Deviant Behavior

3 Pages 654 Words

Deviant Behavior Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of norms- whether the infraction is a minor as shouting, or as serious as murder. This deceptively simple definition takes us to the heart of the sociological perspective of deviance, which sociologist Howard S. Becker identified this way: it is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant. In other words, people’s behaviors must be viewed from the framework of the culture in which they take place. To be considered deviant, a person may not even have to do anything. Just the way a person or people are can make them deviant. Sociologists use the term stigma to refer to certain attributes that describe people. These attributes include violations of the norms of ability (blindness, deafness, and mental handicaps) and the norms of appearance (a facial birthmark, obesity). They also include involuntary membership in some groups, such as being a certain race or having a peculiar accent. The stigma becomes a person’s master status, defining him or her as deviant.
For my deviant behavior project I focused very closely on the irrelevance of the action and the importance of the reaction. The experiment itself was very quick, but through the aid of a handheld video camera I was able to closely scrutinize every aspect over and over. For the first part of my experiment we went to a very busy restaurant at the base of a local ski resort. Once inside and comfortably situated, I had my subject, a friend of mine who graciously volunteered, calmly stand on a chair and scream quite loudly. The reactions were not quite as we had hoped for. A large majority of the room seemed to dismiss the whole thing right away. Interestingly the only people who did seem to take notice were all in the same group. The best explanation of this would be the need to try to conform to the group. The scream itself was quite loud enough for everyone in the room to...