How can you relate beliefs and deviance to one another?

Question

i have to write a paper on beliefs and deviance and give examples from my life. but how can i relate beliefs and deviance to eachother?

Answer 1

Ever hear the term 'common sense'? Its subjective, and nothing universal or 'common' about it. Common sense itself then can be considered a belief. Now who exasperates you by not conforming to your socialized views of common sense? There is your deviance!

Answer 2

We have a  tendency to think that what is normal, is what we believe to be normal.  And often what we believe to be normal is what determines what is deviant (aka, not normal)

Alfred Kinsey who really did some of the first s*x surveys, did it as a result of not being able to determine what was "normal" without having a judgment being in place.

If you have no idea what is being done across a population, how can you determine what is normal, and what is variant from normal, and to what degree.

Ask a fundamentalist about s*x before marriage, and their belief will say that it's deviant (with no room for any variance.)

But ask a college student with a different belief structure, and he will say it's normal, and to wait until marriage would be variant.

Any sort of demographic that you can think of, is going to have a belief of what is normal, and what is deviant.  Compare those different demographics, and you have yourself a paper.

From your life, what are you parent's views on s*x before marriage, and how they compare to yours? (probably a very easy one to write on) What about your grandparents?  What about differences between you and your siblings (assuming you have some), if not, friends.  Where are there differences in your beliefs, from others? Where those beliefs differ, is where your going to get deviation (aka deviance)

Person A thinks it's wrong to cheat on a test, person B thinks it's ok to cheat on a test, person C doesn't really care if they cheat or not.

From person A's perspective, person B is very deviant, while person C, would likely be less deviant.  From person C, both A and B would be slightly deviant from their beliefs in opposite directions.

I'm sure you get the idea.

Cheers,

Greg