Norms and Values Norms: The Rules We Live By - Fort Bend ISD

third offense by public humiliation and social and economic ruin. More
recently, a few courts across the United States have handed down
sentences involving public shaming. For example, some courts have
required child molesters to display, in front of their homes, signs
describing their crimes (El Nasser, 1996). In 1997, Latrell Sprewell,
star basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, physically
attacked his coach, P. J. Carlesimo. The NBA revoked his $32 million,
four-year contract and suspended him for one year before he joined
the New York Knicks.
What are informal sanctions? Informal sanctions are
sanctions that can be applied by most members of a group. They, too,
can be positive or negative. Informal sanctions include thanking
someone for pushing a car out of a snowbank (positive) or staring at
someone who is talking loudly during a movie (negative).
Sanctions are not used randomly or without reason. Specific sanctions
are associated with specific norms. A high school student who
violates his parents' curfew is not supposed to be locked in a closet,
for example.
After we reach a certain age, most of us conform without the threat
of sanctions. We may conform to norms because we believe that the
behavior expected of us is appropriate, because we wish to avoid guilt
feelings, or because we fear social disapproval. In other words, we
sanction ourselves mentally.
Values—The Basis for Norms
Norms and sanctions are relatively specific. The next major
component of culture—values--is much more general.
What are values? Values are broad ideas about what most people
in a society consider to be desirable. Values are so general that they
do not dictate precise ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Thus,
different societies or different groups within the same society can
have quite different norms based on the same value.
Sociology – Norms and Values
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