Transcript SOCIOLOGY - Introduction to Deviance PowerPoint

DRILL
1) What was the most interesting thing you found
about your country’s culture in your research?
2) When you hear the word deviance what do you
think about? What is your definition of it?
3) Give two examples of things that you would
consider being deviant.
DRILL
1) Why is deviance considered a relative term?
Think back to the example with the natives
and the anthropologist.
2) Give two examples of deviant acts that aren’t
criminal in nature.
If you were in the place of the
anthropologist, what would your
reaction be?
What were some of the behaviors of
the natives that would seem out of
place in our society?
DEVIANCE
Tuesday 11/5, 4:45PM, Double Homicide on 200 block S
Wolfe St.
What is deviance?
Deviance – violation of a society’s norms.
• Any type of violation that creates a response –
from not saying “excuse me” when being
impolite to committing murder.
• These acts are labeled as deviant behavior.
It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act that make
something deviant – Howard Becker, Sociologist
EVERY PERSON COMMITS DEVIANT ACTS
• Deviance is relative – what might be considered
deviant in one culture is not in another.
> different groups have different norms and values
• Deviance is also a neutral term – it only means
that negative reactions are produced, not whether
the behavior is right or wrong.
> Remember, sociologists are supposed to be
objective in their research
Think back to the natives and the anthropologist.
Think about the two different cultures coming together, and
the two different sets of values and norms.
Who was really being deviant and why?
Stigmas
• To be considered deviant, a person does not
even have to do anything.
• Stigma – a term to refer to characteristics that
discredit people.
Includes violations of appearance (obesity) and
ability (blindness). But what else?
Norms make social life possible because they make
behavior predictable.
• Without norms we would have social chaos, but
instead we have social order – a groups
customary social arrangements.
• This is why deviance is perceived as threatening –
it undermines what makes life predictable.
• To keep social order, societies have developed
social control – formal and informal ways of
enforcing norms (Sanctions)
The Evolution of Miley Cyrus
Biosocial Explanations
• Socio-biologists look to explain deviance by
looking for answers within individuals.
• Socio-biologists believe that genetic
predispositions lead people to such behaviors.
• For instance a people once thought that men
with an extra Y chromosome would be more
predisposed to committing crime (XYY theory)
• These theories were abandoned when research
did not support them
But men are overwhelmingly more deviant
than women in every culture? Why?
Women are the ones most often responsible for raising children
Women have greater empathy – compassion and caring for
others.
MEN
WOMEN
Less commitment –
more easily take risks.
Must bear children – less
likely to take risks
Less responsibilities lower self control
Greater Responsibility –
greater self control
Psychological Explanations
• Psychologists look to explain deviance by
examining personality disorders.
• They suggest that deviating behavior stems
from deviating personalities.
• Subconscious motives drive people to deviance
• Common explanations include bad childhood
experiences, but research has rejected such
theories.
NO CORRELATION
• No connection between childhood
experiences and deviant behavior.
• A bad childhood is just as likely to make
someone deviant as it is to create suppressed
anger to become a military hero.
• It’s just as likely for a normal person to
commit deviant acts.
Deviance is not associated with any particular
personality
Sociological Explanations
• In contrast to what we have looked at so far,
sociologists are concerned with factors
outside the individual that cause deviance.
• They look for social influences that “recruit”
people to break norms.
• In other words, certain social facts can
influence people to the point where bad
decisions suddenly seem perfectly normal.