There are a couple of types of norms: folkways and mores. Folkways are norms related to everyday life—eating with silverware, getting up in the morning and going to work or school for example. There are also mores, which are behaviors that are right or wrong…don’t kill people, don’t steal…

Cultural norms are the standards we live by. They are the shared expectations and rules that guide behavior of people within social groups. Cultural norms are learned and reinforced from parents, friends, teachers and others while growing up in a society.

Social Norms Regarding Public Behavior

• Shake hands when you meet someone.
• Make direct eye contact with the person you are speaking with.
• Unless the movie theater is crowded, do not sit right next to someone.
• Do not stand close enough to a stranger to touch arms or hips.

Social norms are standards, rules, guides and expectations for actual behaviour, whereas values are abstract conceptions of what is important and worthwhile. In brief, values are ends while norms are means to achieve these ends. Sometimes, the values and norms of a society conflict with each other.

The term ‘culture’ refers to attitudes and patterns of behavior in a given group. ‘Norm’ refers to attitudes and behaviors that are considered normal, typical or average within that group. All societies have cultural norms.

Norms are formally expressed through law. Informal norms are expressed through social customs or folkways and mores. Beliefs are ideas about the nature of social world, supernatural reality, a person or an object which one believes to be true and acts accordingly.

Norms provide order in society. Human beings need norms to guide and direct their behavior, to provide order and predictability in social relationships and to make sense of and understanding of each other’s actions. These are some of the reasons why most people, most of the time, conform to social norms.

A culture’s values are its ideas about what is good, right, fair, and just. Conflict theory focuses on how values differ between groups within a culture, while functionalism focuses on the shared values within a culture.

Values help define the character of a culture, but they usually do not provide a specific course of action. Values generally prescribe what one “should” do but not how to do it. Because values offer viewpoints about ideals, goals, and behaviors, they serve as standards for social life.

The main difference between culture and tradition is that traditions describe a group’s beliefs and behaviors that are passed down from one generation to another. Culture describes the shared characteristics of the entire group, which has been amassed throughout its history.

Culture can teach us about our behavior and attitudes. Culture can teach us what were about, what we prefer, and where exactly we come from. Culture is also helpful to us when it comes to understanding our values and ways of thinking. Culture also gives us the opportunity to learn about our past and common customs.

Terms in this set (7)

• 1)humans create. culture.
• 2)culture consists of. ways of doing things.
• 3)culture is. public.
• 4)culture arises from. tradition.
• 5)culture is made up of. rule-governed actions.
• 6)culture becomes. established in institutions.
• 7)culture gives us. our identity.