Culture and Social Behavior

Abstract

Social norms are rules or expectations about how people within a given group should behave. Social psychologists have found that people generally choose to conform to the social norms of the groups to which they belong. Cultures that score high on uncertainty avoidance tend to have a greater amount and specificity of social norms. Social norms, a culture&s;s rules or expectations about how people within a given group should behave, are not static. Across cultures, males are more physically and verbally aggressive than females. Across cultures studied, parental rejection is a strong predictor of children&s;s violence. Classroom behavior may also be shaped by habits involving the use of technology during TV viewing, such as answering cell phones or sending text messages. A major interest of those who study organizational behavior has focused on how to select and train effective leaders.