"I didn't have sex with that woman."  President Clinton, 1998.
 

This assignment will make you more aware of the salience of the social norms which control our daily life.  It is designed to encourage you to become more critically aware of your social environment.

In the sea of norms in which we live, many norms governing behavior are followed so automatically that we have no conscious knowledge of them.  The constraining nature of social norms is not perceived as long as one obeys.  Norms are not all equally strict, nor do they all carry the same kinds of sanctions.  It is only when one attempts to do otherwise -- to be deviant -- that we become very aware of the existence of social forces.  Some of the norms we take for granted are specific; for example, couples are expected to identify themselves as committed to one another, otherwise an unsuspecting single person might define the people as unattached and believe one of them is being flirtatious rather than just friendly.  Other norms are vaguely defined; for example, friends are expected to be friendly, but there are no clear rules about what and when they should be doing to demonstrate their friendliness. 

Though careful analysis of your everyday relations and activities, first identify one part (or role) within a personal or social relationship.  Sociologically, the "role" is the set of expectations for appropriate behavior from one "player" in the social situation.  Envision a stage production.  Individual actors take on roles, and each role is scripted.  The actor performs the role according to the script and participates in the staged production as expected.  Different behaviors are normatively prescribed for situations and relationships.  Envision everyday situations.  Each situation has an accepted "script."  You, too, are thus a social actor engaged in the the social (re)construction of a situation and/or relationship.

Following the conceptual work of isolating one role, the next task is to conceptually identify at least ten of the rules (or norms) that define the role.  Remember, the social norms (or expectations) scripting behavior may be taken-for-granted inside a situation, such as ice cream customers "do not" lick the waitress' nose, rather they only lick the ice cream cone and they politely pay the waitress before they eat the ice cream.   What you are trying to identify are the expected 'right' behaviors and 'wrong' behaviors for one aspect of the way you interact with another.  List the 10 norms. 

Next, behaviorally violate one (or more) of the norms. You are to violate a norm that either vaguely governs relations between people or specifically governs relations between people.  Do so ethically -- in such a way as to not inflict harm, worry, or hurt upon others.  Also, beware of violating a norm which is enforced by the state--that is, law-enforcement agencies, courts, and prisons. 

You are to work with a partner.  As you violate the norm, observe the effect this norm violation has on yourself and on other persons near you in the situation.  Station your partner as an unobtrusive observer, whose task is to quietly watch and take notes as extensively (yet subtly) as possible.  (Obviously, the requirement of an partner precludes some activities and sites.)  Immediately after the situation ends, you and your observer must independently write up "field notes" on what occurred.  Make the notes as descriptive as possible, recalling your behavior, others' behaviors, your feelings, what others said, etc.   Repeat the norm violation, with the first time violator now the unobtrusive observer.  The first time observer is now the norm violator. Again, write up what occurred, and afterward compare notes.  Your field notes (and memory) serve as your data. 

In your presentation to the class, be prepared to comment on the way norms hold together social relationships and how your violation altered temporarily the social structure.  For your presentation, think about the following questions: 
 

a.  What role did you fail to perform, what were 10 of its norms, and what norm did you intentionally violate? Was the role part of a formal, personal, or intimate relationship?  Was the norm proscriptive or prescriptive? Was it vaguely governing behavior, or was it a specific rule?

b.  Did you unintentionally (or accidently) violate more than one norm while deviating from your customary role performance? What other norm(s)?

c.  What negative and positive sanctions did you encounter?

d.  What evidence do you have for inferring how the other person(s) in the situation felt about your norm violation?  Were their sanctions supportive or condemning of your deviance?  What did they say or do that leads you to assume they were supportive or condemning?

e.  Without planning, did you violate more than one role while acting as a deviant?  What other role(s)?  Were those violations more serious than the one planned; that is, were the sanctions associated with your deviance much greater in intensity than you anticipated?

f.  When you were the observer, what did you miss seeing?  What did the violator experience that you overlooked?  Why?

CAUTION: Because this field exercise involves the conscious manipulation of other people's feelings and behavior, you must, I repeat MUST, consider others' feelings, think about the ethics of your behavior, and debrief those people effected by your behavior.  In almost all cases, you will need to let them know that you were conducting in a "sociological experiment," that you are responsible for their feelings and behavior, and that they were being deceived.  Because you are responsible, make sure your norm violation is well within the realm of ethics -- don't tread too hard.