Conformity and Deviance

Social roles- must be performed in connection with the expected behaviour.

Michel Foucault- a French sociologist famous for saying that whenever there is power, there is resistance-
meaning social norms and regulations are not totally repressive.

 if a social norm or rule prevents someone from doing certain things, it also allow that person to
do other activities. Thus, norms or rules are not merely prohibitive. They also shape individuals
by disciplining them to do more productive activities.

SOCIAL CONTROL
Every society has a system of social control or an attempt by society to regulate people’s thoughts
and behaviour. It encourages conformity to certain norms and discourages deviance or norm breaking.

CONFORMITY- behaving in the way that is accepted by most people

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONFORMITY (Kelman, 1985)

1. COMPLIANCE (group acceptance)
occurs when an individual accepts influence because he hopes to achieve a favourable
reaction from another person or group. He adopts the induced behaviour because he
expects to gain specific rewards and avoids specific punishment or disapproval by
conformity.
2. INTERNALIZATION (genuine acceptance of group norms)
this occurs when an individual accepts influence because the content of the induced
behaviour-the ideas and actions of which it is composed-is intrinsically rewarding. He
adopts the induced behaviour because it is congruent or consistent with his value system.
3. IDENTIFICATION
this occurs when an individual accepts influence because he wants to establish or
maintain a satisfying self-defining relationship to another person or group. Individuals
conform to the expectations of a social role (e.g. nurse, police, teachers)
4. INGRATIATIONAL
when a person conforms to impress favour/acceptance from other people. It is similar to
normative influence, but is motivated by the need for social rewards rather than the threat
of rejection

 Nonconformity of an individual would mean deviation from the acceptable social norms which is
known as social deviance. Social deviance refers to any behaviour that differs or diverges from
established social norms

SOCIALIZATION AND DEVIANCE: ESSENTIALISM AND REDUCTIONISM

When daily resistance of people against a social norm or regulation breaks into a moral panic, it
turns into a form of deviance.

Moral panics- are social currents that mobilize the majority of the people to condemn certain acts and
groups that are considered to be threats to social order

Sociology of deviance- is the study of social forces and processes involved in the formulation of such
evaluative standards, violation of those standards, and reactions to such violations
What is DEVIACE?
 Sociologist generally defines deviance as violation of society’s or group’s norms or rules that call
for censure, condemnation, or punishment for the violators. These include rape, murder, sexual
perversions, drug abuse, abortion, and other behaviours that people do not consider as part of a
healthy and normal society.
 ESSENTIALISM theory defines deviance as an inherent property of an individual or the act that
merits social control and regulation; that deviance is an objective aberration in the normal
development of individuals.
 REDUCTIONISM happens when one explains a phenomenon or an event purely on a single
cause or in a single perspective to the exclusion of other explanation

ROBERT MERTON’s STRAIN THEORY- argued that the extent and type of deviance people
engage in depend on whether a society provides the means (such as schooling and job opportunities)
to achieve cultural goals through approved means. However, the strain between the cultural goal and
lack of opportunities to achieve these goals using approved means may result in deviance.

FOUR TYPES OF DEVIANCE according to Merton:

1. Innovation- involves using unconventional means rather than conventional means to achieve a
culturally approved goal.
2. Ritualism- people do not care much about the goal but stick to the rules in order to feel
respectable
3. Retreatism- rejecting both cultural goals and conventional means so that a person in effect “drops
out”
4. Rebellion- rejecting both the cultural definition of success and the conventional means of
achieving it, but they provide alternatives to the existing social order.

FUNCTION OF DEVIANCE (Emile Durkheim)

1. Affirm cultural norms and values. Deviance is needed to define and support morality. There
can be no good without evil, no justice without crime.
2. Clarifies moral boundaries. By defining some individuals as deviant, people draw boundary
between right and wrong.
3. Brings people together. People typically react to serious deviance with shared outrage, and in so
doing reaffirms the moral ties that bind them.
4. Encourages social change. Deviant people suggest alternatives to the status quo and encouraging
change

SOCIAL CONTROL OF DEVIANCE

Two types of sanctions:

1. Informal sanctions-unofficial, often casual pressures to conform
a. positive informal sanction-involves reward for conformity or compliance (e.g. kiss,
affirmation, smile, pat on the back)
b. negative informal sanction-involves penalties for nonconformity (e.g. ridicule,
ostracism, rejection, expulsion from the group)

2. Formal sanctions-official, institutionalized incentives to conform and penalties for deviance

- needed in large, complex societies
- criminal justice system is the most important and visible institution of
social control.
- these take the form of arrest, pre-trial, sentencing, imprisonment