Deviance and Conformity

• What are the three types of Norms?

  Folkways, More and Law
• What is the objective/subjective dichotomy?

  A philosophical view of the nature of reality and a sociological view of deviance that assumes that objective and subjective approaches are two opposing, mutually exclusive categories.
• What is the objective-subjective continuum?

  A philosophical view of the nature of reality and a sociological view of deviance that posits that objective and subjective approaches can be combined to varying degrees.
• What are folkways?

  Norms that govern informal everyday behaviours
• What are mores?

  Norms that are considered to be the foundation of morality in society.
• What is the objective side of the dichotomy?

  The objective side makes the assumption that there is a quality inherent in a person, behaviour, or characteristic that is necessarily deviant.
• What is a statistical rarity?


  This would define deviance as something that doesn't occur frequently.
• What is societal reaction?

  The response of society to a particular event, issue, or situation. The issue with it being used as a criterion is there can be differences in culture, attitude, and population towards any particular deviance.
• What is normative violation?

  A transgression of norms. It is a relatively stable definition of deviance, but it also has to take into consideration that societal norms are culturally and historically specific.
• What is ontological harm?

  Ontological harm refers to harm that affects a person's sense of self, identity, or existence.
• What is high-consensus deviancd?

  High-consensus deviance refers to behaviors or actions that are widely agreed upon as deviant or unacceptable within a society or group.
• What is low-consensus deviance?

  Behaviour that is considered deviant by some individuals or groups but is not universally agreed upon as deviant.
• What are the four different objective definitions of deviance?

  Statistical rarity, harm, societal reaction, and normative violation.
• What are moral entrepreneurs?

  Individuals or groups who seek to influence and shape society's moral values and norms.
• What are the three views of the law and deviance?

  Consensual view, conflict view, and interactions view.
• What is the consensual view of criminal law and deviance?

  It views the law as arising out of social consensus and then equally applied to all.
• What is the conflict view of criminal law and deviance?

  It claims that the law is a tool used by the ruling class to serve its own interests. Powerful vs. powerless. Power struggle.
• What is the interactionist view of criminal law and deviance?

  This view suggests that society's powerful define the law in response to interest groups that approach them to rectify a perceived social problem.
• What are the four (structural) types of social control?

  Formal, Informal, Intentional and General.
• What are the four (spatio-temporal) types of social control?

  Retroactive, Preventative, Self-directed (internal), and Other-directed (external).
• How do subjectivists define deviance?

  Subjectivists claim there is no underlying quality that is inherently deviant; instead, a person, behaviour or characteristic is deviant if enough important people say so.
• What is social construction in regard to deviance?

  Sufficient social power to describe, evaluate and prescribe as follows: behaviours, traits and roles as either conformity or deviance.
• What are the levels of construction (where we see descriptions, evaluations and prescriptions of deviance)?

  Indivdual, Interactional, Institutional, Sociocultural, and global.
• What is individual construction?

  Dispositions and self-understanding.
• What is interactional construction?

  External contributors like family, friends, etc.
• What is Institutional construction?

  Specific structures we pass through like school, social rules, government, etc.
• What is sociocultural construction?

  Fundamental structures of meaning and the building blocks of culture.
• What is global construction?

  The Interconnecting of our world which comes with contesting and intersecting influences.
• What is the social typing process?

  The way things become deviantised. This happens through observation/description, evaluation, and prescription.
• What does social control do?

  Social control manages the line between what is deviant and what is conforming.
• What is deviance dance?

  The interactions, negotiations and debates among groups with different perceptions of whether a behaviour or characteristic is deviant and needs to be socially controlled and, if so, how.
• What are two biological approaches to the origin of deviance?

  Lombroso and his theory of atavism (the reversion of behaviour to a prior evolutionary stage) and Sheldon and his theory of somatotypes (different body types linked to different personalities).
• What is Durkheim's theory of deviance?

  Deviance served a social role through function (and therefore was not something to be eradicated). The functions are solidarity, moral boundaries, unjust rules, and relieving social tension.
• What is Durkheim's theory of solidarity?

  Deviance produces solidarity by encouraging people to find common ground in response to deviance.
• What is Durkheim's theory of moral boundaries?

  Deviance demonstrates the rules of society by breaking them; thus, this gives people an idea of the rules that are not to be broken.
• What is Durkheim's theory of Unjust rules?

  Deviance and their subsequent punishment encourage “society” to reevaluate our rules or it provides an opportunity to create new rules and punishments in response to deviance.
• What is Durkheim's theory on the relieving of social tension?

  Certain behaviours or characteristics that people engage to let off steam. It can also be the use of scapegoating.
• What are manifest functions?

  In functionalist theories, those functions that are intended to be fulfilled by society's structures.
• What are latent functions?

  In functionalist theories, those functions are unintentionally served by society's structures.
• What is Parsons and Smelser's (1956) theory on reducing societal tensions?


  They suggest that letting off steam through minor acts of deviance activates social processes that return deviant actors to acceptable societal roles.