Deviant Behavior Case Study

Deviant Behavior Course Project

For this assignment I chose this particular research option because I am very interested in people’s reactions to experiencing things they are not used to, I also appreciate their unexpected behavior. My research involved intentionally violating common folkways in the presence of family, colleagues and strangers. After breaking common norms I then analyzed the results and recorded them below. Society today is shaped by norms and customs that we as humans abide by. Many norms are followed without opinion or realization that it is being done. Norms are unwritten but traditionally followed.

Day One: Hugging colleagues rather than saying hello.
In our culture, when in the workplace, it is appropriate to greet

As Fundamental attribution error distinguishes that there is is an error in thinking, on behalf of the observer, which often leads to a misattribution of behavior in a given situation. The occurrence of the fundamental attribution error yields both positive and negative consequences. In the circumstances of this study consequences were negative. The Observer was assuming that I was mentally incompetent due to not understanding it was a study. “In dozens of experiments, researchers have coaxed people into acting against their attitudes or violating their moral standards, with the same result. Doing becomes believing.” The foot-in-the-door phenomenon plays a part in this observation, while the people whom I observed expected certain etiquette in the elevator became upset by my behavior. At first many thought it was a joke but with “my foot in the door,” became to believe that my actions were intended to upset them in some way. Cognitive dissonance theory is when there is a mismatch between our attitudes and actions, a person is becomes dissonance. To react or get upset in the elevator was the person who was feeling cognitive dissonance toward my actions. Their actions in return were a response of their discomfort or mental dissonance. In society we conform to social norms. Social facilitation was accurately perceived during this study because when there was more than one person in the elevator the group fed off of each other’s responses or conformed to the overall group opinion to be upset, scared, or irritated by my actions. Social loafing, deindividualization, group polarization and group think were hand in hand with social facilitation. As a group all felt the same feelings and reacted the same but when I was alone with a person their reaction seemed more hostile because they were alone and had no one else to conform to or judge their reaction.