Group Norms

In every classroom I enter at SJSU, I believe there are many different type of norms that appear. In every classroom there are those few who are brave enough to speak freely during the first day of class, there's a section of people who mildly give a comment during class, and lastly, there's the group of students whom stay quiet and are the listeners of the classroom.

There are also norms in the groups I hang out with. For instance, my fraternity that I am active in. Each of us know each other so well that we can probably classify each of us in a norm category if we had to. There are the leaders of the fraternity, the jokers, the alcoholics, and the quiet ones. Although we all have totally different personalities, it all forms to make our brotherhood. That is a norm in itself. Every week we hold meetings and arrive on time. There are different traditions that we hold and rituals that only we know about.

I identified these norms by observing the different kinds of personalities and how they fit in for each role. I guess this is another way of stereotyping, but stereotyping is embedded into us and there's nothing we can do about it. I adapt to these norms by knowing myself which category of norms I fit in myself. Sometimes it varies on my mood but usually I appear the same in each group.