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Social Norms - Definition & Examples - Lesson

Social norm

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Social Norms - Definition & Examples - Lesson

Social norm

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Saeed Ahmed
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Social Norms | Definition & Examples


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Transcript

Caroline Ntara, Lisa Roundy


Learn about various types of social norms, including descriptive, injunctive, prescriptive, and proscriptive norms.
Understand the socialization process and how it imparts social norms. Updated: 11/21/2023

Table of Contents
What Are Social Norms?
Social Norms: Examples and List
Socialization and Age Group
Deviance or Defiance of Social Norms
Related Concepts
Lesson Summary

Show
Frequently Asked Questions

What are examples of social norms?

There are many examples of social norms, including greeting people upon meeting them, apologizing for wronging
another person, giving up a seat on the train for an elderly person, and opening the door for others as a courtesy.

What is meant by social norms?

Social norms govern how people behave when faced with different situations in life. Social norms vary across cultures,
but some are universal, such as the humane treatment of other human beings.

What are the four types of social norms?

There are four types of well-known social norms: laws, folkways, mores, and taboos. These social norms differ across
different societies.

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Table of Contents
What Are Social Norms?
Social Norms: Examples and List
Socialization and Age Group
Deviance or Defiance of Social Norms
Related Concepts
Lesson Summary

Show
What Are Social Norms?
Social norms are regulations on conduct. They inform specific people how to handle different situations and control
their social behavior without necessarily using the law. Social norms are basically unwritten rules of conduct that are
acceptable to a culture. These rules provide order and inform people on how to behave, thus providing certainty in
society. An example of a social norm is greeting a person when you meet them.

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Social Norms: Examples and List


There are different types of social norms, and they help people identify good behavior. These norms differ across
cultures, places, and time. The four types of social norms are laws, folkways, mores, and taboos. Any learned behavior
by a social group that is not morally significant but is critical for social acceptance is known as a folkway. An example
is passing gas or burping in public. Doing so may affect someone's social acceptance in some societies. Taboos are
those things that a society shuns as wrong. Doing something taboo contravenes societal rules and affects someone's
standing among the people in the social group. For example, entering someone's house with shoes on is frowned upon
in many parts of the world. Mores are the norms of morality, or right and wrong, and if a person breaks one, they often
offend most people in the social group. For example, a person is not expected to attend a wedding dressed in funeral
attire, as this may offend everyone present. Lastly, laws are those social norms that have become part of the rules and
regulations governing the behavior of people. Failure to observe them can lead to arrest and prosecution. For example,
whether someone can be married to more than one person at the same time is a matter of law in many societies.
Examples of social norms include opening doors for others as a courtesy, greeting someone if meeting them for the
first time that day, introducing oneself to others, and helping an elderly person climb the stairs.

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Socialization and Age Group


Deviance or Defiance of Social Norms

Related Concepts

Lesson Summary

Video Transcript

What Are Social Norms?


Maria is a kindergarten teacher. She asks the children to line up for lunch. Two of the children join the line from
different sides of the room and arrive at the same time. Rather than simply making room for one another, they each
begin to complain that the other person is cutting in line. Why does this occur?

To explain this behavior, we must first understand social norms. A social norm is the accepted behavior that an
individual is expected to conform to in a particular group, community, or culture. These norms often serve a useful
purpose and create the foundation of correct behaviors. In other words, social norms allow you to expect the events
that will occur in a particular setting. This allows you to prepare yourself for a situation and reduces the amount of
stress that you would feel leading up to a situation that you felt uncertain of what was expected.

Social norms are most noticeable when they are not followed. They remain stable because most people are taught to
follow them and agree to do so willingly. Even if a person doesn't feel like following a social norm, he or she may do it
because of the social pressure that's placed on him or her to conform.

For example, in the United States, it's customary to give gifts during the winter holiday season. These gifts may vary
from baking cookies for your neighbor to receiving a holiday bonus at work. It is so much a part of the culture that
most people do it automatically.

Let's say that you suddenly decide that you don't want to give gifts during the holidays. It may not be easy to change
your actions. If you stop giving gifts, others may think that you're selfish. It might also make you feel uncomfortable
when someone gives you a gift. You do not want others to think poorly of you, and you do not want to feel
uncomfortable, so you don't change your behavior and continue giving gifts during the holidays.

Deviance
When you do not conform to the social norms that are accepted by your culture or group, it's considered an abnormal
behavior. This is called deviance. There are varying degrees of deviance that are accepted by different groups.
However, you face being rejected by the group if your disobedience to social norms is too excessive to be tolerated.

Imagine you enter an elevator full of people and, rather than turning to face the door, you continue to face the other
people in the elevator. At best, you'll receive some uncomfortable looks from the other people in the elevator. This is
because you're showing deviance to the social norm of turning around to face the door in an elevator. Your behavior
makes the other members of the group feel uncomfortable. If they feel too uncomfortable, they may avoid getting into
an elevator with you in the future.

Social Norms in Infants and Children


Now let's look at how social norms affect us at different stages of our lives. First, think of a time when you were a
newborn infant. You did not enter the world with the ability to respond to everything in your environment. The social
norms influencing others to take care of you allowed you to survive. This was your first experience with social norms.
You began to learn what behavior was expected of you, and what you could expect from others. For example, you
learned that if you stopped crying when someone picked you up, they would continue to hold you.

As you grew older, you began to understand the social norms expected by your peer group. At first, these social rules
are still imposed upon you by parents, teachers, and other adults you interacted with. For example, when you began
school, you learned that you should raise your hand to speak rather than interrupt the teacher. You knew what you
should do, what you should not do, and were very insistent that others act in an expected way. If a new student came
to your school and continually interrupted the teacher, you would object to the behavior and tell them, 'Things are not
done that way; you have to do it like this.'

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Psychology 103: Human Growth and Development

12 chapters | 104 lessons | 8 flashcard sets

Ch 1. Theoretical Approaches to Human Growth...


Ch 2. Research Methods and the Study of Human...
Ch 3. Genetic Influences on...
Ch 4. Biological Development
Ch 5. Sensory and Perceptual...
Ch 6. Cognition and Cognitive...
Ch 7. Creativity and Intelligence...
Ch 8. Language Development
Ch 9. Social Development
Ch 10. Social Relationship Development
Ch 11. Atypical Development

Atypical Human Development: Definition & Examples 4:12


Classification & Diagnosis of Psychological Disorders 4:58
Social Norms | Definition & Examples 6:58
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Ch 12. Studying for Psychology 103

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