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Jenna Soll
Final Paper
Social Psychology
4-21-15
Social Norms
In today’s society every situa on from how you act in a grocery to how you present yourself in
an interview is determined by everyday social norms. The de&ni on of social norms according to the
dic onary is “an expected form of behavior in a given situa on.” (Dic onary, 2015) I chose social norms
to right about for my &nal paper simply because I feel that this is a very good topic to talk about because
it is a complex term that has many di0erent aspects that could be looked at when discussing social
norms. In my paper I will be covering many different aspects that go along with social norms and I will
also giving you some of my own opinions about social norms in certain situa ons.
Bullying is a becoming a big problem nowadays throughout schools and it does not take anything
for a child to be bullied. For example some of the reasons children get bullied are because of the way
they look or how they talk really simple things like that. The schools are trying their best to put an end to
bullying but they can only do so much especially when a lot of the bullying starts in the children’s homes
when their parents are trea ng them correctly or they see their parents lashing out on each other than
they automa cally think that it is okay to do that to other children.
Another reason kids think that bullying is okay is because they have not reached the age where
they realize that not everyone is built the same and that not everyone will talk or have the same beliefs
as them so they thing automa cally that those people are di0erent so I can make fun of them. As
children get older and start to form their groups in school like who they will hang out with and be
associated with I believe that is when they start to follow what everyone else in their group says and
does. For example if someone in their group says to make fun of that kid because he is bigger, 95% of
that group will follow because they are also afraid of not &6ng in with that par cular group anymore.
This is an example of conforming to peer norms, according to an ar cle. (Perkins, 2011) In conforming to
peer norms many of the people who are already insecure with themselves decide that their lives are
easier when they choose to follow what the other people in that group do because to them being
accepted is far more important than being made fun of.
Social norms have a large impact on the behavior of a human being because if you are insecure
with yourself or even if you are fairly con&dent with yourself a lot of people conform to the way that
others act and do things just because it makes their lives a lot easier. One thing that becomes a big
problem for older people and even some mes younger people is gambling because it’s the thrill of
knowing you that you could either lose the money you just put into the machine or you could possibly
win that money back.
