Homework Assignment One
The purpose of the project is to show us how pervasive social norms are in our lives and how unconsciously and willingly we obey them. To complete this assignment, please violate a social norm and write a report of your experience. The objective of the research is to determine the extent to which norms influence behavior.
Thus, you will want to play particular attention to the research of both yourself and others who are part of the situation. Please follow the guidelines below:
- Break the norm in a social setting, observe the reactions of others and yourself, and record as quickly as possible those reactions.
- DO NOT:
- Break any laws or cause anyone else to break the law.
- Cause any harm to yourself or anyone else.
- Do anything that is legally or morally questionable, or that could bring negative sanctions against you or BU.
- Ten points of the total assignment are designated to your ability to use theories of socialization to explain behavior, learning, and patterns in human behavior. Please use relevant theories and terms from your readings in writing the assignment.
Respond to these first two questions prior to violating the norm.
The assignment should be written in essay form. Please use a word processor and double spacing. The complete assignment should be between 500 and 1,000 words.
(1) Before you break the norm, describe the norm you will break. Briefly explain how this norm acts as a mechanism of social control. Describe what you will do to violate the norm.
(2) Describe the range of possible reactions others will have to the violation of this norm and your prediction of the major reaction.
(3) Describe the setting:
- Physical – where is the norm violation-taking place?
- Social – how many and what types of persons are observing?
(4) Describe what happened when you violated the norm.
(5) Did you experience sanctions once you broke the norm? Were the sanctions subtle or explicit punishments? Describe the sanctions (if any). Explain why you experienced or
did not experience any sanctions.
(6) Describe your feelings when you violated the norm. Why do you imagine you felt the way you did? Did people react the way you expected? Explain.
(7) How does conforming to and violating social norms, generally, fit into the lifelong process of socialization? Please explain generally as well as in reference to the norm that you violated.
Homework Assignment II
Adapted from Peggy Mcintosh’s article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”
RACIAL INVENTORY
Score 5 if statement is always true for you
Score 3 if the statement is sometimes true for you
Score 0 if the statement is seldom true for you
Score -2 is statement is typically false for you
Because of my race or color …
- _____ I can be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
- _____ I can turn on the television or open the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively represented.
- _____ When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that my people made it what it is.
- _____ I can be sure that curricular materials will testify to the existence of my race.
- _____ I can go into most supermarkets and find the staple foods that fit with my cultural traditions.
- _____ I can go into any hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
- _____ Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
- _____ I can swear, dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, poverty or illiteracy of my race.
- _____ I can do well in challenging situations without being called a credit to my race.
- _____ I am never asked to speak for people of my race.
- _____ I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
- _____ I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the “person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race.
- _____ I can conveniently buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards and
children’s magazines featuring people of my race
- _____ If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
- _____ I can go home from most meetings of the organizations I belong to feeling tied in rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, feared, or hated.
- _____ I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot
get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
- _____ I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
- _____ If my week or year is going badly, I need not wonder if each negative episode or
situation has racial overtones.
- _____ I can comfortably avoid, ignore or minimize the impact of racism on my life.
- _____ I can speak in public to a powerful group without putting my race on trial.
- _____ I can choose blemish cover bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.
_____ TOTAL
(More on following page)
Adapted from the Women’s Theological Center (www.thewtc.org)
SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS OR STATUS INVENTORY
Score 5 if statement is always true for you
Score 3 if the statement is sometimes true for you
Score 0 if the statement is seldom true for you
Score -2 is statement is typically false for you
- _____ I assume I will be able to meet my basic needs. I take having necessities for granted.
- _____ I buy what I need and want without worry. I can afford luxury items easily.
- _____ I do not fear being hungry or homeless.
- _____ I can manage to know only people of similar class background by exclusively frequenting places where such people gather — neighborhoods, schools, clubs, workplaces, etc.
- _____ I evaluate others and recognize those of similar class background because I was taught to do that kind of evaluation.
- _____ I can avoid spending time with people whom I am trained or have learned to mistrust and who may have learned to mistrust my kind.
- _____ I can hide family secrets and family failures behind the doors of my home.
- _____ I am in control of how I spend my time.
- _____ I can often get things by being “charming,” gracious, and restrained.
- _____ When I am in the company of people of high socioeconomic status in any social situation I have little discomfort.
- _____ In higher socioeconomic status communities I am trusted and not perceived as a threat.
- _____ If I break or lose something I can replace it easily. I do not have to shop around for the best buy or wait for sales.
- _____ I do not have to worry about how emergencies will impact my spending requirements.
- _____ I can live a less stressful life because I can afford costly short cuts.
- _____ I can afford good medical and mental health care in a setting that will ensure my privacy.
- _____ I believe I will be able to give my children an inheritance so their road is easier than the road of others.
- _____ I could probably eventually advance my career or social contacts’ careers by
pulling strings myself or ask my parents to help me.
- _____ I and others like me have the advantage of suitable clothing and manner when
seeking employment.
- _____ I can follow a career path that does not pay well.
- _____ I can choose to make my privileged position as visible or invisible as I want, depending on the situation in which I find myself.
- _____ In a group of relative strangers, but fellow class members, certain assumptions
about my/our background, financial position, education, network of friends/family, and
behavior will be made.
- _____ I can be ignorant about money in general and my own finances in particular.
_____ TOTAL
(More on following page)
This may have been a difficult and or thought-provoking exercise for many of you. Using materials we learned in in class, please write a reflection essay on the exercise being mindful of your own position in social hierarchies and how it may differ or be similar to those of others around you. You do not need to submit your responses to the survey.
The assignment should be written in essay form. Please use a word processor and double spacing. The complete assignment should be about 1,000 words. Please use the following prompts as guides in your essay.
- What was your initial reaction to this list?
- Is there anything that surprised you, raised questions for you, or that you found difficult?
- Can you share something on this list that you have experienced in your own life?
- Define privilege. Explain the concept using bases of inequality including race and class but also possibly others you have read about in class.
- Explain how privileges exist even without the advantaged being aware of their own privilege.
- Use this list to discuss how privileges of different sort exist in contemporary United States and their consequences for reproducing inequalities.
- How do you think this privilege (or lack of it) influences your experience on campus or in life, more generally?
- Please use this essay to reflect on the ongoing conversations about race relations in the
United States as well as the civil disobedience social movement surrounding it.