Psych Term Paper

Psyc 241 Term Paper

Could you break a social norm?

Purpose: To examine the power of social situations to influence individual behaviour

Instructions: For this assignment, you will identify a social norm, break that social norm, and

then observe and report other people’s reactions to this violation. In addition to observing the

reactions of others, you should also pay close attention to your own thoughts and feelings. Some

examples of social norms that a person might break: stand facing backwards in an elevator or, if

you are male, wearing barrettes in your hair.

There are 4 stages to this assignment.

1. First, I would like to pick a social norm. I would like you to do some research on social

norm. That is to say, look at the existing research data to see if you can find any research

related to why social norm exist – and, if possible, if there is any research on the specific

social norm that you have chosen to violate. Please include at least 3 peer reviewed

articles.

2. Once you have done your research, I would like you to predict what is going to happen

when you break the social norm.

3. Next, you will break the social norm. How and for how long you do this is up to you, I

will caution you, however, that if the time period is too short, you will not have much to

write about. As you are breaking the social norm, pay close attention to your reactions

and the reactions of others. If you wanted to have one of your friends help you observe

others’ reactions, this would be ok too.

4. Finally, you will write about your experience in 6-8 pages (double spaced, following

APA 6 formatting). In addition to the information discussed already (background

information on social norms, and predictions about what will happen when you break

your social norm), I would also like you to provide information on what you did (describe

your research).

Relevant Resource for APA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Reading Articles in Social Psychology: http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/~sspencer/psych253/readart.htm

**The social norm I wish to break is: “Traffic lights, stopping at red light and moving at green”