I am going to describe a personality trait of mine that I find to be deviance and that is shyness. Shyness may be defined experientially as discomfort or inhibition in interpersonal situations that interferes with pursuing one’s interpersonal or professional goals. It is a form of excessive self-focus, a preoccupation with one’s thoughts, feelings and physical reactions. Shyness reactions can occur at any or all of the following levels: cognitive, affective, physiological and behavioral, and may be triggered by a wide variety of arousal cues. Among the most typical are: authorities, one-on-one opposite sex interactions, intimacy, strangers, and having to take individuating action in a group.
These are just a few that I fall into. To put it in other terms, shyness is a shrinking back from life that weakens the bonds of your human connection with others and us. There are many symptoms that following shyness: sweating, dry mouth, trembling or shaking, fear of negative evaluation and looking foolish to others, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem are just a few that I experience. A problem arises when one person’s behavior fails to match the normative expectations of others and poses a threat to the smooth flow of the interaction order. Being too shy is a clear example of this. It is not that the shy person is deliberately trying to sabotage the situation, but simply that they do not feel as if they are equipped with the necessary skills and expertise to carry off social interaction with another person.
Deviance is defined as, “The recognized violation of cultural norms.” Deviance is an act of rebellion against set of rules, and expected behavior established by a certain society. Deviance is defined in many different ways. It is depended on the norms of the society, and region. Individuals become deviant when people label their actions as deviance. It depends on how that certain society defines deviance on individuals. The establishment of rules and breaking rules in society is determined by strong social powers. This event leads to social inequality in society.
Clinard and Meier stated that deviance takes many forms; but agreement remains elusive about which specific behaviors and conditions constitute deviance. This ambiguity becomes especially evident when some people praise the same behavior that others condemn. Normative definition: The label deviant depends on a group’s notion of actions and conditions that should and should not occur. This situational conception can change in different situations. The theory that applies towards my deviance is Labeling theory.
Labeling theory is the theory of deviance that views deviance as a label assigned to behavior and individuals by particular figures of authority. That means that no one is actually a deviant and no action is deviant unless specified by society. The acts that are considered deviant today, may be acceptable or even normal tomorrow or in another part of the world. Labeling theory is very complex, making it quite different than other theories. Instead of looking at why some social groups commit more crime, labeling theory asks why some people committing some action come to be defined as deviant, while others do not. Labeling theory is also interested in the effect of labeling individuals. People use these stereotypes to interpret the behavior of suspected deviants. Furthermore, once someone has been successfully labeled or stigmatized to something, the label attached may become the dominant label.
Labeling theory is constituted essentially by two propositions. The first is that deviant behavior is to be seen not simply as the violation of a norm, but as any behavior which is successfully defined or labeled as deviant. The deviance does not belong to the act itself but in the response of others to that act. In other words, the deviance is said to be in the eye of the beholder.
The second proposition claims that labeling produces or amplifies deviance. The deviant’s response to societal reaction leads to secondary deviation by which the deviant comes to accept a self-image or self-definition as someone who is permanently locked within a deviant role. Furthermore, the distinctiveness of the approach is that it draws attention to deviance as the outcome of social imputations and the exercise of social control. Labeling theory, also called the interactionist perspective, focuses on the consequences of deviant’s interactions with conventional society, particularly with official agents of social control.
I have been shy all my life. I have improved a bit on my shyness but am still essentially a shy individual and not much of a social person. You could say, I am a loner by choice and I like it that way. A lot of people don’t understand that. Most think being shy is abnormal. When somebody is recognized by others as shy, this is because of the impressions they have given off through their body, gestures and language. It is a definition of reality that emerges from the interaction. It can often be seen as a form of deviance, because shy behavior breaks some of the unspoken rules about ‘pulling your weight’ in a conversation. The common feature that unites shy people is that they all believe they have trouble communicating with others. However, shyness doesn’t exist until it is brought into existence by a label assigned by those whom you come in contact with. For example, as a child, dealing with shyness is harder. It is so because you have everyone around you telling you that there is something wrong with you, including your parents; and you know no better and tend to believe something is really wrong with you. My parents didn’t mean it, but they end up telling other people that I am shy in a bid to explain my absence when guests wanted to speak with me. I had this thing whenever we had guests come over I would feel very shy to come and meet them. And so, they ended up labeling me as shy and then I will get all sorts of advice from the guests too about ways to overcome my shyness. So, it was stressful.
Being labeled as a shy person can have a significant effect upon the person’s sense of identity because it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: “I am a shy person, so I must act in this way”. Shyness can be very painful to live with, and it can have negative effects on person’s life. For example, shyness can develop low self- esteem and lack self -confidence. While growing up it was very difficult for me to make friends. Also, since I was so quiet I didn’t receive the help I needed from teachers at school, which resulted in school performance that is not as good as it could be. This in turn can affect the way shy people relate to others they perceive as non-shy. The way in which shyness recognized and responded to is therefore a social problem as well as an individual one. The condition arises from social interaction and is not just in the mind.