Comfortable: This family look chilled out hand-in-hand out and about in their pyjamas. Generic photo - dailymail.co.uk
Have you ever done something against what is socially accepted and suffered the consequences?
It’s quite wonderful and amazing to see how many
people go shopping in their pyjamas these days!
Although it can be quite startling to have someone
standing in front of you at a supermarket checkout in winceyette pyjamas and
fluffy slippers (yes, some in the image of cuddly animals).
I can’t help
smiling and thinking how comfortable those people must be in their own skin to
slip out to the shops in their night attire.
I think it symbolises being totally chilled out with a
great ‘who cares’ spirit about it and I think, ‘good on you for not conforming
to what society says you should do or how you should look’.
It’s probably easier for young parents who have been
up all night trying to pacify a new, unsettled baby, to just jump in the car,
pjs and all, and go and pick something up from the supermarket that’s
desperately needed.
I think that I’ve only been outside of my house twice
wearing pjs; once when being transported to hospital by ambulance and the other
when being driven home by friends after I was released the same night and not
having had the chance to gather up an overnight bag, before I was shuffled off
in the ambulance.I have to say that I don’t think I’d have the guts to go out shopping in my pjs, unless it was for a cause or a fundraising event, or something like that.
Of course another reason could be an emergency occurs
and you have to leave your house in a hurry in the middle of the night.
For me, shopping in my pjs comes down to ‘what would
people think of me’.
And if it was on a week day, as a job-seeker, I don’t
think Work and Income would be very thrilled to see me waltzing around town in
my pyjamas when I should be ‘work ready’!
So, what is
it about our desire to conform to social norms and opinions generally?
A case study done on conformity to social norms, by a
United Kingdom student learning programme found:
http://psypress.co.uk/smithandmackie/resources/topic.asp?topic=ch09-tp-01
People
conform to the opinion of other group members and converge to social norms,
because of their need to master the world and the need to be connected by
others.
Private
conformity occurs when people truly
believe that the group is right, whereas public
conformity occurs when we are pressured to conform to group
norms.
When
publicly conforming, some people still privately think the group is wrong.
The
degree of conformity
is higher in collectivistic cultures, where they view conformity as a social
glue, than it is in individualistic cultures, where conformity is seen as
something negative.
But what are the possible consequences of going against what is socially considered as proper?
The link below is from enotes website:
The answers here are from teachers, about the possible
consequences for breaking social norms, and the reactions of some people towards
those who may act ‘outside the usual' expected behaviour, so to speak.
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