Social Norms, Tutorial of Basic Social Science, 23 Oct 09

SOCIAL NORMS

Social Norms can be defined as Norms are the agreed-upon expectations and rules by which a culture guides the behavior of its members in any given situation. In general sociologists classified norms into five classifications:

• Usages can be defined as “manner”. The punishment of violation of this norm is not hard at all. E.g. In Indonesia and most Asian countries people think that eating with left hand is very impolite. So people who do that is labeled as impolite person while having meals.
• Folkways, sometimes known as conventions or customs are standards of behavior that are socially approved but not morally significant. If people violate folkways they won’t get harsh punishments from the society, they are probably going to be seen as disrespectful. E.g. In some Muslim communities, saying salam toward one another is very important. If any Muslims do not give salam to another, people might think that those people are disrespectful.
• Mores are norms of morality in certain society if anybody violates the mores they will get harsher treatments from the society than the violation of folkways and people who violate the more might be called as “the wicked”. Mores derived from the established practices of a society (religion, ideology, philosophy or cultures) rather than its written regulations. E.g. In established Javanese society, if unmarried couples are holding hands and kissing each other, the society would start gossiping and spreading bad rumors about them. This is the kind of punishment for those who violate the norms of morality.
• Customs are not written but it ties all the members of certain society. If it’s written, it can be called as custom law.
• Laws are written norms. The punishments for those who break the laws are stated. The government can impose the law coercively or by force.

Besides those five points, some expert also added several more namely;

• Value: principles or standards of behavior
  

• Virtue: behavior showing high moral standards