Established Norms and Rules

Read chapters 1-2 of Classic and Contemporary Perspectives in Social Psychology by Sharon Preves and Jeylan Mortimer

Part of our “constructed” social world includes norms and rules around the “exchange of attention.”  When we go to a doctor, lawyer, or counselor, we formally pay for their attention, and they are legally obligated to provide a specific type of attention.  When we go to a restaurant, we have informal (or normative) expectations on the type of attention the server will give us.  When we talk to our boss, we give deferential attention.  In most interactions with other people, there are generally expectations or formal rules of who is “giving” attention and who is “receiving” attention, and there are expectations of which person will give “positive” or deferential attention and who gives “negative” attention.  As we saw in the readings, for instance, there are expectations of specific types attention exchanges at funerals and recreational facilities like amusement parks.
Write a 250-500-word paper in which you describe a situation where there are established norms or rules of exchanging attention.
Your paper must incorporate at least one concept or idea from this Week’s readings.  You can also use other sources, such as web pages, academic articles, podcasts, or news articles.
You must use proper APA format for in-text citations and the reference list.