THE FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL NORMS

Much of the presentation is based on Sociology Overview: An Introduction to the Discipline of Sociology—An Online Course

Imran Ahmad Sajid

• Social norms are the unplanned, unexpected result of individuals' interactions.

• Social norms [are] …a kind of grammar of social interactions.

• Like a grammar, a system of norms specifies what is acceptable and what is not in a society or group.

• Analogously to a grammar, it is not the product of human design and planning (Bicchieri, 2006).

What would happen if?• You cut into the middle of a line by yourself

and stayed in line for at least 2 minutes?• You sang loudly on a public bus?• You positioned yourself 6 inches from an

acquaintance’s nose during a conversation?• You laughed during a funeral?– How would other people behave?– How would you feel?

Norms

• Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviours of its members (Macionis, 2012).

• Social norms [are] the customary rules that govern behavior in groups and societies (Muldoon and Bicchieri, 2011)

• Norms refer to group shared expectations (Young and Mike, 2012).

• Social norms are customary rules of behavior that coordinate our interactions with others (Durlauf and Blume)

Two types of Norms

• WG Sumner. 1. MORES: norms that are widely observed and have great

moral significance. • Mores include Taboos… e.g. adults should not walk in

public without dress. 2. FOLKWAYS: Norms of routine or casual interaction. • e.g. ideas about appropriate greetings and proper

dress. • Mores distinguish between Right and Wrong, Folkways

draw a line between Right and Rude.

Norms

Mores Folkways

3. Laws: are norms which are designed, maintained and enforced by the political authority of a society.

• A student who does not wear a pair of shoes in the classroom may raise eyebrows for violating folkways….

• It would be a violation of Mores if he comes to the class only wearing the shoes.

How Norms are Enforced?

1. Coordination motive (e.g. driving on left side to avoid accident)

2. Threat of social disapproval or punishment for norm violations (e.g queuing in bank to deposit fee)

3. Internalization of norms of proper conduct (e.g giving tip in hotel)

FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL NORMS

Function One:

Social norms make it possible for the human organism to survive.

• The newborn infant does not enter the world with the full equipment and capacity to respond appropriately to everything it will encounter in its environment.

• It would not survive without the social norms that influence adults to take care of it.

Function Two:

• Social norms are the means by which society is maintained and the needs of its members are fulfilled.

• Unrestrained, our biological needs and inclinations would encourage or perhaps guarantee anarchy.

• When norms control behavior, people in a culture are constrained to fulfill societal needs, sometimes at the expense of their natural drives.

Function Three:

Social norms make it possible for much of individual behavior to become automatic, greatly reducing the number of personal decisions to be made.

• In the process of internalizing the norms of one’s society, an individual learns countless time-tested procedures for the maintenance of life, health, comfort, and propriety.

• Once learned, they can be applied automatically in appropriate situations.

• Two examples—– You do not reflect, each time you wish to greet a friend, on

whether to extend your right or left hand.– When driving a car, you no longer stop to consider whether

to stay in the right or left traffic lane.• These procedures were decided for you and you are

habituated (socialized) to them.

• By accepting and following a cultural pattern, Cooley (1964) says, we get “the selected and systemized outcome of the past” (p. 297).

• Social norms provide rationality to our behaviors and free us from decision-overload that would result from our daily “human interactions” (Dressler, 1973, p. 3).

Other Functions

4. Control Behaviour5. Helps in Self-Control6. Safeguard values 7. help to set standards and rules for people to follow. 8. help people act in a way that's productive

• Social norms provide value to society beyond the simple “what is proper?” purpose.

• Social norms are an integral part of the normative/survival processes of society.

• Society could NOT survive without social norms.

References

Carroll, M. P. (1972, October). Considerations on the analysis of variance paradigm in sociology. Pacific Sociological Review, 15, 443-459.

Cooley, C. H. (1964). Human nature and the social order (rev. ed.). New York: Schocken.

Denisoff, R. S., Callahan, O., & Levine, M. H. (1974). Theories and paradigms in contemporary sociology. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers.

Dressler, D. (1973). Sociology: The study of human interaction (2nd ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Rose, A. (1967). The relation of theory and method. In L. Gross (Ed.), Sociology theory: Inquiries and paradigms (pp. 207-219). New York: Harper & Row.

Dr. Ronald Keith Bolender, Presenter

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