Sociology of Deviant Behavior

Instructions: The deadline to turn in assignment 1 on brightspace is February 11th

by 11:30pm. Your assignment should be about 2 pages in length (double spaced, 12

point font).

Option 1: Violate a folkway and write about your experience. Choose at least one

folkway and potentially be informally sanctioned (reacted t0) by others. In your paper

include:

 Describe the norm(s) you violated

 How others responded

 How you felt before, during, and after

 General notes on your experience

****Do not commit crimes or cause a large disturbance!****

Option 2: Watch a television show or movie and describe the deviance you see. Pick a

television show or movie and watch it (you may need to watch it several times!). Identify

all the deviant acts you see. Things to include in your paper:

 Describe the movie/show you watched

 List and describe the deviant acts you noticed

 Analyze the acts: Did they know they were being deviant? Did others react? Did

they go through the ceremony described by Erickson (1962)?

Option 3: Conformity Experiment. You are testing out the idea that most of the time,

people conform in their behaviors and you will try to find conformity in a real life

situation. Pick a social situation to try and observe where people conform to something

without being told. Example: During a meal with family/friends or standing in a line

and you look up at the sky for no reason. Follow these directions:

1. Design your observation/experiment. Pick a situation, choose what

behavior you want people to conform to, what are your expectations?

2. Do your observation/experiment! Make sure to describe the scene in your

paper. What do people do when you deviate? Do they conform? How did people

respond?

3. Analyze your observation/experiment. What happened? Was it what you

expected? How so?

****Do not commit crimes or cause a large disturbance!****