StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

:Break a Social Norm - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
In Walmart, grocery stores, restaurants, and other public places, parents can be seen with children. Many children behave, but others do not. In my experience it is rare for anyone to calmly approach the parent and ask questions. Normally,…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.5% of users find it useful
:Break a Social Norm
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample ":Break a Social Norm"

The norm I chose is an unspoken rule. In Walmart, grocery stores, restaurants, and other public places, parents can be seen with children. Many children behave, but others do not. In my experience it is rare for anyone to calmly approach the parent and ask questions. Normally, people will talk to each other about the disruptive child, yell at the parent, remain silent, or shake their head in disapproval. I have chosen to calmly approach the parent with facts and to ask questions. I even had pamphlets about teaching children and a place to get help.

These were provided by my local doctor’s office. I chose this approach for several reasons. The first is I do get irritated by disruptive children. I feel the need to define a disruptive child. An infant under one is not responsible for crying in the store. Normally the child is just tired, hungry, or dirty. This cry is the baby trying to communicate. I get irritated by children two and up throwing fits, screaming, running into people, destroying store property, and so forth. Normally their parents just ignore this behavior, or just scream back at the child.

The second reason I chose this norm to approach is the obvious safety issue. When a child under the age of twelve is running around being ignored the chances of an accident, abduction, or other mishap rises. I do not understand the mentality of a person ignoring the damage their child is doing, or even the damage that can be done to the child. Thirdly, I feel that if a parent was confronted in a calm manner more, maybe their behavior would change. Some people will never change, but some people when offered options might.

Parents can get overwhelmed. Children do not come with a manual. Help might work, whereas public shame does not. Whatever is going on does not work, or children would not be making scenes in public. I attempted breaking this norm several times with various results. The first instance was a woman with a three year old screaming ‘I want it’ while holding a candy bar. I approached the lady, saying ‘Excuse me.’ She looked very professional, but stressed. She warily asked, ‘Yes.’ I asked if she was going to buy the candy bar for the little girl.

She explained that if she did not the little girl would throw a fit for the rest of the evening. I asked if she wanted help with the little girl’s temper tantrums. After a positive reply, I handed her a pamphlet about positive reinforcement. She thanked me. In the end, the lady still bought the candy for her daughter. Another woman with a similar situation bluntly told me to mind my own business, but most of the parents I approached were willing to politely listen and take the information I provided.

My reaction was surprise. I did not realize how many parents appreciate being approached in a positive manner. Most people that approach them are rude or hostile. When the parents were approached calmly and offered help they reacted with appreciation and politeness. Even if they did not want the help, the parents were glad someone stepped in. Most of the time the child would stop screaming, running, or throwing a fit to find out what I was saying. I felt happy trying to help others. It was much more satisfying that yelling or ignoring the situation.

The parents and children would react positively, but the other shoppers would react negatively. I had several snide comments about once a brat always a brat, or if a parent could not control a child they should not have them. Another common sentiment was a good spanking would cure the problem, not information about other methods. The observers would be upset with me for trying to help. I did not expect that reaction. It was like I had become allies with the parent and child against the other shoppers.

The other shoppers made me feel excluded from the group. That made me uneasy and outweighed any potential help I gave.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“:Break a Social Norm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/psychology/1616854-break-a-social-norm
(:Break a Social Norm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/psychology/1616854-break-a-social-norm.
“:Break a Social Norm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/psychology/1616854-break-a-social-norm.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF :Break a Social Norm

Violating a Social Norm

"Violating a social norm" paper states that Violating a social norm is an act of taboo and this can raise many negative attitudes and behavior among the public.... hellip; After violating a social norm, I realized that representation of a social being is highly essential in society.... There is a social norm of behaving in a bus and violating it by talking to self can arise many reactions among the public.... This social atmosphere of the bus is highly accurate for violating a social norm....
5 Pages (1250 words) Assignment

Tax Breaks as Spending

The actions of the government should be praised since the government is looking for ways to help out poor people and provide social justice.... There is a tax break that exists that allows parents to put aside $5,000 to pay for child care.... The effect of this tax break for people that are in the 25% tax bracket is $1,250 a year in savings, while parents in the 39....
3 Pages (750 words) Article

Social Engineering Aspects

hellip; Social Engineering is a professional norm that usually happens in small marketing businesses as well as in the government institutions.... The rise of internet has majorly affected Pre-texting norm in many ways.... social Engineering Introduction social engineering aspects have been misunderstood in many ways or the other posing various opinions on how it works as far as world of social engineering is concerned....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Do we learn more from work that follows or breaks with accepted conventions

Similarly, a convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted social norms, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.... 2]Now taking an example from arts, we can affirm the belief that we learn more from the works that break following accepted conventions....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Project

Therefore, I decided to Break a Social Norm by facing backwards in an elevator and see peoples reactions.... I learned that facing backwards in an elevator is a social norm when one day I rode the elevator with a person carrying a backpack and facing backwards.... y facing backwards in the elevator, I realized that I was violating a social norm.... I am Breaking social norm experiment There are certain rules set by the society about how people should behave....
2 Pages (500 words) Admission/Application Essay

Breaking a Social Norm

He chose to break this norm as part of my class assignment.... nbsp;… As the paper stresses the author learned the norm from his parents.... I chose to break this norm as part of my class assignment.... learned the norm from my parents.... ith such a basic understanding, I chose to break the norm because it would provide me with an appropriate platform to investigate and study how people value the norms and react when one breaks them....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Deviance of Social Normative Behavior

rdquo; I was supposed to Break a Social Norm of my choice and note people's behavior toward my norm violation.... The violation of a social norm leads to embarrassment for the person who is trying to disobey the norm.... The writer of the essay "Deviance of social Normative Behavior" suggests that people from all kinds of backgrounds react to deviance in almost similar manner.... There is no difference in their exhibition of social control on the observation of counter-conformity of social normative behavior....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Breaking Social Norms

In my breaking social norms essay, I have decided to violate the folkway social norm.... Out of the first interaction trying to break this societal norm, there was an adverse informal sanction whereby the lady ignored my hand gesture.... This is the "Breaking social Norms" essay.... nbsp;… Such behaviors, adopted by the inhabitants of the areas are referred to as social norms.... In essence, these social norms are what define the behavior of a particular group and have a massive influence on many other things....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us