Aceptable Social Conduct
Positive Reputations
Negative Reputations
Popular Social Conduct
Certain ways people expect you to act. You have to be good honest friendly well mannered and generally have no scandals. Ex. Jane was considered a nice calm well-mannered girl and that made her even more desirable to men as she followed the rules.
When people follow the rules that are considered the “acceptable social conduct” then they will generally receive a positive reputation and be thought of highly in the community, but as is the nature of the beast, people will always be looking for bad acts that will make your reputation fall quickly. Ex. Girls in Pride and Prejudice put such emphasis on what they should do and how they should act with men in general.
If your reputation is bad or you do something that makes your reputation become bad then people talk about you, they may not trust you and they just generally treat you differently. Ex. When Lydia runs off with Wickham her reputation becomes one of a bad girl that doesn’t follow the rules and that makes rash decisions affecting how people saw her and her family.
Popular social conduct is not a real thing but just something that I have developed myself through my observations of people and characters in real life and novels alike. These actions are what is done by the majority of people and is usually a mix of acceptable social conduct and actions that would equate to a negative reputation. Ex. Lizzy being a smart girl that follows the rules, but also being a stubborn head strong girl that is very opinionated and sometimes hard to get along with.