizational development (OD) and Consensus decision-making, facilitation refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting. ...
A team comprises any group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. ...
A general formal framework that can be used to represent the essential elements of the social situation surrounding a norm is the repeated game of game theory. Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that uses models to study interactions with formalised incentive structures (games). It has applications in a variety of fields, including economics, international relations, evolutionary biology, political science, and military strategy. ...
Types of norms Sociologists claim that in every society there exist two types of norms: - Mores
- Moral norms that define in every culture what is wrong and right, what is allowed and not allowed, what is wanted and not wanted. Breaking those norms is usually considered by the society as a threat to social organisation and are sanctioned harshly. Example: murder, robbery.
- Folkways
- Norms that define in every culture the rituals, beliefs, traditions and routines. Breaking them is not usually considered a threat to social organisation and are sanctioned not as severe as mores. Example: Thanksgiving dinner, saying grace. See Faux pas
The First Thanksgiving, after the painting by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in much of North America, generally observed as an expression of gratitude, usually to God. ...
A faux pas (IPA /ˌfoʊˈpɑː/) is a violation of accepted, although unwritten, social rules. ...
Example (gift exchange) In the western world, it is a custom to exchange gifts in the holiday seasons. It is so deeply imprinted in the minds of people that many do not think of acting otherwise.
Now, suppose you become fed up with exchanging gifts, it is not necessarily easy to change your action. Unilaterally changing your action to stop giving gifts may give others the impression that you are a selfish person, and that impression may not be in your interest.
Notice however that the fact that your friends follow the custom may not necessarily imply that they are willing to do so. They may be following the norm for the reason exactly the same as yours. The situation resembles that in the short story of The Gift of the Magi. All the friends have to coordinate to change the custom. Spoiler warning: The Gift of the Magi is an O. Henry short story in which a young couple are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment opposite the elevated train. ...
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