Unit 2 Outcome 1: Social Norms/Deviance Flashcards
Social Norms:
Socially constructed appropriate behaviours within a society or group.
Deviance:
Any activity or behaviour that contravenes or breaks social norms, which can take the form of laws, regulations, guidelines, conventions, expectations, understandings, or other rules.
Folkways:
Informal rules and norms whose violation is not offensive, but expected to be followed. Deviating from folkways does not invite any punishment or sanctions, but some reprimands or warnings. E.g. Chewing with mouth open.
Mores:
Mores are informal rules that are not written, but result in severe punishments and social sanction upon the individual that has participated in a deviant act. Severe punishments include things like social or religious exclusion.
Laws:
Formal rules and regulations in society bound with punishments that are created in reaction or anticipation to deviance, and intend to prevent it. Is a form of social control.
Social Control:
Regulation of people’s actions by others using positive or negative sanctions so they remain within social norms.
Social Change:
Any change in society brought about by a social movement, specifically as a result of deviance.
Types of sanctions:
- Positive (rewards) or negative (punishments).
- Organised: Formally specified as a response to deviant behaviour.
- Dispersed: Informal and spontaneous sanctions.
•Structural functionalism and deviance
- Theorist: Emil Durkheim
- Focuses on Industrial Revolution →
- Time period = organic
Natural Deviance (functionalism):
Everyday breaking of rules and norms by people constrained by social structure.
Anomic Deviance (functionalism):
Happens when society is breaking down or changing.
2 main functions of deviance (functionalism):
- Maintains moral consensus (Eg. Solidarity after terrorism - public agreement).
- Facilitates social change (Eg. LGBT acceptance).
4 specific functions of deviance (functionalism):
- Affirmation of society’s social values/norms
- Classification of moral boundaries
- Unification of others in society
- Encouraging social change
Problems with functionalist theory:
- Fails to consider the causes of deviance.
* Fails to consider the impact on the victim.
Moral Panic
The intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.
Reintegrative shaming
A process that attempts to simultaneously shame an offender for their crime and restore them to full participation in society, by making the offender apologise to the victim(s) and engage in some form of restitution to the victim/community.
Labelling
Stigmatising an individual or group as deviant.
Symbolic interactionist theory
Individuals may interpret behaviour as deviant and another may not, emphasises the relativity of deviance
•Labelling/interactionist theory (Howard Becker)
Behaviour is not inherently deviant, it only becomes deviant once it has been defined by others.
Problems with Becker’s labelling theory:
- It is too relative, the same action can be deviant and not deviant.
- Fails to recognise examples of widespread condemnation, such as murder and incest.
- Fails to address individuals who deviate from social norms and are not caught.
•Hirschi’s theory/social bonds theory
The theory that the strength of the social bonds of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief can influence the likelihood of a person committing a crime
Relativism and deviance:
What is considered deviant changes through different historical time periods, ages, genders, cultural statuses and location. It is relative to each one.
Problems with Hirschi’s social bonds theory:
- Fails to look at the significant influence of peers on deviancy.
- Does not address all types of crime, such as white-collar crime.
- Fails to adequately define social control.
Restitution:
Compensation
Attachment (Hirschi):
Strong social bonds with positive role models = less deviance.
Commitment (Hirschi):
More investments = less deviance because people do not want to risk investments such as respect.
Involvement (Hirschi):
Involvement in socially approved activities = less deviance.
Belief (Hirschi):
Strong beliefs and moral consensus = less deviance.
Self-fulfilling prophecy:
The internalisation of a deviant label applied.
Differential association theory:
Symbolic interactionist
Individuals are not inherently deviant, rather they learn to become deviant.
Neutralisation theory:
Symbolic Interactionist
Deviant individuals efforts to justify and avoid ownership of their behaviour, five parts: denial of responsibility, injury and victim, condemnation of the condemners and appealing to higher loyalties.
