Socialization, Behavior Change & Deviance: An Integrative Paper

Socialization, behavior change and deviance are greatly connected with each other.
Socialization is a process of learning the skills, norms, values, and rules of a society and
developing social identity. It is a complex lifelong process which turns people into conforming
individuals. Behavior, on the other hand, refers to the responses of an object or individual usually
in relation to the environment or society around us. It may be conscious or subconscious, over or
covert, and voluntary or involuntary. In relation to behavior, if a behavior violates expected rules
and norms of a certain society it is called deviance. Deviance departs significantly from social
expectations.
Using a short story titled Scoring by Joy T. Dayrit, a Filipino writer; I will integrate
certain subtopics from socialization, behavior change and deviance. The short story is typed
below:
They were playing Do Something You Have Always Wanted to Do and Adda took her turn by going to the
kitchen for a sharp kitchen knife to cut her wrist with. She had always wanted now and then to slash her
wrist. She had known of other ways but knife and blood somehow excite her.
Before that they played Do Something You Dont Really Want To Do and Chicki sat on Alexanders lap
and kissed him on the shoulder and then on the lips, then said: Now its your turn. Alexander kissed her
back more fervently and they went on for a while until their turns were up. The group gave them each 2
points. The highest one can get is 3.
Now they played Do Something You Feel Like Doing and Julian took his turn by going to the bathroom.
The group gave him 1 point.
On his way back Julian went to the kitchen for a beer and saw Adda slumped over the sink. He looked for
the coldest beer and opened it, and after a swig, saw for the first time the mute color of red. It was not of
the shade he had imagined but he knew it was blood. Adda, what have you done, Julian said as he put
the beer down. Getting her up, he guided her to the others: Hey, guys, look!
They drove her to a hospital in Marios car. It was late night and in the emergency annex they were the
only crowd. A doctor on duty looking as young as they attended to Addas wrist, while they watched and
analyzed Addas move.
She had always wanted to do that.
You could tell by the way she was.
But shes not going to die.
If she does I hope she goddamn really wanted to.
Adda died. Loss of blood, the doctor said. Then everybody said something at once:
Good Lord!

Adda
Hey guys, this is too much.
How will we explainShe gets 3 points, somebody said as the doctor wheeled Adda away.

The story starts in medias res when Adda was dared to Do Something You Have Always
Wanted To Do. It is set late night in a house of a member in the group of friends. The said group
in Scoring is a metaphor of our modern society because both set dares/requirements for their
members, expect their members to take their own turns in obeying dares, passing requirements,
and permit judgment.
Dare, according to Merriam Webster, is an act or instance of daring or challenging. These
repeated appearances of dares in the story were very significant. As to whatve said earlier, the
group had a stable connection within its members and this can be compared to how established
our modern society is. At the same time, after these two reached a united atmosphere, both began
setting dares in the story and setting requirements in reality. Requirements is the closest word
which can be related to dares in the story, because requirements in our modern life is like a
challenge which must be passed in order to be qualified as a person who can fit in.
As seen in the story, there were three dares. First, the group was playing Do Something
You Dont Really Want to Do, then they played Do Something You Have Always Wanted To
Do, lastly they played Do Something You Feel Like Doing. Looking closely to these dares,
one can see parallelism in the usage of words. The repeated words are Do Something You.
Alike with what our modern society does, they always ask somebody to do something either
good or bad.
Asides from the parallelism from the dares given from the story, another parallelism is
found in how the characters responded to the dares. Since the word turn, appeared numerous
times, it also became significant to the development of the story. Through this, conformity in the
story was perfectly portrayed. Saul McLeod said that Conformity is a type of social influence
involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group(2007). From the first one
who obeyed the dare influenced the second one to do so. This influence is found all over our
modern society.
A theory under socialization is Maslows hierarchy of needs. Maslow (1943) stated that
people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill
the next one, and so on. Maslows hierarchy of needs is a five stage model which shows a series

of necessities. The original hierarchy model includes basic needs such as biological and
physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs and selfactualization needs.
In the short story, the points itself is a metaphor of Maslows hierarchy of needs. It is seen
that Julian, who was given one point, took his turn in the game by going to the bathroom. His
action is to fulfill his biological and physiological need. He even went to the kitchen for a beer
probably to quench his thirst. Chicki and Alexander, on the other hand, was given two points
after fulfilling the 3rd stage of Maslows hierarchy of needs, which is love and belongingness. At
last, Adda, who chose to slash her wrist, got three points, after reaching self-actualization.
All of these responses they made to the dares given to them are conscious, overt, and
voluntary. Their behavior may be analyzed through the theory of reasoned action. Their attitude
in taking their turns the way they did it mirrored the tasks given to them. Given the three dares,
all of them had an attitude of wanting to comply with the dares provided by the evidence that all
of them complied.
Moving on, focusing on Addas behavior, it may be considered that what she did is
deviance. Her behavior violated the norm of dying according to religious groups. A group such
as religious institutions considers suicide as something negative; therefore, shouldnt be done.
What Adda did in the short story, portrayed how she becomes a deviant to the religious
institutions. However interestingly, one who is considered deviant by one category of people
may be seen as conformist by another group. Thus, it may be assumed that in other categories
of people living in this world, what Adda may be seen as a conformist.
Overall, the story itself is a representation of Philippines. The group found in the short
story may represent Philippines society. The group is a perfect metaphor of Philippines society
because both have conformity and bonds. Similar to the characters compliance to the
requirements/ dares given to them, Filipinos also tend to just comply with the rules, standards, or
laws set to them.