SOCIAL SELF

A social norm is the accepted behavior that an individual is

expected to conform to in a particular group, community, or
culture. These norms often serve a useful purpose and create
the foundation of correct behaviors. In other words, social
norms allow you to expect the events that will occur in a
particular setting. 

 Whenyou do not conform to the social norms that are

accepted by your culture or group, it's considered an
abnormal behavior. This is called deviance.
Robert Merton: Deviance Typology
 Merton developed the concept of ‘anomie’ to describe this imbalance between cultural
goals and institutionalised means. He argued that such an imbalanced society produces
anomie – there is a strain or tension between the goals and means which produce
unsatisfied aspirations.
 Merton argued that when individuals are faced with a gap between their goals (usually
finances/money related) and their current status, strain occurs. When faced with strain,
people have five ways to adapt:
 1. Conformity: pursing cultural goals through socially approved means.
 2. Innovation: using socially unapproved or unconventional means to obtain culturally
approved goals. Example: dealing drugs or stealing to achieve financial security.
 3. Ritualism: using the same socially approved means to achieve less elusive goals (more
modest and humble).
 4. Retreatism: to reject both the cultural goals and the means to obtain it, then find a
way to escape it.
 5. Rebellion: to reject the cultural goals and means, then work to replace them.
 Social facilitation can be defined as ‘an improvement in
performance produced by the mere presence of others’. There are
two types of social facilitation: co-action effects and audience
effect.

 Triplett's
experiments demonstrate the co-action effect, a
phenomenon whereby increased task performance comes about by
the mere presence of others doing the same task.

 Social facilitation occurs not only in the presence of a co-actor but

also in the presence of a passive spectator/audience. This is known
as the audience effect,
 Social loafing describes the tendency of individuals to put forth
less effort when they are part of a group. Because all members
of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common goal,
each member of the group contributes less than they would if
they were individually responsible.
The Triangular Theory of love is a theory of
love developed by Robert Sternberg
 These three components are intimacy, passion,
and decision/commitment.

 The three components of love generate seven

possible kinds of love when considered in
combination:
 Liking
 Infatuation
 Empty Love
 Romantic Love
 Companionate Love
 Fatuous Love
 Consummate Love
 Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role
of social interaction in the development of cognition
(Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays
a central role in the process of "making meaning."

 Vygotsky's Social Development Theory is the work of Russian

psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) [1][2]. Vygotsky's work
was largely unkown to the West until it was published in
1962. ... It asserts three major themes
regarding social interaction, the more knowledgeable other,
and the zone of proximal development.
 Social Learning Theory,
theorized by Albert
Bandura, posits that
people learn from one
another, via observation,
imitation, and modeling.
 The theory has often been
called a bridge between
behaviorist and cognitive
learning theories because
it encompasses attention,
memory, and motivation
 Functionalism Theory is a system of thinking based on the
ideas of Emile Durkheim that looks at society from a large
scale perspective. It examines the necessary structures that
make up a society and how each part helps to keep the society
stable. According to functionalism, society is heading toward
an equilibrium.
 Social exchange theory 

proposes that social behavior is

the result of
an exchange process. ...
According to this theory,
developed by sociologist George
Homans, people weigh the
potential benefits and risks
of social relationships. When the
risks outweigh the rewards,
people will terminate or
abandon that relationship
Conflict Theory: Karl Marx
  Blummer suggests that
there are three core
principles of this
theory.
1. Meaning
2. Language
3. Thought

 The symbolic interactionism analysis society by the descriptive meanings that people have
given to objects, events and behaviors. 
 This theory says how humans develop a complex set of symbols that gives meaning to the
world in their perspective.
 Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans
ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific
virtues.

 Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They
help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal qualities we
choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be; the manner in
which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with the world around us

 An attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object,
person, thing, or event. Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing.

 Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual

based solely on the individual’s membership of a social group.
 A stereotype is a fixed general image or set of characteristics that a lot of
people believe represent a particular type of person or thing.

 Discrimination is the behavior or actions, usually negative, towards an

individual or group of people, especially on the basis of sex/race/social
class, etc.

 Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and

capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a
particular race
 Sexism- male vs. female