SOCIOLOGY Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

SOCIOLOGY - Term Paper Example They also specify the rewards for observing them as well as punishment for conformity purposes (Chrisman 127). Therefore, norms form the foundation of collective expectations that people of a given community have from one another, and play a vital role in social control and order. A person’s behavior or thinking capacity can be classified as abnormal if at all it violates the set of laws about the expectations in a given social group. Other people might feel threatened or even uncomfortable with their behavior. It is explicitly clear that social behavior varies from one culture to another. For instance, it is a common phenomenon for people to stand closer to strangers in Southern Europe than in the United Kingdom. The extent to which a norm can be violated, the value attached to it and the importance of the norm varies from one community to another. Whether the violation is abnormal, criminal, eccentric or rude depends with the affected individuals. Social norms can be termed as inevitable and unstable. Behavior that would be considered abnormal may with time become acceptable in a community. For instance, driving under alcohol influence could be considered acceptable but at the present time it can be viewed as socially unacceptable. On the other hand, homosexuality can be considered unacceptable, but it is acceptable in many countries today. Social norms come up as a result of social values, and they serve the purpose of differentiating human behavior from that of other animals. Human beings have the ability to elaborate communication that is symbolic and structure their behavior in terms of preferences referred to as values. For that reason, norms are the means which values can be articulated in behavior (Lewis 83). While shopping in London city on one afternoon, it started drizzling. Everyone was happy because it had taken