Part II: Testing the Expanded Definition of A Normative Order

Abstract

The purpose of Part II was to test the empirical applicability of an expanded definition of normative order by demonstrating how a process of social control operates to regulate compliance with the normative order for dress. Researchers examined daily newspapers to identify attempts at social control manifested in overt behavior involving dress in late twentieth century U.S. society. Steps two through six in Schwartz and Ewald's (1968) six-phase model of the process of social control provided the framework for the investigation. An observational procedure was used to identify norms, violations of norms, and sanctions. Reasons for violations of norms were documented and illustrated. Sanctions associated with violations of dress norms were enumerated and classified by their interrelated dimensions. The expanded definition is more robust and more powerful than the original definition because it suggests avenues of inquiry that have not yet been explored and offers a technique to explore them. The technique provided empirical data which begins to alleviate a deficiency in empirical evidence of the operation of social control of a normative order for dress. The expanded definition in conjunction with the process of social control offers a parsimonious paradigm for framing and determining voids in existing research.