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Why must we feel as we must fit in? Why do we participate in something that we know is wrong but feel as it's right? Humans follow social norms and family norms that control us and may change our personality. A lot of humans tend to feel as they are outsiders or don't belong to the society, so they act on their behaviors. We think as this is right when it is initially wrong since our brain works like this. People try to behave differently or act as they think they're supposed to do because they don't want to be outcasted.
Social norms or family norms are important to society because it can change behavior or actions in a good way and a bad way.
People conform to make choices that are beneficial to their lives by following society. In the article "Social Roles" by McLeod, S. A., he talks about how norms make us behave in certain ways and how social norms provide order to our society.
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Proficient in: Conformity
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
He said, "Norms are powerful ways of understanding and predicting what people will do" (McLeod). For example, if a group of people gives high fives to every person that walks by them and other people start to join, we can assume that everyone else will sooner or later follow because they don't want to feel left out. McLeod had also explained how norms make us act differently to be a part of something bigger, "Human beings need norms to guide and direct their behavior, to provide order and predictability in social relationships and to make sense of an understanding of each other's actions" (McLeod).
When we see somebody else following a social norm, we understand their actions clearly and the social relationships with each other become stronger. It helps provide order because nobody will be doing something that is hurting our society and is possibly wrong. Mcleod had also explained how conformity functions in our society by stating that we all have social roles that we do not understand fully such as being a daughter, for example. As a daughter, we are expected to be the best daughter to be seen and try to get the approval we want from others. But sometimes we make decisions that we think is right that are disapproved by society. In order to fit in, we follow the conformity and try to act against our wills. Conformity is a big part of society which makes people make decisions that control their life forever. We feel as we need to be part of our society because they are afraid of what would happen if they didn't.
On the other hand, social norms can be harmful to our society or community because it makes us commit bad decisions. Adhip Poudyal wrote an article that explained how it was good and bad, and how it changes our life or society called, "Importance of Social Values and Role." This explains how we act in our culture or how norms set our life to be as it is today. Poudyal had said, "Following them properly will frame us to be a useful person in our society whereas ignoring them will definitely lead us to spoil our precious life" (Poudyal). He had tried to explain how we as humans are created because of social norms and when we try to think as it is wrong, it ruins our lives. Following social norms makes us be a better person and part of something that can make us fit in. Having negative thoughts and thinking social norms are wrong will make us have a harder life and we feel alienated by the rest of society. In his article, he had also discussed about the use of drugs that ruin our society and isn't good to have as a norm of our life. Poudyal said, "Today, many youths are not following social norms and values and are on drugs and various addiction" (Poudyal). This causes a major problem in our society and is very harmful because of how teenagers are following what others are doing which they think it is right, but really is wrong. This tends to cause humans to betray their culture or how they are supposed to act and make the wrong decisions which cause their personalities and lives to be at stake.
Pain or Happiness. (2019, Dec 05). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/pain-or-happiness-essay
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