A person would be considered to be acting deviantly in society if they are violating what the significant social norm in that particular culture is. What causes humans to act certain ways is a disputed topic among researchers for some time now. There are three types of researchers that have tried to answer this question. There is the psychological answer, biological answer, and the sociological answer. With all of the studies that have been performed, no one group has come up with an exact reason to why people behave deviantly. Although, sociologists" theories have not been disproved as often as the psychologists" and biologists" theories because their experiments are too hard to define and no one definition for deviance is agreed upon by all experimenters (Pfuhl, 40). My own curiosity to find out what the influences are behind deviant behavior is the purpose for this paper. We have already discussed this topic during class in part two, chapter four of the textbook which explains deviance and crime. This section talks more about deviance being a learned behavior. I wanted to find out more information to see if biological factors are also behind this kind of behavior. The most knowledge acquired for why people act deviantly is from the sociological perspective. There is need for more research, if possible, in the psychological and biological perspectives, but there is a lot more known in the sociological viewpoint. The reality that the definition of deviant behavior is considered different by everyone makes it complicated and unknown if a truly accurate answer can ever be found (Pfuhl 18). This is why this topic is important to the study of sociology. Sociologists have more information, and therefore may be closer to finding the cause. For this reason, my main focus in this paper is at the sociological stand point of deviance with some explanations from psychologists and biologists. The family is the link to socialization in one's environment (Four Categories 1).
Social deviance is a term that refers to forms of behavior and qualities of persons that others in society devalue and discredit. So what exactly is deviance? In this essay we are concerned with social deviance, not physiological deviations from the expected norm. In general, any behavior that doe...
In this essay I will discuss the three social foundations of deviance as well as the three sociological perspectives on deviance. The first social foundation of deviance is that they only exist in relation to cultural norms. ... As society and culture changes around us so does what is considered deviance. ... Primary and secondary deviances are the two parts to this. ... No matter which form of deviance you choose there is a way to explain it. ...
Of course, no one can proclaim deviance is not relative, as deviance is behavior that does not follow common perceptions. ... One might ask why there are so many interpretations of deviance. ... In looking at deviance through the functionalist perspective one can see the earlier concept of deviance, as based on norms, acceptable. ... The societal reaction perspective includes several theories of deviance, including labeling of the social construction of deviance. ... The social reaction to deviance is significant. ...
Each individual in society has their own definition of Deviance, I define deviance as mishaps in a persons beliefs, behaviors, and conditions that society feels is different. Because each person can define deviance's in different ways, people often take offense to something one person considers deviant and another does not. For example, a handicap would not consider their condition deviance, but many people in society label the handicap as different. ... I now know this is a form of deviance that many people who enjoy wearing those clothes deal with every day. To me these feelings of ...
Who really knows why deviance occurs? Many different theories have been made to explain deviance. ... "Traditionally, research on deviance has focused on people who violate social norms" (p. 196). ... No one really knows why deviance occurs. ... "From a functionalist point of view, deviance and its consequences help to define the limits of proper behavior. ...
Deviance Webster's dictionary defines deviance as an act that is departing from the norm. ... It was in middle school when I experienced a real act of deviance. ... The conflict theories of deviance "view deviance as arising when groups with power attempt to impose their norms and values on less powerful groups" (Society in Focus, 175). ... Deviance is something that people fear, and what people want. Deviance is a change from the normal set of norms. ...
In this theory, Sutherland sought to show that deviance was a function of such factors as the frequency and intensity of associations, how long they lasted, and how early they occurred in a person's life. ... Therefore, what is deviance from one perspective is conformity from another. ... Even legal definitions of crime, a particular from of deviance, differ from place to place and over time and what constitutes deviance are relative to the norms and values of a particular culture. ... Through differential association others argued that Sutherland's theory was a cultural devi...
Norms and deviance shape everyday culture. ... Regardless of modern developments, theories of deviance still contain a very large gender bias. ... This is just one of many examples of deviance. ... " This demonstrates the feminist perspective of deviance, which is the observation that suggests the studies of deviance are biased and that both gender-specific cultural norms and the particular ways in which women are victimized by virtue of their gender help to account for deviance among women. ... Deviance is an action that would not be socially accepted. ...
We have already discussed this topic during class in part two, chapter four of the textbook which explains deviance and crime. This section talks more about deviance being a learned behavior. ... What promotes deviance in the home is the inhibition to talk to parents. ... This aspect of deviance is called the Labeling Theory. ... This theory, like many biological studies trying to find factors of deviance, is short-lived, but leads to another field of study, anthropology. ...