1.3. Social Norms: Folkways, Mores, Taboo, and Laws 
SHANELL SANCHEZ 
Social Control Exercise 
Assignment: We rely on informal social control to influence people’s behavior, such as giving the stink eye, cold 
shoulder, or correcting someone’s behavior in order to ensure people conform. Think about a time when a parent, 
guardian, coach, employer, or teacher (agents of social control) used informal social control to respond to your 
behavior. What did the agent of informal social control do? Provide an example when informal social control was 
applied to another person. What were they doing and how was their behavior controlled through informal social 
control? 
Example: Talking on the phone with a work-related matter and kids start bickering over slime. I am unable to 
put the phone down, so I relied on hand motions to show them it was unacceptable. There was no need to hang up 
or say anything at all. The eye actions indicated they were acting inappropriate and their behavior changed. 
Norms can be internalized, which would make an individual conform without external rewards or 
punishments. There are four types of social norms that can help inform people about behavior that is 
considered acceptable: folkways, mores, taboos, and law. Further, social norms can vary across time, cultures, 
place, and even sub-group. 
1 
Think back to your first experiences in school and surely you can identify some folkways and mores 
learned. Folkways are behaviors that are learned and shared by a social group that we often refer to as 
“customs” in a group that are not morally significant, but they can be important for social acceptance. 
2 Each 
group can develop different customs, but there can be customs that embraced at a larger, societal level. 
1. Goode, E. (2015). Deviant Behavior, (10th ed.). New York: Pearson, Education. 
2. Augustyn, A., Bauer, P., Duignan, B., Eldridge, A., Gregersen, E., Luebbering, J.E., etc..., (N.D.). Folkway, Encyclopedia Britannica. 
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