Monday, February 23, 2009
PERSONAL ESSAY SITE
This is the site to which you would go to post your drafts of your personal essay for the Capstone Course. You may also post any questions and/or other comments relevant to the personal essay assignment, which we will try to respond to in a timely fashion. I assume all of you have a hard copy of that assignment. If, for some reason you don't or you misplaced yours, I have extra copies. The deadlines for the first and second drafts are TUESDAY, MARCH 3RD and THURSDAY, APRIL 9TH, respectively. The final draft is due as a hard copy NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, MAY 1ST (May Day, a day of celebration for working folks, like yourselves, which is only fitting). Prof. Ginocchio, your friendly Capstone Czar
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Jessie Davis
ReplyDeletePersonal Essay Rough Draft Outline
Making Sociology Come to Life: Some Theories Witnessed in Action in the Real World
I. Intro
a. Sociology is a field of study that I have greatly enjoyed. However, if I have experienced any frustration with the field, it has been that theories I have studied are not ones I can have been able to experience in my life. And with all intellectual pursuits, study can only take the student so far. When the material is actually engaged in a meaningful way, that is when the student not only comes to the ultimate understanding of the information, but to an appreciation and application of it, which I believe is learning at its height. For me, information once learned will eventually leave, but when experienced, is engrained in a way that will influence future pursuits. That being said, as a student of Sociology at Wofford College, there are some ideas that I have experienced, and those are the once that I will be most likely to take with me as I leave.
II. Cooley’s Looking Glass Self
a. We see ourselves through the eyes of other people—even to the point of incorporating their views into our self concept. (views self through other person’s perceptions and thereby gains identity
III. Weber’s “Verstchen”
a. A method of interpreting or understanding other people through an intuitive understanding of symbolic relationships derived from adopting the point of view of the people being studied. Empathetic understanding is important in study because the aim in our type of study is understanding whereas in the sciences it is explanation.
b. Helped me to understand Indian culture when I went there.
c. Also helped in Atlanta internship.
IV. DuBois- one’s sense of self is influenced by historical experiences and social circumstances
a. My internship in Atlanta showed me this. People are not starting from the same place as many people would like to think. People are born equal but into unequal circumstances, and this is their history. Different historical and social circumstanes alter a person’s experience and sense of self.
V. Tomas Hobbes—Leviathan—
a. Its influence in my Wofford study in light of being a history major reading it in the Presidential Seminar
b. What is the state of man? (one of the big life questions that helps you evaluate the whole world)
VI. Geertz’s thick descriptions in anthropology-
a. context of the practices and discourse within a society—see all possible meanings in it
b. ethnographer’s job is to observe, record, and analyze a culture
VII. Meade and symbolic interactionist thought—
a. have to look at the individual to see the society—microtheory—individual is very American and European is more broad
VIII. Independent Study with Dr. Fowler on Indian Culture
a. Most hands on experience at Wofford
b. Gained the most from this because I could directly study and then see what I studied in action.
c. Not the most rigorous, but the most meaningful. (ideal study—for the pure interest of it)
d. Topics such as street children, slums, prostitution, cell phonesetc. There were things that were just like what I studied, as well as some things that were much different than I expected.
IX. Conclusion
Upon entering the Sociology curriculum I was excited to learn about how dynamic and vast the discipline is. The sociologist must be well versed in history in order to ascertain social contexts, in political science to understand the patterns and repercussions, anthropology to compare and contrast cultures, psychology to consider the internal and individual reactions to social experiences, etc. The sociologist is not only a social scientist, dealing with systematic knowledge of the physical world gained through observation and experimentation, but also a theorist and philosopher, contemplating general propositions and principles used for the purpose of practical affairs and explanation. There is a specialty area in the field of sociology to fit almost any interest and academic strength, though it is necessary to take a holistic approach, utilizing all relevant angles through which to approach the issue. I plan to pursue public policy the future and I feel that sociology has been very important to developing an understanding of how to approach, analyze, and seek to resolve matters that impact society.
ReplyDeleteThe first sociology class that I took at Wofford was Social Problems. In this class I learned a fundamental lesson of sociology, which is the relationship between the individual and society. Aspects of society such as cheating, over-consuming, lying etc. are destructive to society and therefore destructive to the well-being of the individual. The quote that I wrote down in connection with this lecture comes from Martin Luther King Jr. and reads, “ Whatever affects one directly affects everyone indirectly”. Though this seems obvious, it is a necessary idea to grasp and keep in mind whilst scrutinizing any sociological matter. Its importance is propounded by the fact that the individual is incapable of ever completely disconnecting from society. Therefore a social problem such as racism may not affect the white community directly, but most certainly does indirectly by undermining the virtues of American society, such as justice and equality for all, as well as creating a hostile and tense environment to live in.
Another significant idea that I acquired in Social Problems comes from Antonio Gramsci, who advocated “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”. In a recent convocation held for Black History Month, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill spoke of optimism as a sort of blind faith that everything will be better in the future. In contrast, he considers hope to be “the belief that, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, our circumstances can be transformed into something previously unimaginable”. I would imagine that Gramsci meant the latter when he referred to optimism. I take his statement to mean that in pursuing social justice it is essential to be critical and questioning while at the same time maintaining a sense of hope for the future. Though society is full of problems that often appear too large for the individual to have any impact on. To understand the obstacles that stand in our way we must be cynical and overcompensate for potential mishaps. At the same time, understanding how difficult change may be can often be discouraging so we must maintain the positivism and idealism that can propel us to pursue the extraordinary.
Another class that has been very influential in my Sociology education is Criminal and Deviant Behavior. Out of all of the theories involved in this course I was most impacted by the Labeling Theory of deviance. This theory does not focus on the background of the criminal but on how society and the criminal justice system label and consequently aid in reinforcing their behavior. One example of this is a sex offender, who must register in their community under this title and thereby carry the label of their criminal behavior for a long time after the crime. The preeminent aspect of Labeling Theory is not the behavior of the deviant but how society reacts towards the person who has been labeled. Labeling can be treated as both a cause (independent variable) and an effect (dependent variable). The cause, however, is at the heart of the theory, as it shows how labels can create a criminal/deviant identity within an individual.
I am interested in the Labeling Theory because labels are something that everyone in society has a part in creating. The people selected for stigmatization associated with labels are often the most vulnerable in society, which are also the group that is most likely to have the label stick because they do not have the social capitol to overturn them. The Labeling Theory I closely related to Symbolic Interactionist and Cooley’s “looking glass self”. This concept teaches that our self-perception is a reflection of what others think of us. I feel that so many at-risk youth fall victim to labels and all people could make society a safer and more harmonious place if we could work to combat labels by refraining from labeling others as well as resisting labels ourselves. Although the behavior creates the label more than the label creates the behavior and the initial behavior prolongs the subsequent behavior more than the label, if people feel that their mistakes can never be forgotten than they cannot move on to a more positive life.
In Social Theory class I realized a lot about the impact of modern society on the nature of human relations. In the shift to modern society, family and community structures became less important because our dependence upon them was largely reduced. We have begun to know each other less and less because we no longer rely on neighbors for “reciprocal obligations”. Due to this we have experienced a breakdown of primary relations, replacing intimate and personal relations with distant and impersonal ones. Relations are increasingly mediated through a system of institutions. Though smaller more personal relationships have been replaced in many ways, business relations still rely heavily upon human interaction. There must still be integrative investment in corporate relations in order to maintain trust, mutual respect, and loyalty. While this has enabled outward progression, it has also worsened interpersonal relations. With every new freedom and invention comes some danger of perversion that could result in deteriorating rather than strengthening matters. This said, just because something that is meant for good has the potential of also being used for evil doesn’t mean it should not be pursued. The burden is not on the instrumental ability, but on follow-up to keep humans safe from the misuse of development. There must be further measures taken to secure the directing and ordering of activities.
One example of modern industry that can have controversial consequences is the machine. This has worked to free life from the restrictions of placed upon the human body and has enabled us to overcome spatial changes in much less time. It allows for the use of materials that would have been impossible to work with before and reduces time and effort. Perhaps its greatest achievement was removing he drudgery of simple-minded tasks, which allowed for leisure to pursue intellectual development. This, of course comes at some expense, especially when machinery is misused. It can create some even duller jobs than before, including the operation of machines. Also, when machinery is overused it creates major pollution problems and ugly factories and smoke can overtake entire landscapes. The machine is a fine example of the good and bad that the future could hold for society and of the need for follow-up measures amidst modern development. Like machinery, it seems that the future of modern development holds more good than bad. We would certainly not want to go back to before industrialization, if only because we know that it was an inevitable step for human development. I think that the best thing that modern development has done for us, which is exemplified in the creation of the machine, is to allow for more time to pursue the life of the mind, expanding our thoughts beyond the borders of our individual communities. Despite the fact that inner relations have been strained, it is all about balance, and this is the key to the future good. With our increased opportunities to develop the mind, we should be able to come up with more solutions to reduce the problems of modernity and increase its benefits.
While discussing socialization in Social Psychology, the idea of the generalized other grabbed my attention. It is important to note that people are not passively molded by socialization, but actively participate in incorporating themselves into society. Socialization is an ongoing interactive process through which individual develops group identities. Through this one learns the ways of thinking, acting, and feeling characteristic of the given society. The two aspects of socialization are primary socialization in which one develops self-identity, traits that are considered normal or human nature for a particular group. Secondary socialization consists of the defining and refining of participation in groups, for example a teacher transitioning to administrative position.
Shipitani proposes that modern people don’t have one, but multiple generalized others, which are reference groups by which you compare and judge some aspects of your life. You do not have to choose just one generalized other to identify with and they can be either positive or negative. Reference groups are constantly in use in advertising. . In ads reference groups that average people want to associate with are used to sell any number of items.
Ok, Jessica. You are pretty far along. When I get a chance to read through it more carefully, I'll give you some more specific comments which I'll send via email. Prof. Ginocchio
ReplyDeletePersonal Essay Outline
ReplyDeleteI. Introduction
II. Milgram’s Research
-obedience to authority
-Important and relevant because it can help to explain people’s actions in terrible situations
-Also has ethical implications. This would no longer be allowed because of the potential trauma to those who followed directions and thought they were hurting someone
III. Jean Piaget’s Stages of Development
-Sensorimotor stage - touching, physically exploring the environment
Preoperational stage - language in a symbolic fashion, egocentric (only see the world from their own point of view)
Concrete Operational stage - master abstract notions such as causality, less egocentric
Formal Operational stage - able to grasp highly abstract ideas and hypotheticals
- Seem to be pretty intuitive and universal
- Important to understand how people develop and learn to think about themselves and the world around them. Important to me because I have strong interest in children
IV. Merton’s Theory of Crime
- Pressure is applied to people who do not “succeed” materially and people react in different ways:
-conformist: accept social values and legitimate means of attaining success regardless if they achieve it
-innovators: accept social values but use illegitimate means to attain success
-ritualists: compulsively follow rules but have lost sight of underlying values
-retreatists: reject dominant values and means of getting them
-rebels: reject social values and means but work to institute new ones
- Society has generally become increasingly more affluent and yet crime rates have risen. People who do not feel that they have lived up to the standards of society may turn to crime to achieve what they feel they are lacking.
V. Gender Learning
- Gender-typing in children’s books: boys as active, lead characters; girls as passive, domestic characters, or simply not present
- Ideas of gender learning and how they have shaped people today and trying to see that in my own life is something that I have really enjoyed throughout my sociology classes. Applying those ideas in unexpected places such as criminal and deviant behavior.
VI. Sociobiology
- Applying biological principles to social activities
- Although the research does not always support ideas of sociobiology it is still a really interesting way to look at the world and it is easy to find examples where it seems to play out in real life. It is especially interesting to look at sociobiological ideas of reproductive strategies (that men have an innate desire to have as many sexual partners as possible and women have a more significant investment and so desire to “settle down”)
VII. Social Identity
- characteristics that other people attribute to an individual - markers that indicate who a person is
- My experience in the major has been characterized a lot by looking at identity. Whether it was in race and ethnic relations looking at how race can effect someone’s image of themselves or in my current research project focusing on Southern identity. How people view themselves and how others view them is a fundamental question in each persons life. I believe that it is one of the most important aspects of sociology.
VIII. Conclusion
Matt Estep
ReplyDeletePersonal Essay Rough Draft Outline
A Major in Sociology: Experiencing Learned Concepts
I. Intro
A. Impact Sociology has had on me
1. Likes/dislikes
2. Seeing the world and the individuals who compose it in a different way
II. Civil Inattention
III. Goffman’s Front Region and Back Region
IV. Kunstler’s Criticisms Compared to the Great City of Spartanburg
A. Off-Campus Experience
V. Deviance
A. Class of ’02 and J.L. Simmons from 1965
1. What people think is deviant
VI. Labeling Theory
A. Most Impact of Criminal and Deviant Behavior Class
VII. Health Care in the United States
A. Better Informed Citizen to Vote
1. Obama and McCain
VIII. Fieldwork at CVS Pharmacy
A. Ritual Symbols
IX. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
X. Conclusion
Jessie Davis
ReplyDeletePersonal Essay
April 8, 2009
Making Sociology Come to Life: Some Theories Witnessed in Action
I became a sociology major in my sophomore year after completing an internship in Atlanta, GA at a non-profit social work agency. After thoroughly enjoying my experience there, I decided I wanted to go into that field after attaining my undergraduate degree. Therefore, a sociology degree was a logical choice. Now, on the cusp of graduation, I find that I have greatly enjoyed sociology as a field. However, any frustration that I have experienced in my studies has been that some theories/ideas seem so inaccessible. I feel that intellectual study, although greatly noble, can only take the student so far. For me, information once learned can eventually leave, but when engaged in a practical way, becomes engrained in a way that will guide future pursuits. I learn best when I can see the theories in action. That being said, as a student of sociology at Wofford College, there are some ideas that I have experienced, and those are the ones that I will be most likely to take with me as I leave.
As I do go on into the undefined and personified “real world”, it makes me think about the world that I am leaving behind. Until this point I have been in the formal educational system, and although I am not hereby retiring my brain, quite the contrary, I am at least temporarily leaving behind organized education in the way that I have known it up to this point. In analyzing what education is sociologically, I am reminded of Emile Durkheim and his theories of education. Surely if there is any theory that I have encountered it would be this once, since I have been in the middle of it for more than twenty-two years. Durkheim lived in a time categorized by much change. In view of this, he said that formal education, would, for one, facilitate a sort of social solidarity, giving everyone in the country a similar background that would reduce chaos later on because people would be coming from a common place. He also said that ideally schools could work like the country’s society in miniature so that when students do enter the “real world”, they would already be trained in how to thrive in that type of environment. I found these two ideas very interesting and I applied them to how my education has been and I made some interesting interpretations. I find that my education up until college did not fit into Durkheim’s framework at all. Growing up in school, I did not feel that I had a similar background as my peers based on our common educational experience and did not feel like I knew how the real world was supposed to work once I got out. In fact, my secondary education seems like the antithesis of the “real world” in most ways. However, it also seems that college has lived up more to Durkheim’s theories. On the one hand, I do have a different background than many of my peers, but part of this background is now the Wofford experience itself, and there is solidarity in that among the Wofford community as a whole. One way or another, Wofford is something that we can connect upon and I do value that. Also, I do feel that Wofford has prepared me for the real world and has shown me how I should function and my role in society: to be a thinking and active participant, ready to bring my own ingenuity to the table and feed off that of others’ to make the world better. Now neither of these college experiences are exactly what Durkheim had in mind when he proposed his theories on education, but perhaps this is a way in which his can be a living theory, adjusting to new situations and times, and applicable even now.
In my early days at Wofford, I experienced one influential sociological theory before I even know what it was. Cooley’s “looking glass self” is the idea that we see ourselves through the eyes of others, even to the point of incorporating the views of others into our personal sense of self. In other words, we imagine how others see us, imagine how they judge us based on their impression, and then use that as part of how we view ourselves. After learning about this theory in my sophomore year, I came to understand how I had experienced it in my process of acclimation into college life. When I came to know my main group of friends during my freshman year, I so enjoyed being around them, but realized that they were different from me. They were goofy. I was more serious. They were loud. I was quiet. They were more spontaneous, compared to my structured personality. So, I imagined that in their eyes, I must seem relatively boring and bland. I would then assume that they judged those aspects of my personality negatively, which made me think for a while that my personality was not a good as theirs because it was bland and boring. These three steps are an example of my applying Cooleys’ “looking glass self”. After a couple of months, I came to realize that my assumptions about my friends’ impressions and judgments were completely off. Yes, I was different, but they isaw that as a good thing. I was not boring and bland to them, but was the glue that held everyone together on an even keel. I was the fun friend that kept everyone grounded and in good harmony. Therefore, I now know their true feelings and see myself in the positive way that they do. This then, is the looking glass self in a more positive application regarding self image. But in both examples, these are ways that early on my college career I experienced Cooley’s theory in a way that made sense to me personally. That makes it a theory that I will be able to carry forward with me and be aware of in the future.
After my freshman year, I completed an internship in Atlanta, which I mentioned earlier as the reason I became a sociology major. My job in this internship was to screen and counsel clients including the working poor and the homeless of the area. Therefore, I was able to interact with many people coming from many different circumstances. I found after a while, that this was the perfect place to apply some of W.E.B. DuBois’s ideas, particularly his idea that a person’s sense of self is influenced by historical experiences and social circumstances. I experienced this through the stories of the people I screened. For instance, it is a general assumption that many homeless and working poor in this country are in their position due to some life mistake they have made, whether that be alcohol drugs, crime, etc. However, I came to understand that although in some instances is certainly true, many times people are a product of their historical and social circumstances, which in turn affects their sense of self. Once negative circumstances gain hold, they are hard to reverse, causing a cycle of chronic disadvantage. This is exemplified in the cases of two homeless men that I met in Atlanta. One man was a Vietnam veteran who returned from the war with mental illness. When he went home, his family did not know how to deal with his new personality, and so they eventually kicked him out and disowned him. Therefore, his history—Vietnam—caused him to see the world differently and to have mental issues in relating to people especially his family, upon return. These historical and social issues caused this man then to alter his sense of self, making him believe that he was a post-war nobody that could not have genuine relationships. When this self image takes hold, it makes the possibility of meaningful relationships seem impossible, which trapped this man in a system of loneliness for years.
Another man that I met also displayed DuBois’s idea that historical experiences and social circumstances can determine one’s sense of self. He was a victim of hurricane Katrina. He was a vocal artist in New Orleans, meaning that he was very learned and performed hundreds of Langston Hughs’s literary works on stage, which made him a very good living. Socially, he was very well known and revered both by his close acquaintances and by the general public. After Katrina, he moved to Atlanta to live with friends and to hopefully start over. Much to his dismay, there was not the same demand for his talents in Atlanta as there was in New Orleans, so he came into our office as a last resort, having eaten his last can of soup on the way. In his case, his historical experiences and social circumstances had been very positive at home, but had completely reversed once Katrina hit and he moved to Atlanta. I caught him in the middle of DuBois’s process. He was slowly altering his sense of self from a successful performance actor, to a man who had to struggle to have enough food to eat, all because historical and social circumstances had altered.
Out of these experiences I had in Altanta, I also learned how vital the individual is. I understand that there are different views within sociology as to how to view the social interactions in the world. It seems to me that, perhaps because of the history of our country and our social values, the American perspective tends to be much more individualized, where as the European perspective is often more broad, concentrating more on overarching themes than on the individuals who encounter them. Not to be a stereotypical American, but in my experience, the individual perspective, at least as the starting point, has been much more relevant to my view of the world. I find theoretical support for that in Meade’s symbolic interactionist thought which suggests that one must look at the individual in order to see the society. Specifically, he asserts that there is importance in symbols involved in social interaction which have meanings that govern how we interact with each other. This falls under the category of sociological microtheory as opposed to macrotheory. It seems to me that there is value in the overarching patterns of a society, but where do those patterns come from? Why are they there? They come from the dominate pattern of many individuals’ interactions collected together into a pattern, which at the root, are individual interactions. In my interactions with disadvantaged people, they have often times expressed to me that they are overlooked in the struggle to end poverty. The poor—the very ones the country tries to help—are overlooked because the overarching issue of poverty is seen more than the people struggling with the problem daily. If they were given a platform from which to speak—if they were really known—how much different would the social climate of this country look? I think we must first find out what symbols there are involved in an impoverished situation and what meanings they have. If these are not understood from the perspective of the impoverished people individually, than any policy we implement is blind to the way people we are trying to help are going to interpret it. So, I think that in order to solve major social problems, solutions must come from the bottom up, starting with the individual (mircotheory) and slowly working its way up to what is seen as the overarching issue. By encouraging this way of framing social problems, I hope to be able to more effectively working toward solving them where I can.
This ties in with a lesser well known idea from Max Weber called “verstchen”, which is a way of describing the interpreting/understanding of people through an intuitive understanding of symbolic relationships by adopting the point of view of the people being studied. This type of empathetic understanding is vital in study because the aim in a sociological pursuit is understanding, whereas in the hard sciences, the aim is more explanatory. The experiences I have had in Atlanta, Spartanburg, and India with the poor and homeless have shown me that so many noble endeavors, whether they are political policy, a person’s giving to a charitable organization, or anything that is meant to help the disadvantaged, are too often in vain because they are strictly viewed from an outsider’s perspective. For example, perhaps a homeless person will be unwilling to receive help if administered in a certain way and if we understood from their vantage point we could administer help that would be acceptable by them, so resources do not go to waste for lack of understanding. If we could somehow see through their eyes, we could better understand how to help in a way that this more effective and acceptable to those we are serving. For instance, I spoke with a man once who came into a social service center everyday. People working there got mad at him because they thought he was trying to take advantage of the organization’s services by getting more than he actually needed. When confronted about it, he said no, that he did not come to exploit services, but because that was the only place where he could have a genuine conversation. He just wanted to talk . But no one could see that because they interpreted the situation and its symbols strictly from their point of view. It they had utilized Weber’s “verstchen” and made an effort to know this man and see empathetically where he was coming from and the symbols that categorized his interactions, they would have seen the situation for what it truly was—just need of social interaction. I hope that I can take the idea of “verstchen” with me as I go through my life, whether I am working in social services or not because it gets everyone on the same page, which works out for the best for everyone in the end.
In “verstchen”, I feel that detail and interpretation of meanings are vital because if you do not have all the details about a situation or do not attach the same meaning to an action as the group of people, or person you are studying, then the information you glean from that person or group will necessarily be skewed. I think Clifford Geertz would agree and would additionally cite the importance of his method of thick description in anthropology. This is something that I encountered in my first sociology course, Cultures and People of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. I learned there that thick description is the context specific practices and way things are done within a society and the practice of trying to see all the possible meanings behind them. Also, Geertz asserts that the ethnographer’s job is to observe, record, and analyze a culture (getting all the details). This was interesting to me when I first learned about it, but then I was able to encounter it again in an independent study class on Indian culture . In that class Claire Bishop and I read many articles and books about different aspects of Indian culture and basically just participated in thick description via a blog that we kept over the course of the semester. We read about a variety of topics such as Indian poverty and slums, street children, prostitution, India’s growing economy, just to name a few. We would then blog about what they all meant as well as meet with each other and Dr. Fowler to discuss what we had thought about and wrote regarding our thick descriptions and reflections. This was a very important way for me to engage Geertz’s theory because it greatly prepared me for the trip that I took to India the following summer. There this methodology was reinforced in an even more powerful way because instead of just engaging text, I as able to engage people that were representations of the thick description and reading that we had participated in for a semester. Nothing was more powerful and lasting to me regarding the sociology major than reading about specific parts of Indian culture and then witnessing them in real life. That is why Geertz’s theories including thick description will stay with me forever and has made a very real impact on me both intellectually and personally.
After being at Wofford for four years, I am about to move on. While sometimes it feels frightening, I think it will be equally exciting to learn what lies ahead for me. And I will certainly not leave empty handed as far as my academic pursuits. What I will cling to most tightly are those ideas that I was privileged enough to personally experience. They have been real to me and I have described some of them in this paper. They are worthy ideas and can stand alone in importance, but I think that the greater lesson that I have learned is not encompassed in a theory even though they are of considerable merit. The greater lesson to me is to engage myself in whatever I do learn in the future—to not let ideas float around in thought alone, but to see how they are practice in the world, and to personally put them into practice. That is surely the final end of theory anyway because what is an explanation without testing it? So as I go on from this place, know that I will be still learning, and learning to make meaningful encounters with the information I learn. It is exciting to think about what great things can come from that.