SOC 145 Lecture Notes - Ethnocentrism, Social Forces, Anomie
Document Summary
Understanding deviant behavior can be challenging because we are confronted with actions that seem strange, dangerous, and illogical. Without realizing it, we superimpose our own cultural standards as a superior benchmark to judge anything new or different. Ethnocentricism is a defense mechanism that protects us. It also forces us to begin noticing the elements of our social world that are normally taken for granted. In the case of entrepreneurs, we might think of a pioneer, someone who is selling us on a new product, or a risk-taker who invests in a new idea. Like the crusader, the entrepreneur operates with passion and charisma to convince people to join his or her platform or cause. In the article ironies of social control it demonstrates three ways that well-intentioned efforts to bring about conformity instead bring about deviants. In the case of escalation, the deviance that results is unexpected - a byproduct of legitimate attempts to control the situation.
