Norms social

Attitude is a predisposition to act in a certain way. It is the state of readiness that influences a person to act in a given manner (Rahman et al. 1999). Therefore, attitude surveys in agriculture could lead to a more adequate explanation and prediction of farmers economic behavior and have been used on conservation and environmentally related issues focusing on the influence of attitude variables as predictors of conservation behavior (Dimara and Skuras 1999). Dimara and Skuras (1999) concluded from their research that a significant relationship was found between behavior and the goals and intentions of farmers. This relationship is even stronger when statements on attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control are included (Bergevoet et al. 2004)... 

One area of research related to abuse or neglect has to do with how well a person fits within his or her social environment. One researcher, Marsha Linehan (1993), has talked about how a poor fit with the social environment (viz., not fitting into the family, school life, or other important social networks) may cause psychiatric problems if the poorness of fit causes the person to feel like an outsider or to feel constandy invalidated or put down. Many of my clients have told me that they have not felt part of their families or that they did not fit well into society in general, or have described themselves as black sheep. Abuse and neglect lead to an invalidating environment, but so can mismatches of personalities within families or mismatches of behavioral patterns with social norms. Furthermore, there is evidence that the way emotion is expressed in families can be associated with a poorness of fit that can influence the course of drug problems. 

Deviant behavior. Behavior that is antisocial and violates social norms. Diversion. Professionals taking drugs from patients or clients in the workplace for their own use. 

Social norms. Data about what is normal drug use for peers. 

Weisfeld, G. E. (1972). Violations of social norms as inducers of aggression. International Journal of Group Tensions, 2, 53—70. 

Clnster B includes the so-called dramatic and emotional disorders. This group is comprised of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and histrionic personality disorder (HPD). In each of these disorders, the person is attention seeking, is emotionally unstable, and finds it difhcnlt to conform to social norms. Unlike the odd and eccentric Cluster A patients and the anxious and withdrawn Cluster C patients, those with Cluster B personality disorders seldom escape clinical attention for very long. The disruptive nature of these personality disorders often leads them to psychiatric or legal intervention no later than their early adult life. 

I consider three sources of variation in behavior across societies. First, societies may exhibit different behaviors because for historical reasons they have ended up in different coordination equilibria. In theory, the United Kingdom and the United States could be identical in all respects except that people drive on the left in the first country and on the right in the second, together with features that flow directly from this difference. Differences in metric systems, number systems, and calendars can also generate differences in behavior that need not reflect anything but accidents of history. Second, behavioral differences may be due to different norms and values. I especially emphasize the importance of social norms in explaining cultural variation. Norms, in turn, are backed by... 

The emotions are very closely linked to some of the aspects of culture that I have outlined. I mainly emphasize two aspects. First, not all cultures recognize or conceptualize the same emotions. Even if (as I conjecture) the emotions themselves are universal, it does not follow that they are universally recognized. Second, when an emotion does belong to the conceptual repertoire of a culture, it can also become the target of prescriptive or proscriptive social norms, leading either to more or to less frequent occurrences than one would otherwise have observed. 

A proper emotion can become subject to social norms, which may change how it is experienced. In a (modified) example from Arlie Hochschild (1979,567), a feminist mother who feels guilty about leaving her child in day care may feel ashamed of her guilt. 

We assume (1) that the emotion of envy belongs to the repertoire of the group in question, (2) that social norms or moral values stigmatize feelings of envy, and (3) that on a given occasion the individual is aware that he or she is feeling envious. It follows that the individual will (4) feel a meta-emotion of shame or guilt. 

Moene shows that if potential drug consumers have conformist preferences of this kind, accidents of history can determine whether a society ends up in a high-use equilibrium or a low-use equilibrium. Beliefs and social norms are irrelevant for the outcome. Many other aspects of addiction are highly norm dependent, however, as is illustrated by variations in the use of alcohol. Drawing heavily on the essays in Dwight Heath (1995), I focus on this substance, although i occasionally touch on other substances and behaviors as well. 

In almost all known societies throughout history, people have used beer, wine, or liquor for nutritional, medical, ritual, and recreational purposes—or just to get drunk. Moreover, the use of these beverages is embedded in a very dense network of social norms and sanctions. There is enormous variety in drinking behavior and drinking norms across cultures, at least with regard to moderate drinking. Alcoholics, by con-... 

Moderate drinking reflects a delicate balance between the desire for alcohol and the social norms that keep it within bounds. Since behavior is more easily learned and imitated than norms, one might expect excessive drinking when a drinking and a nondrinking culture meet. The excessive drinking by natives in colonial Mexico may be due to this fact. The same mechanism applies to Israeli Arabs ... 

Beliefs provide a final source of variation in the consumption of addictive substances. Many social norms are intertwined with beliefs about the effects of consumption. Again, alcohol provides a privileged example, although I also refer to other addictive substances. 

These normative expectations create a paradox. The emotions are largely outside our conscious control. There does not seem to be much point in social norms enjoining people to have or not to have certain emotions if they have no choice in the matter. Yet there is some room for choice even here. To some extent, we can call up emotions at will, by imagining situations in which they occur spontaneously or by simulating their expression. Also, in many cases all that is required is a reasonably credible simulation. To conform with the social norms regulating funerals, it is not necessary to make people believe that you are actually mourning—it is enough to put your face in the appropriately serious folds. 

I am not making the cynical point that a person may often be able to justify his behaviour to others by invoking norms on an ad hoc basis, exploiting the almost endless repertoire of norms to disguise the fact that he is moved by self-interest. My point is that a person must be able to live with his decisions - so he has to justify them to himself. There are constraints on the acceptable justifications. In particular, the need for consistency between the norms that are invoked in different situations may be as important as the consistency between the norm and the self-interest. Yet within these constraints a good deal of redefinition of norms is possible. My suggestion is that in addition to the head-on conflict between self-interest and social norms there is an insidious struggle that is more similar to self-deception and thus more closely related to the multiple self. 

In addition, internalized social norms might stop me from stealing even when there is no risk of detection and punishment. 

By contrast, behavior guided by social norms is not concerned with outcomes. Ibis contrast is explored in chapter XIII. 

The slack could also be taken up by something like social norms, to be discussed in chapter Xlli. There, however, I consider social norms as an alternative to rational choice, not os a mere supplement to it... 

J In the next chapter I look at altruism and similar nonselfish motivations and in chapter xn at the elusive phenomenon of social norms. In chapter XIU the various explanations arc brought together in a more unified exposition. 

This norm, together with (he categorical imperative and other social norms, is further discussed in chapters XII and XIII. 

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