Sociology project. please read.?

Question

I think i screwed myself on my sociology project. We were supposed to go out and break a norm and to commit a deviant behavior and then to record peoples reactions and take field notes.

. so i thought it was deviant behavior for a stranger to use self-disclosure (complete 100%openness) to another complete stranger. Ive been chasing my own tail in circles trying to figure out if by posting an online statement like "I had an abortion", or "I like to put men in drag for such asuch reason" was being deviant. i broke a norm, or a comfort boundary i thought. I thought by breaking a norm of "you dont disclose to much information to a stranger" would bear a 100% overwhelming reaction.

I dont know I need help with my project. i have notes, and ive been reading, and i thought i did teh assignment.

Im asking for any thoughts or ideas.?

Answer 1

Try to pick your nose in public,or        clap your hands and make happy cheers at  the  people going by..then ask what are you looking at?? have someone dress homeless,take their cup of change and take off,make it obvious that you meant to ruin their day ,by saying to the effect,Get a job,and a life loser..Goodluck let me know if it worked!!

Answer 2

Not particularly deviant but back in college I took a social anthro class and we learned about social space.  A classmate decided to test it and proceeded to violate the social space of most of his friends/aquaintances NOT in the class and in the know.  Almost got him punched out several times and my guess is they don't even know why they got that upset.  Can I suggest a similar experiment and have a second party do the questioning?

Answer 3

I am not in this field but to me a deviant norm is something extremely frowned upon, like sexual misbehaviour. You could try opening up a play boy on a bus and circling rude parts and giggling.

Answer 4

You did break a folkway, but if it didn't give you the reactions you were looking for, perhaps simply do another expirement.

One that my Soc prof gave us a few semesters ago was this:  if you are a woman, offer to open a door for  a man.  If you are a man, don't offer to open a door for a woman.

Now, that's nice enough, but here's what I did for a folkway-breaking assignment:  my sister and I drove around town with a d***o hanging out of the car's window.  You want reaction?  Trust me, that will do it!

That may be too riské, and inappropriate for the project at hand, but something along that line may work.  >8]

Answer 5

umm ok...i don't really think u broke a norm...there are three types of norms namely:

Folkways

A society's web of cultural rituals, traditions and routines. Deviation is not usually considered a serious threat to social organization and is thus sanctioned less severely than moral deviation. Example: In certain households in the U.S., it is a folkway to say grace before eating Thanksgiving dinner. See Faux pas.

Mores

Moral judgments that define wrong and right behavior, the allowed and the disallowed, what is wanted and not wanted within a culture. The word is the plural of the Latin mor-, mos, which means "custom". A violation of mores is usually considered by society as a threat to social organization and harshly sanctioned. Examples: Drug use, sexual promiscuity, and extreme styles of dress.

"More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior.

Laws

In highly organized societies, formalized and precisely delimited norms. The breaking of legal norms, or laws, invokes procedures and judgments through formal, legal institutions, such as police and the courts, set up to enforce them. These norms generally relate to individual violations of mores or to the adjustment of proprietary relationships.

So if u do anything against these norms only then it'll be  considered deviant behaviour. (i'm not really asking u to be a deviant...lol)

hope thatz of some help

Answer 6

Yes, you goofed.

You need to do this in the actual world.

People disclose personal stuff on-line all the time, so it's not deviant or unexpected or uncommon.

Go to some physical place where there are people and then say things.

However, this isn't as uncommon as it used to be, either. There are a lot of people who tell all sorts of things to strangers and acquaintences.

You may need to rethink your project.

Maybe go to a store and start singing. Then note people's reactions. That's the kind of thing you're supposed to do, I suspect.

Besides, you can't take the notes you need on-line. That is, you don't have any data about the reactions of people who just read and move on.

Nor do you get full reactions from anyone -- facial expression, action, tone of voice. All you get is text -- and their reactions could be faked.

Hate to say it, but you really missed the point of the assignment.

You need to go out into the world and actually DO something.

Go stand backwards on an escalator. Something like that.

Answer 7

Have you tried comparing the results you get from full self-disclosure online vs. in real-life?  Perhaps you could do this to a few strangers at various differing events and places and observe the reaction.  I think the fact would be enhanced in a one on one situation; plus they would be forced to respond to that norm being broken.  

It would be interesting to see how the context would effect even in real life interactions.  Perhaps, you could test the waters with someone at a public library, but for instance, if you continued, it would be a different reaction most likely at a sporting event, or airport, if you wanted to take the experiment farther.

I think this was a really good idea for a project and congrats on having it  :)

Answer 8

disclosing too much info to a stranger is not deviant. it's a general rule of common sense...which many break anyway, so ...nothing exceptional; i think it's a little risky because your teacher may disagree with your approach.

there are much simpler things you can do to break a norm, and which would generate tons of reactions. such as: pretend you are a beggar (dress accordingly), and people will probably tell you things. or, acts AS IF you were taking drugs, as if you were drunk - suppose you are age 16-18 so they'll be outraged. or better yet, have someone do this and you stay on the side and record reactions - it's more useful for you as observer.

some colleagues of mine got on a bus, dressed as bride&groom, with guests, singers etc :) it's not deviant, but it was funny ;)