Where does norm collide?

A shared expectation about how people behave, or ought to behave, held in common by a group and backed by approval or disapproval. Cialdini, Reno, and Kallgren, in their 1990 focus theory of normative conduct, split the idea in two: a descriptive norm is what most people actually do in a situation, while an injunctive norm is what most people approve or disapprove of. The referent is a group's shared standard, read off the behaviour and the attitudes of others, and its unit is a social expectation, not a number and not a rule of law. What marks this meaning is that the norm lives in what a group does and sanctions, so it can differ across groups and shift the moment a different reference is made salient.[1]

Unit

A group's shared expectation about behaviour

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Survey or field measures of what others do (descriptive) and what others approve of (injunctive)

A function that assigns a nonnegative length or size to each vector in a space, written ‖x‖. In Kreyszig's account of a normed space, a norm must satisfy three axioms: it is zero only for the zero vector and positive otherwise, it scales so that ‖αx‖ = |α| ‖x‖, and it obeys the triangle inequality ‖x + y‖ ≤ ‖x‖ + ‖y‖. The Euclidean or L2 norm is the square root of the sum of squared components, and the family of Lp norms generalises it. The referent is a vector, the unit is length in the units of the space, and nothing here is behavioural or moral. This meaning shares only the four letters with a social norm; a vector's length and a group's expectation describe different worlds.[2]

Unit

The length or size of a vector

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Computed from a vector's components, for example the square root of the sum of squares for the L2 norm

A binding rule or standard within a normative order, prescribing that something ought to be done or left undone. In Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law, a legal norm is the meaning of an act of will directed at another's conduct, and its validity comes not from any fact but from a higher norm, up to a presupposed basic norm that grounds the whole system. The referent is a rule that obligates, permits, or empowers, and its unit is an ought, not an is. This meaning turns on the gap between what is and what ought to be, the same gap philosophers mark when they call a claim normative. It shares the word with a social norm but not the source of its force: a legal norm binds because the legal order is valid, not because a group happens to approve.[3]

Unit

A binding ought within a legal order

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Not measured; identified by legal interpretation of an enacted rule and its validity within the hierarchy of norms

The distribution of scores from a defined reference sample, used to give an individual score meaning by placing it against that group. Angoff, in Scales, Norms, and Equivalent Scores, treats norms as the empirical basis of norm-referenced interpretation: a raw score becomes a percentile, a standard score, or a grade equivalent by reference to how a norm group performed. The referent is a reference population, and the unit is a position in a distribution, such as a percentile rank. Here a norm is neither a shared expectation nor a rule nor a length; it is a yardstick built from data. It shares the word with the social meaning, and even a flavour of typicality, but a test norm is a statistical benchmark, not a group's approval.[4]

Unit

A reference distribution of scores

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

The score distribution of a defined norm sample, expressed as percentiles, standard scores, or grade equivalents