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Key Knowledge:
What deviance is and how it relates to social norms
How social norms change depending on enviroment
How social norms outline what is considered deviant behaviour
Key Skills:
Define key sociological concepts and use them appropriately
Todays Glossary Terms
Todays Glossary Terms
Core Values: The common ideas and beliefs held by a group that outline what is important and how people behave. These core values can include equality, fairness, freedom of speech and family. These core values vary across context, time and place.
Sanctions: A society's reaction to deviant behaviours, which can be eithier positive or negative. Positive reactions reward behaviours that align with the social norms whilst negative reactions aim to discourage behaviours through punishment.
Social Control: Refers to the processes of enforcing conformity and minimising deviance by using authority to enforce norms.
Deviance and Social Norms are inter-twined
Deviance and Social Norms are inter-twined
Social norms outline the way we live our everyday life and inform us how to act in different situations and places. These social morms are underpinned by the situation, people or times core values.
When social norms are broken a society reacts by imposing sanctions. These sanctions are the societys reaction to deviant behaviour, both positive and negative. The process of eithier positive rewards, or negative punishments is referred to as social control.
The Sliding Scale of Deviance
The Sliding Scale of Deviance
Not all deviance carries the same societal response. Some deviant actions are positive and thus people are rewarded for them. Other deviant actions are punished by society through sanctions.
When considering how a deviant act will be observed by a society you must think of the social norms, the core values and most importantly the harm caused by the devaint behaviour. For example both theft and chewing with your mouth open are considered deviant behaviours in our society however the punishment for these actions is not nearly the same. Where one might see your Mum or a family member tell you off, the other might see you serve a prison sentence.
Societal Norms in our everyday life
Societal Norms in our everyday life
Norms in our everyday life range from the very fundamental aspects that underpin how our country operates all the way through to who showers first in the morning at home. No matter what the situation is their are different informal and formal rules in which we follow. This might involve only showering for a certain amount of time to ensure everyone has a chance to shower, or it might be following the speed limit when dirivng so everyone remains safe. Not following these informal and formal rules prevents us from being deviant.
We are consistently made aware of these social expecations through things like signs, people looking at you, informal verbal reminders, announcements through a louspeaker and many more.
Todays To Do List:
Draw a line spanning the length of a page and on one end write Positive, the other Negative and a line in the middle being Neutral. Organise the list of actions below of how you see the deviant actions fitting. For example, a serious crime like murder would fall much further on the negative side of the scale then another negative deviant action such as eating with your mouth open.
Organise the following actions to where you think they fit:
Cutting in line at the canteen
Pre-reading your english book during school holidays
Helping an opponent off the ground in a sports match
Yelling in a library
Eating with your mouth open
Driving under the influence of illcit substances
Stealing a bike
Giving up a seat for an elderly person on a train
Not tapping on with your myki for a train ride.
Swearing in front of your grandparents
Telling the truth after doing something you shouldn't have
Standing up for someone who is being bullied
Complete Activities B and C, both on pages 117.
Complete Question 2 on page 149
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