Social Psychology:
Sociological Perspectives
David E. Rohall
Melissa A. Milkie
Jeffrey W. Lucas
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Social Psychology:
Sociological Perspectives
Chapter 7: The Social Psychology
of Deviance
Deviance in Social Psychology
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Deviance, in social psychology, refers to
any thought, feeling, or behavior that
departs from accepted practices in a
society or group
Deviance is relative to the group being
studied
Societies divide deviance into more or less
serious forms, representing mores and
folkways
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Interactionist Approaches of
Deviance
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The interactionist approach to deviance
views it as a manifestation of social
interactions, like any other thought, feeling,
or behavior
Ethnomethodology and labeling theory are
two important approaches to studying
deviance
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Ethnomethodology and Deviance
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Ethnomethodology emphasizes how
individuals construct and defend their
views of social reality
The meaning of a given behavior may be
defined as deviant to one person but not to
another person through the process of
indexicality and reflexivity
A product of this interaction process is the
documentary interpretation of actions
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Labeling Theory of Deviance
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Labeling theory extends the interpretative
process of giving meaning to deviance
through interaction
Labeling theory argues that deviance is a
consequence of a social process in which
a negative characteristic becomes an
element of an individual’s identity
An individual becomes a deviant through
the acceptance of a deviant label
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Types of Deviance
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Tannenbaum began some of the earliest
research in labeling theory by focusing on
the process by which juvenile delinquents
are “tagged” as deviants
Edwin Lemert extended Tannenbaum’s
work by arguing that there are two forms of
deviance in the labeling process:
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Primary deviance refers to the initial act that
causes others to label the individual a deviant
Secondary deviance occurs after an
individual accepts the deviant label and
continues to commit deviant acts, thus
supporting the initial label
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Lemert’s Stages of Deviance
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Accepting the Deviant Label
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The acceptance of the deviant label may
be a result of a number of processes
Agents of social control represent the
state’s attempts to maintain social order, to
enforce the mores of society; they also
stigmatize deviants
The role of the larger society is most
present during secondary deviance, when
the individual comes to identify herself as
a deviant
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Moral Careers and Deviant
Subcultures
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In his famous work, Outsiders: Studies in
the Sociology of Deviance, Howard Becker
(1973) elaborated the processes through
which:
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Primary deviance leads to secondary deviance
The importance of deviant subcultures in
maintaining the deviant self-image
Outsiders refer to people labeled as
deviants who accept the deviant labels
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Becker’s Stages of Becoming an
Outsider
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Becker (1973) described a three-stage
process by which individuals become
outsiders:
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An individual commits a deviant act (primary
deviance)
The person begins to accept the deviant status
(secondary deviance)
The deviant joins a deviant subculture
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Stigma and Deviance
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Deviance can take many forms
Erving Goffman (1963) defined stigma as
“an attribute that is deeply discrediting”
Stigma can take three forms:
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A physical deformity
Being part of an undesirable social group
A character flaw
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Stigma, Passing, and Covering
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Goffman found that individuals with stigma
try to cover-up their deviance by passing,
ways that people try to make themselves
look like “normal” people, and covering,
ways of concealing their problems from
people
When individuals choose to accept their
stigmas, it may lead individuals to
retrospective interpretations of past
behaviors
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Social Structure and Deviant
Behavior
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Deviant behavior may be a choice but
those choices are made in context of a
larger set of factors
Choices are constrained by the information
and resources we have available to cope
with our situation
Larger societal norms create limitations on
how we can achieve legitimate goals in life
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Anomie and Deviance
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Durkheim argued that individuals can lose
their sense of place in society, especially in
times of great social change when norms
and values become less clear
Under these conditions, individuals may
develop a sense of anomie or
“normlessness,” where there is little
consensus about what is right and wrong
Without a clear sense of right and wrong,
individuals lack the guidance to make clear
decisions in life
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Social Strain Theory
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Robert Merton argued that deviance is a
natural outcome of social conditions in
which socially acceptable goals cannot be
obtained through legitimate means,
serving as the basis of strain theory
Merton developed a typology to outline the
relationship between society’s goals and
individual deviance
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Merton’s Typology of Deviance
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Deviant Types
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According to Strain theory, people fall into
one of five categories:
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Conformists
Innovator
Ritualists
Retreatists
Rebellion
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Social Control Theory
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Another structural approach to the study of
deviance is social control theory
developed by Travis Hirschi
According to social control theory,
deviance results when individuals’ bonds
with conventional society are weakened in
some way
Social control theory is related to the
proximity principle of the social structure
and personality perspective
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Components of Social Control
Theory
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Social control theory proposes four ways
that individuals are bonded to society:
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Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
Hirschi’s (1969) research showed that the
number of self-reported delinquent acts
went down as communication levels
increased between fathers and sons
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Group Relationships and Deviance
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Many of the fundamental processes
involved in the creation of deviance occur
in group contexts
A major deviance theory that employs a
group processes perspective is differential
association theory
Differential association theory states the
deviance is learned through interaction
with others
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: The Principles of Differential
Association Theory
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Edwin Sutherland introduced differential
association theory to explain the social
causes of deviance. The theory is based
on nine principles, summarized in these
points:
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Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with
other persons in a process of communication
in intimate groups
A person begins delinquent behavior when she
has an excess of definitions favorable to
violation of law
Differential associations may vary in frequency,
duration, priority, and intensity
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: White Collar-Crime
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Differential association theory is useful to
understanding how people can rationalize
almost any form of deviant behavior
White-collar crimes include
embezzlement, cheating, and laundering
money, among others
These are crimes that are associated with
higher-status individuals in the course of
their work
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Studying Deviance in a Lab
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Group processes researchers have
furthered our understanding of criminal
behavior in experimental studies
One relevant criminological issue is the
high incidence of procedural errors in the
prosecution of serious crimes
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Studying Procedural Errors
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Lucas and his colleagues (2006)
developed a theory to explain why so
many wrongful convictions are in cases
involving serious crimes; the theory has
three parts:
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Prosecutors will become more likely to think
that defendants are guilty as crimes are more
severe
Prosecutors will view attaining a conviction as
more important when they hold a stronger
belief in the defendant’s guilt
Prosecutorial misconduct to obtain a conviction
will increase as perceptions of guilt increase
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
Chapter 7: Bringing It All Together
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Sociologists approach deviance as relative
to the norms and values of a society
Symbolic interactionists focus on the
construction of deviance through
ethnomethodology and labeling theory
Social structure and personality scholars
emphasize the ways that structural forces
influence our decisions to deviate
Group processes incorporates the role of
group interactions in our decisions to
commit deviants acts
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007