Deviance as Experiential Learning Essay
Option 1: Assignment Instructions: Preparation
1) Think of a social norm to violate in a “real” environment. It should be a situation where everyone knows what the appropriate behavior would be without having to think about it, with the limitation that it cannot be anything illegal or harmful to yourself or others: we are examining LEGAL deviance/norms only in this assignment. Any illegal, harmful, or offensive activities will not count for the assignment.
You may find Social Norms – Introduction to sociology
at (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-introductiontosociology/chapter/social-norms/ ) to be helpful in thinking about social norm violations, regardless of the option you select to do. It gives information on the norm breaching experiments of Harold Garfinkel and others who studied this phenomenon.
***Please do NOT do anything related to Covid-19 as a norm-breaker, such as not wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing where these are still required. If you do, you will receive 0 points on this Assignment.***
2) Violate the norm you chose over a long enough time to permit yourself to observe reactions from at least three others. (If you are having trouble getting people to react, then your behavior isn’t really a norm violation, and you should try a different one.) Important: do not tell anyone what you are doing, or that this is an assignment. You should behave as if what you are doing, or not doing, is normal to you.
You should bring something to write on such as a cell phone or notebook so that you can take notes on other people’s reactions and your own personal feelings throughout the process, both of which are to be included in your paper. Please do not include the actual notes you took during the observations. You need to analyze and discuss the notes, but not include/list them in your paper.
When you are finished with the norm-breaking, your task is to develop a 4-6 page write-up about this experiment; that page # requirement does not include the title page and References pages.
Assignment Instructions: Paper (see below for Alternative paper instructions): (Note that using headings for the five sections is strongly suggested for both options; they are bolded below.)
In your paper, begin with the Student Title Page. See my APA 7th ed. Format Announcement for that.
On page 2, repeat your title and then the heading Introduction in which you generally discuss social norms and what happens when (legal) ones are broken in society. For help writing Introductions, refer to my Announcement about Help with College Writing.
NOTE: Page 2 begins on its own page. This is done by clicking Insert on the top menu and then click “Pages” and then “Page Break.”
3) Then, under the heading of Method: Include at least a 1 paragraph overview explaining what you did, how you did it, and where you did it (the environment/situation). Explain which norm you violated—i.e., what is normally done vs. what you did differently.
4) Under the heading of Findings: Include at least a 1 full page analysis that includes the following (each in its own paragraph):
Your personal feelings: how did you feel before engaging in your norm violation, during it, and afterward?
Other people’s reactions during the violation. Did anything unusual or substantial happen because of the norm violation? How did you know what people were thinking and feeling about the violation? Were there any notable patterns that arose in people’s reactions?
Note: there are several questions here; write your response to each in its own paragraph.
5) Under the heading of Discussion: Include a 3-5 page analysis in which you reflect on your findings. Using the course concepts and ideas discussed and read thus far in the course, how can you understand and interpret the interactions of others? How can you understand your own experience/feelings about norm breaching? In this discussion, you must:
Clearly apply at least 3 relevant sociological concepts/theories from our course materials/readings (the textbook should be sufficient) to the deviant behavior you analyzed in this experiment. Remember to cite all outside information AND to paraphrase. Please write about each concept/theory in its own paragraph.
AND
Clearly apply findings from at least 5 meaningful up-to-date resources, 3 of which are from reputable peer-reviewed academic journals from our Library, to the deviant behavior you analyzed in this experiment. It is suggested that these should be dated no earlier than 2014. Please write about each resource in its own paragraph.
Remember to cite your sources for the above two requirements and show all sources under References — all in correct APA 7th ed. format.
6) College papers usually end with a Conclusion, which briefly sums up the topic of the paper.
7) End with the References page – in APA 7th ed. with all sources alphabetized. NOTE: The References page on its own page. This is done by clicking Insert on the top menu and then click “Pages” and then “Page Break.”
Do not use unverifiable, secondary sites such as Wikipedia or any WIKI site, about.com, ask.com, AND ESPECIALLY CourseHero, Sparks Notes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and similar. Use only our course materials, peer-reviewed journal articles from the Library, and other scholarly sources. If you are unsure if a source you’ve found qualifies, just send me an email about the source and a direct link to it.
Your paper should utilize sound critical thought and, again, full APA 7th ed. student paper in-text citations and References at the end. Note what the title page is to look like in APA 7th ed. (See the prior APA 7th ed. Format Announcement with some documents to help you with this – and, the prior Help with College Writing Announcement I posted with many attachments to help you with your writing.
General requirements:
Submissions should be typed only in MS Word, double-spaced, 1″ margins, times new roman 12 pt font, left justification, and saved on your computer with this title: your last name your first name Assignment 2 and the extension .doc or .docx (preferred).
Use APA 7th ed. format for citations and References
View the grading rubric so you understand how you will be assessed on this Assignment.
Disclaimer- Originality of attachments will be verified by Turnitin. Both you and your instructor will receive the results.
This course has “Resubmission” status enabled to help you if you realized you submitted an incorrect or blank file, or if you need to submit multiple documents as part of your Assignment. Resubmission of an Assignment after it is grades, to attempt a better grade, is not permitted. ***Note that I often grade papers soon after they are submitted, so be sure your paper is correct when you first submit it.
Again, be sure to use the grading rubic, especially the exemplary column, when proofing your paper to increase your opportunity to receive full points. Also note the attached example of an A-graded paper
