Norms The norm is me. At least that is what I thought as a child. What we did, how we acted, what we wore was the normal thing. What others did and we did not do was definitely not the norm. Norms: established patterns of a particular society. (Sociology book definition). Webster's twentieth century dictionary defines a norm as: a standard, model, or pattern for a group; especially, such a standard of achievement as represented by the median or average achievement of a large group. While in my Sociology 100 class I realized that it wasn't me setting the norms, it is everyone else. As a child I considered myself normal. Normal too