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Relating deviance to social stigma

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Deviance and Social Stigmas: Explain deviance from a sociological perspective. Discuss social stigmas and how the terms stigma and deviance are connected.

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Solution Summary

The solution provides an explanation of deviance and social stigma from a sociological perspective. Each term is defined and explained, additionally, the 3 prominent sociological perspectives are also introduced. Based on this deviance and social stigma are connected in the discussion. A word version of the solution is attached for easy printing. References are listed for expansion.

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Dear Student,
Hello and thank you for using Brainmass. Do not worry; I'll do my best to help you with this question and this concept. It is easy to get a little overwhelmed with the study of deviance. To get an overview of this concept, we need to look at what is meant by deviance, sociological perspective and social stigma so we will go through them one by one:

Sociological Perspective

Understanding how social beings navigate society and respond to reality and its challenges is a perspective, a platform where one can 'see' beyond one particular problem alone, relating a social phenomenon to the other giving one to ability to see how they relate. A sociological perspective therefore 'takes down barriers' in problem solving, at least from a social point of view. There are 3 key sociological perspectives in use in the social sciences and they are the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective and symbolic interactionism perspective. You can view deviance from these perspectives to try and understand what deviance is about. More on these perspectives after.

Deviance

What is Deviant Behaviour? That is the first question that we need to answer. Deviancy is the manner of acting contrary to the expected norm, rebelling against what is expected of every member of a society or a social group. In sociology 'deviancy' is a constructed concept, differing in meaning or what it represents in every culture and ethnic/social groupings across the globe. The legalized violation of norms is a formal criminal deviancy while the informal ones, like walking backward are nothing more than an act that could be influenced by cultural differences or personal preferences.

Formal deviancy that are a serious breach of law are social problems that have always been a part of any social network and ...

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  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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