Purpose
This exercise asks you to violate a norm and write a report about the experience. The objective of the exercise is to determine the extent to which norms influence your and others behavior. Thus, you will want to pay particular attention to the reactions of both YOURSELF and OTHERS.
Guidelines
Select a norm that is common in our society.
Break the norm in a setting where others are present.
Observe the reactions of others and yourself, both verbal and nonverbal.
Record those reactions as quickly as possible.
Write up a report as instructed below.
Format
Your report should be 3 pages (not including cover page or references/bibliography), typed in 11- or 12-point font and double-spaced. Be sure to cover all of the points listed below. Additional reflections or insights are welcome. Points you should definitely cover:
Introduction, Literature Review and Theories, and Research Question/Hypothesis: address generally how social norms affect our behavior. Define the norm you violated and describe how this norm acts to organize and control behavior. Use relevant readings, outside readings, class notes, etc. as literature review and theoretical discussion. Paraphrase when you citedo not directly quote (esp. extensively) from another article for literature review. Direct quotes in literature review are reserved for classic quotes or when there is no better way of saying it. Then clearly list your research question or hypothesis.
In most published sociology articles, we do introduction separately from the other sections, and literature review is quite extensive. But for this paper, its OK to have a brief introduction and literature review (even combined in one long paragraph), followed by your research question/hypothesis. For your second paper, you are required to have a more extensive literature review section.
Methods: Describe how you violated the norm. Describe the physical setting, the social setting, and how many and what types of people were there. This is basically how you collected your data.
Findings and Discussion: Describe what happened as a result of this violation. More specifically:
How did others react to your violation of the norm?
How did you feel as you were violating the norm?
Why did you feel the way you did?
Did you encounter any difficulties in carrying out your assignment?
What did you learn about how norms organize and control behavior?
How can you link your findings to readings or our class discussions?
