Break a Norm
wendyperezramos
Assignment #2 - Break-a-Social-Norm
For this assignment, I want everyone to break a social norm. Then you will discuss how
breaking the norm made you feel, and how it might have made other people feel.
Step 1:
First you need to identify a social norm. Some examples are:
• Appearance (you can wear pink slippers to school or around town instead of shoes; put a blue dot on the tip of your nose; wear your shirt backward / inside-out; overdo your makeup)
• Interpersonal Behavior (stand too close or too far away from someone you are talking too; avoid eye contact; scoff at a person’s every comment)
• Social Etiquette (violate elevator norms - that is, instead of turning around to face the elevator doors when they close, face the other people in the elevator and stare them in the eye!; eat with your mouth open; talk loudly in a library; fly a kite inside the mall, something one of my former students actually did!)
• These are only examples. Please try to be creative and come up with some original ideas on your own. Another one of my former students stood behind people at water fountains chanting "Chug! Chug! Chug!" loudly.
Note: You may want to do the behavior several times in different places to note any
interesting patterns. Do people’s reactions may differ as a function of sex, age, location?
Step 2:
Incorporate the following points in a short paper (400 words minimum, 700 words
maximum):
1). What implicit norm(s) did you violate? (5 points)
2). Describe how you violated it (them). (6 points)
3). Analyze your thoughts and feelings while you violated the norm(s). (6 points)
4). Analyze what other people were probably thinking about your violation (6 points)
5). Did you gain any insight into your own or others’ behavior? What about the power of
the situation? (6 points)
6). Include at least one key social psychological principle in your paper. You may want to include something about role-playing, conformity / nonconformity, normative
social influence, cognitive dissonance, self-monitoring, etc. Your choice, but have At least one! (6 points)
Step 3:
Submit the assignment. Use the assignment dropbox to submit this assignment to me by
the due date. Note: I want to make some of the funniest papers available to the entire
class, so don’t mention your name in the text if you would like it to remain anonymous
(or tell me if you would rather others not know what you did and I will make sure to keep
your assignment private)! Cut and paste the assignment directly into the assignment
dialogue box. Do not add it as an attachment
Your paper can take on either a paragraph format or you can list out what you did (“This is the norm I decided to break. This is how I broke it. This is how I felt. This is
what I think other people thought as I broke the norm. This is the insight I gained. This is
an aspect of social psychology that is applicable.”)
Grading Rubric (Applies to each of the 6 questions above)
Poor (0% of points) Fair (50% of points) Good (100% of points)
Content/Idea
Development
Up to 4 points
each question
(up to 3 points
for question 1)
- No key elements
are present
- No understanding
of material
- No analysis of
content
- Some key elements are
present
- Little understanding of
material
- Little analysis of
content
- All key elements are
present
- Content is accurate
- Clear understanding of
material
- Strong analysis of
content
Style/Mechanics
Up to 1 point
- Lots of grammar or
spelling mistakes
- Few or no grammar or
spelling mistakes
Organization
Up to 1 point
- Did not follow
directions
- Followed all of the
directions
An “Example” paper from a prior student is on the next
page (a funny one by a male, by the way!)
Break-A-Norm Assignment (Assignment #2) – Prior Student (A male student!)
1). What implicit norm(s) did you violate? (5 points)
For this social psychology class, we were asked to go out and break a social
psychological norm. I chose to break an appearance social norm. I went to K-Mart
and bought the most ridiculous thing I could find to wear out in public. While at K-
Mart, I found a pink onesie pajama with polka dots, which was perfect. I knew this
onesie would be perfect for the experiment because as I paid for it, the cashier gave
me a weird look when she saw what I was buying. Although the cashier gave me a
weird look, she did not ask why I was buying it. Probably because she wanted to
avoid an awkward situation and because she felt like it was none of her business to
question me about why I was buying a pink onesie.
2). Describe how you violated it (them). (6 points)
As soon as I bought the pajamas I put them on and went straight to International Mall
to walk around. The second I got out of my car and started walking towards the mall I
could sense everyone in the parking lot staring at me. I already felt extremely
awkward and I had not even entered the mall. This made me want to just get back in
my car and leave, but I went in and walked around anyway because I needed this
information for this assignment.
3). Analyze your thoughts and feelings while you violated the norm(s). (6 points)
As I walked into the mall, through the food court, I could feel everybody almost
instantly stare at me. I felt extremely awkward and embarrassed. As the people
around me continued to stare at me I felt out of place. I tried to convince myself that I
did not care what these strangers thought about me in order to continue walking
around. Although convincing myself that what others thought about me did not matter
helped me get through that evening and get the information I needed, deep down I
still felt very uncomfortable with the situation I put myself in.
4). Analyze what other people were probably thinking about your violation (6 points)
While I walked around the mall, people looked at me like I was a weird person.
Others thought it was amusing and would to turn to their friends, or whomever they
were with, and tell them to look at what I was wearing. Only one person at the mall
decided to ask me why I was wearing a pink onesie. While I was at the mall I bought
a pretzel and as I tried not to act awkward in my pajamas and the cashier asked me if
I had lost a bet or something. I then explained to him that the reason I was wearing
the pajamas was because I was doing a social psychology experiment. The cashier
seemed intrigued by the experiment and since there was no line behind me I went on
to explain to him the details of the experiment and how it revolves around social
norms
5). Did you gain any insight into your own or others’ behavior? What about the power of
the situation? (6 points)
The insight I gathered is that I try to avoid awkward situations as much as possible
and that putting myself into an uncomfortable situation such as this made me face the
horror of being out of place. I actually wanted people to come up to me and ask me
why I was wearing a pink onesie out in public, so I could explain to them that this
was for an assignment. At least this way people would not think that the only reason I
was wearing a onesie is because I was a strange person.
6). Include at least one key social psychological principle in your paper. You may want to include something about role-playing, conformity / nonconformity, normative
social influence, cognitive dissonance, self-monitoring, etc. Your choice, but have at least one! (6 points)
The situation I was in brought about conformity among the strangers at the mall. The
reason for this is because they thought I was a strange person for going out in public
dressed inappropriately. We have to conform to society and dress a certain way while
we are out in public in order to fit it with others. The people at the mall knew that I
was not wearing appropriate attire for the mall because I was wearing pajamas, which
are for sleeping. Of course I also felt like I was under the spotlight (the spotlight
effect). Maybe I thought others were appraising me more than they actually were.
Then again, in this situation maybe everyone was actually looking at the crazy guy in
the pink onesie!