Question

Deviance is the label sociologists use to describe behavior that violates cultural norms. Norms include the expectations and rules that guide our behavior, appearance, manners, gestures, body language, conduct, et cetera. For this assignment, your task is to break a norm and write about your experience, as follows:

Choose one norm to break as long as it is within the guidelines for legal behavior. Examples of acceptable norm violations include dressing in a manner that would be considered eccentric or inappropriate for a given social situation or invading someone's personal space.
In a 2- to 3-page paper, double-spaced, include the following:

Explain which norm you broke and why you chose it. Discuss what the appropriate behavior for the situation you chose would typically require (for example, if you are violating a dress code, discuss what you would normally wear in that situation).
Discuss why your behavior violated those norms and the reaction you received upon breaking them.
Apply one sociological theory of deviance to interpret the response to your behavior. Begin by briefly discussing the key aspects of the theory you have chosen and then explain why that theory is useful for understanding your norm-breaking experiment. The Why Are People Deviant

Answer 1

Although we cannot provide an essay, as this is a personal assignment that only you can complete, we can still provide some guidance that can help you complete your work.

An example of a norm that you could break would be that of cutting in line at a supermarket. Although this behaviour is not illegal, it is frowned upon by society, and would be considered deviant.

I would chose this norm because it is easy to enact, as an experiment, and it does not have very serious consequences. Moreover, the breaking of this norm would most likely earn an intense reaction from other people as it is almost universally rejected. If I were to cut in line, it is likely that people behind me would immediately complain, and they would ask me to go to the end of the line.

The theory of structural functionalism would label my behaviour as deviant because this theory focuses on the way deviant behaviour allows us to define what is acceptable and what is unacceptable based on whether it promotes social cohesion and unity. Based on this, my behaviour does not promote unity, but in fact, gets in the way of it.