Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Breaching Experiment
One of Garfinkel's observations is that social norms and rules are so commonly accepted and integrated as part of natural human interaction that they are only noticed consciously when they are violated. In order to observe the extent to which this is true, this experiment will focus on saying "please" and "thank you." These expressions of desire and gratitude are so commonly ingrained in human consciousness that they are used thousands of times in daily interactions. As human beings, we say "please" and "thank you" to adhere to commonly-held rules of politeness. It is one of the first things children learn when they begin to acquire speech. I believe it will be interesting to observe how people react when they do not receive the required phrases of request or thanks when asked to assist.
Description
Specifically, the experiment will be conducted in a shopping mall and a restaurant. The idea is to request assistance without saying please and not to say thank you when the assistance has been provided. During the experiment, one of my experiences was that it was surprisingly difficult not to follow a request with "please" and assistance with "thank you." My interpretation of this difficulty is that I have myself been so conditioned to adhere to this social norm that it has become a habit I do not even have to think about. I, like most others in society, have been taught the rules politeness from a very young age,...
I had to consciously remember not to make polite utterances while interacting with shopkeepers and waiters.
Population
The population for the experiment included personnel working in stores and restaurants. Mostly, these were shopping assistants and waiters. On each occasion, I did my shopping and dining with a friend. To maintain the variety of the population, a different friend accompanied me on each occasion. The friends were not given any information about the experiment, and therefore formed part of the experiment population.
Results
There were three common reactions among the shopping and restaurant professionals to my breach. Most commonly, I received somewhat hostile stares. When I did not say please when asking a clothing shop assistant for help, for example, she stared at me in confusion for a second or two, after which both her look and attitude became somewhat hostile, although in a reserved way. I also saw her exchanging whispers with one of her colleagues as my friend and I left the store. In the restaurant I visited on the same day, the waiter who served us was not openly hostile, but he was far more distant than the servers at that establishment usually are.
The second-most common reaction I received from servers and assistants was simply being ignored. I observed no change in the behavior besides a small pause in one of the…
References
Garfinkel (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Politeness and Females Gender and its connection with linguistic behavior has been a major subject of debate and discussion in research circles for last many decades. How men and women differ in the speech is an interesting topic that has been shown to have direct correlation with societal influences and conditioning. Women are conditioned to behave in a submissive manner and research indicates that it is because of this factor than
Classroom Management Class room management holds extreme importance in the process of teaching. It is mandatory for a teacher to manage her class effectively in order to achieve her predetermined instructional goals. 'Successful classroom management involves much more than rules and discipline. Indeed research into classroom management demonstrates that effective teachers are proactive about student behavior, and they involve students in the process of establishing and maintaining rules and routines'.
Japanese culture the concept of "place" plays a large role -- but what role specifically does it play? Michael Haugh's article about the importance of place in Japanese society explains that "place" and politeness go hand in many social situations, although there several explanations and theories that attempt to approach an understanding of these dynamics. This paper provides a review and critique of the issue as presented in the article
Jefferson Davis Views Towards Slavery Jefferson Davis was the president of the confederation of America during the civil war when some states of the South threatened to form a separate State of America. He served as president from 1861 to 1865.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Spartacus Educational. Jefferson Davis. n.d. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASdavisJ.htm (accessed April 1, 2012).] Jefferson Davis is famous for his controversial role during the war and his proslavery stance which is viewed in a
African-Americans Activism -- Gaining Civil Rights and Pride "We the understated are students at the Negro college in the city of Greensboro. Time and time again we have gone into Woolworth stories of Greensboro. We have bought thousands of items at hundreds of the counters in your stories. Our money was accepted without rancor or discrimination and with politeness toward us, when at a long counter just three feet away from
The examples and the codes show that healthy competition is good, but must not lead to disrespectful cut-throat practices. Further, as these documents say, the engineer must resist the drive for individual gain if it puts the entire profession at stake. Everyone wants to profit, but the engineer in particular must be driven by a sense of duty and pride in solid work that goes beyond the individual to