Essay On Social Norms And Values

Introduction:

Initially a baby is born helpless; it’s not only dependent on other people of the group but lacks the behaviour patterns necessary for living. In order to survive, it must learn knowledge, skills and accepted ways of behaving of the society, in sociological terms it must acquire the culture of it’s society. The lack of instincts in humans to direct their actions and behaviours means that a set of guidelines must be put in place which creates an ethos that helps humans develop strategies in the form of values and norms, however this is not confined to childhood it’s a lifelong process. In examining the configuration of social norms and values in our society we must define them, source their origin and examine the cause and effect of

Unlike norms, values provide more general guidelines. A value is a belief that something is good and important to the extent that it can “influence judgements and actions beyond an immediate or specific situation or goal by providing an abstract frame of reference for perceiving and organizing experience and for choosing among courses of actions” (Raven and Rubin, 1983, 136), for example freedom is a universal value that is held by western societies. There is a definite distinction between both. Values are individual or, commonly shared conceptions of appropriate states of being. Norms are generally accepted prescriptions for or prohibitions against behaviour, belief, or feeling. While values can be held by an individual, norms cannot and must be upheld by a group. Norms always include sanctions but values never do. Norms tend to be influenced by common values and they tend to persist even after the reasons for certain behaviours are forgotten to use the expression old habits die hard. (Giddens,