Breaking A Norm Essay

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Everyone have their own values in which they follow. In each country there are different norms that people follow and do not usually violate. What is a norm? In our sociology textbook the definition for norm is defined as, “Expectations of the “right” behavior” (Henslin, 49). Norm is always followed by a sanction. Henslin defined sanction as the reaction that is after either following or breaking a norm (49). A positive sanction is acceptance and a negative sanction is disapproval. We expect people to follow the right way but when failed their either breaking folkways or mores. Folkways are when we expect a person to follow a certain behavior or way, “…but we are likely to shrug are shoulders and not make a big deal about it if they don’t” …show more content…

My friend and I were in the cafeteria eating lunch and doing homework, when I noticed a mysterious thing going on in the corner of my eye. In the next table there was a group of people who were a little different than my friend and I. I admit that I would not usually hang with the kind of crowd that was at the table. They were all dressed in black, I am not sure If they were gothic but I was getting that vibe. But what they had was not what caught my attention, it is what I noticed in one of their hands that had me looking and particularly anyone else that was nearby. One of the girls that were at the table had a small animal in their hand, which looked like a lizard or an animal related to it, and she was petting and kissing it continually. I was quite disgusted to see what was going on but I did not say anything about but I left shortly afterwards though. However, someone else who was looking as well kept saying “that is gross and why would you bring such a thing into the cafeteria, where everyone else is eating?” To them they felt violated because of the location and what was going around us. We were in a cafeteria, bringing a lizard is unsanitary and nasty. I believed the girl heard the other person speaking about how it was disgusting to bring the lizard but she still sat in the cafeteria with her lizard. The negative sanction was the girl saying something, but it was a folkway because no action was

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