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Hey to whoever is reading this, my name is Kara. I am currently studying psychology and hope to one day become an eating disorders therapist. I am really passionate about health and nutrition and it is a huge part of my life. I love looking at how we can better ourselves through clean eating and natural healing. No, this doesn’t mean I am a hippie. I just want to use the resources that we have here on earth to keep my body going. In my free time OF COURSE I enjoy doing nothing and watching Netflix. I am currently on season 10 of Grey’s Anatomy. Believe it or not, I watch that show specifically for the medical side, not for the drama, although the drama really is the cherry on top. I love being outside and in the sun (which I know professor J hates) and I am definitely a late spring/early summer person. In the picture above I am at Susquehannock State Park. I was hiking that day with one of my closest friends, another activity I enjoy. When it comes to school, I definitely am a bit of an over achiever. But I figure that’s better than under achieving. My favorite subjects are of course, psychology and anything biology too. The purpose of this post is to give you a little glimpse into my life before you dive in and learn a little bit more about the world of sociology and just how much of a role it plays in our everyday lives. Enjoy!

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I never realized how relevant Sociology was in my life until I took this class. I had taken Sociology in high school and I absolutely hated it. I thought everything we were learning was just stuff that was an everyday part of life. Why was I sitting through an hour and a half class about the different types of families? Who cares. I certainly don’t. But, as a 17 year old I really wasn’t absorbing any of the information. I cared more about what I was doing the upcoming weekend. Being 5 years older now, I obviously care more about what I am learning. Diving deep into gender and race has really gotten me to notice just how much of a sexist and racist society we live in. It makes me realize how racist my old boss was, because I was misinterpreting his jokes and sly remarks as actual racism! I think taking this course is really important in understanding the world around you. Sure, you could take psychology, and that might help you understand people on an individual level. But, sociology has helped changed my perspective on the world around from the macro level. I will admit, I dreaded this class. It was required for me and I pushed it off until my last semester. But, I can honestly say that I now have a better appreciation for sociology. Dr. Jacobson has made this a fun and relatable class and I am very glad to have had her for this course.

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From a young age, girls are conditioned to be pretty, take care of others, and preform duties that a typical housewife would do. It is their role in society, how they are expected to act (Conley, 2017, p. 132). For boys, well they are encouraged to be boys. Run around, get dirty, be reckless. These gender roles have been around since forever, and it has caused women to suffer from “The Need to Please Disease” which is where women feel like if they aren’t living up to society’s expectations then they aren’t living right. Countless studies have demonstrated that the ways kids are socialized impacts adult women. Good-girl conditioning is how we learned to adopt the behaviors and attitudes expected of women. Tara Mohr, an expert on women’s leadership and well-being, sums it up, “Be nice. Be considerate of others. Don’t rock the boat. Be likable.” It is hard to unlearn these messages because a kid, you remember stuff like this. This is the stuff that sticks with you your whole life. We are constantly being bombarded with ads, about how women are supposed to act and look. If you can’t beat em, join em. That’s where this concept comes into play because women feel like they have no choice but to conform to society. Luckily though, we are getting better at sticking up for ourselves and being more independent. But, we are a long way from a world where we don’t have to have these unrealistic expectations to be feminine.

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References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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This photo shows a good example of substitution of nonhuman technology, which is something that we discussed during our Mcdonaldization unit. We are replacing real people with machines and robots, which makes things more efficient. Being efficient means choosing the optimal means to achieve a given end. Prioritizing efficiency is also a part of Max weber’s iron cage theory. We humans are trapped in a society that would rather have robots do our jobs for us because we are lazy. There is no other way to put it. We want things done quickly and done right. I think this also is a reason that employees of fast food restaurants are becoming somewhat robotic. They do their work without even thinking or having any variation because the goal is getting the job done as quick as possible. This ties into the concept of predictability too, which where we expect the same outcome and quality of something that happens here, to happen somewhere else as well. I think with all this focus on efficiency and using robots to replace humans, we could be in for a scary future. Nothing is going to be unique anymore. Everything will be the same. Pretty soon fast food restaurants won’t even be actual restaurants, you will just show up and order your food on a computer screen and a robot will bring it out to you. Mcdonaldization might sound crazy but it is real and it is happening fast.

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References

Jacobson, S. (2018). Lecture on Max Weber and the Iron Cage. Personal Collection of S. Jacobson, Harrisburg Area Community College, Lancaster PA

  Jacobson, S. (2018). Lecture on McDonaldization. Personal Collection of S. Jacobson, Harrisburg Area Community College, Lancaster PA

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Male college students are more likely to think of themselves as smarter than they actually are, while women are more realistic when it comes to judging their academic performance and placement in college. This comes from a study done at Arizona State University. The study, published in the journal Advances in Physiology Education, looked at data collected from 202 students enrolled in a college physiology class. The model allowed the researchers to make adjustments for each student’s GPA depending on the difficulty of classes they took, so that the effect of gender on the students’ perceptions could be identified. A man with an average GPA was likely to say that they were smarter than 66 percent of their class. For a woman with an average GPA, this figure was only 54 percent. One of the researchers behind the study, Katelyn Cooper, asked the same questions to both men and women. She’d ask them how their classes were going. The women would usually respond by saying they didn’t feel smart enough or that that the other people in the class probably thought they were stupid. When Katelyn asked the men this same question, they would say that they think they are doing well in the class and probably have a higher grade than most of the other students. The reliability, or the likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure (Conley, 2017, p. 54) does not really play a factor in this study. Women are disproportionately thinking they are not as good as other students. “This is not an easy problem to fix,” Cooper says. “It’s a mindset that has likely been ingrained in female students since they began their academic journeys.” I do think that this is a reason why many women are afraid to take on harder majors in the science or math field, because they will just be told that they aren’t smart enough or cut out for it. But college students always overestimate how smart they are compared to others. I know I do.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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Formal Deviance, aka Crime, is the violation of laws enacted by society (Conley, 2017, p.191). There is always the argument of nature vs nurture when someone commits a crime, and it seems that nurture plays a much bigger role than nature. Cultural influence has a huge part in how a person behaves. For example, in Taiwan, parents are more active in supervising their children. There is also a steep price for nonconforming Taiwan teens. In Taiwan, teens are less likely to emphasize autonomy and fun and less likely to engage in behaviors different from or opposed to, the adults. Taiwan youth are more likely to view deviance as too risky to their future success in attending a good school or finding a good job. They have been conditioned to follow the norms of their culture in fear of disappointing their parents. But, what happens when teens get past age 18? According to Yunmei Lu, a doctoral candidate and graduate assistant in sociology and criminology, “parental and school supervision and involvement are very extensive during adolescence but would be reduced after those children graduated from high school”. “Youth after 18 years old would then have more freedom for exposure to deviant or criminal messages.” But what about the biological aspect of crime? Some people think that we are born criminals, and committing crime is just “in our blood.” But even when someone commits a crime, we always look at their lifestyle and the events that occurred in their life. “This guy killed a bunch of people because he got tossed around the foster care system as a child and never had stability in his life.” Again, this is looking more at nurture and not nature. But, if we want to commit a crime badly enough, we will. But I don’t think looking at our biological backgrounds will get any real answers.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund provides subsidized legal support to those who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace. There has been a lot of talk about it in the media as actors and actresses are coming forward to report abuse in the workplace. Because of this movement, University of Texas responded by creating a gallery for students to talk about this movement on campus. A 2017 survey by the University of Texas System shows that around 20 percent of students have reported sexual assault incidents and 7 percent of those incidents reported by students were rape-related.  Dr. Guillermina Núñez, the director of the Women’s Studies Department at UTEP and a professor of sociology for 13 years, says that she has personally learned of the stories of some students severely affected in their personal and academic lives because of previous experiences of sexual assault. By having a platform on campus, students can express their feelings, have conversations with others, and even take charge on their own. Their goal is to make #Timesup a local thing too, and not just something that is talked about on television. I think socialization play a big part in getting things accomplished. When individuals take their values and beliefs and use them to function in society (Conley, 2017, p. 91) it draws attention to the situation and gets even more people involved. Having this set up on a college campus is a great idea because college campuses are one of the top victims of sexual assault and abuse. If students can come together to express their feelings, that alone is enough. Even if it something local, and not on TV.

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References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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In this article, Jacqueline Knirnschild goes and visits her friend Sergio in Seville, Spain. Despite being a Spanish city, she couldn’t help but notice that the there were so many American restaurants all around the city. Places like KFC, McDonald’s, and Starbucks. She comes to the conclusion that almost every foreign city she visits has some touch of America to it. And then she wonders, is globalization really just Americanization? Other countries seem to romanticize things we think are a normal part of culture. Knirnschild points out how even in Australia, girls at the 6th grade level were fascinated by High School Musical and becoming cheerleaders. And when she studied abroad in Italy, her host sister wishes that she could have the “American college experience” and go to New York City. So why is American culture so fetishized? One reason could be tourism. Around two million American tourists visited the country of Spain in 2016. Having American restaurants and shopping places in foreign countries can help make tourists feel more at home. But why should Americans need to feel at home while visiting another country? You should be visiting another country to learn about that country’s culture, their food, their way of life. The United States is always called a melting pot, but is our watered down Chinese food really that diverse? We aren’t really a diverse country, we kind of just pick and choose the things we like from different cultures and ignore everything else. Us Americans really should start appreciating and embracing the cultures of the world because the American culture alone isn’t really “unique.” I think if anything, we are somewhat ethnocentric, which means we believe our culture is superior to others (Conley, 2017, p. 80). That is why the rest of the world is fascinated by our way of life.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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Our obsession with gender is bigger than we think it is. Say your friend is pregnant. She is having a girl and you must buy the baby a gift. More than likely, you will pick out something pink/purple, flowery, polka dotted, stripped, and even sparkly. You do this without even thinking because you have been conformed by society to associate these traits with girls. Now let’s say that you are unaware of what the baby’s gender is. Would you still buy something girly? Probably not. You’d pick out something gender neutral, even though it shouldn’t matter. It’s a freaking baby. Some parents are now raising their babies as “theybies” which is when parents keep their babies’ sex secret and raise them in an environment free from gender bias. These parents usually receive negative criticism though, and they shouldn’t. It’s not a bad idea. Kids should be able to grow up and explore their own gender. If they want to be a feminine girl, that’s fine. If they want to be a feminine boy, that is also fine. If we weren’t so rigid in the way that we maintain gender norms, we would have a more gender-equal society. But, we are constantly maintaining gender norms and it has gotten to the point where it is ridiculous. We have lotion specifically made for men, but when you look at the ingredients they’re the same the normal “gender neutral” lotion. But, because it is in a grey bottle with navy blue lettering, it’s for males only! Men are supposed to be big and manly and shouldn’t be seen using wimpy traditional lotion. This concept relates back to sex role theory, which is from Talcott Parson and he states that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers respectively (Conley, 2017, p. 291). Men need to serve their purpose in society, women need to serve their purpose in society. Men should use the masculine lotion, women should use the feminine lotion. If you’re having a baby girl, buy her things that prove she is a girl. At the end of the article, author Nicola Heath states that if we take away the lens of gender, maybe we’ll see our children, and their character and behavior, more objectively. This applies to adults too.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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The first time I saw this video was back in my public speaking class. My professor told us that we should all do the “power pose” before our speeches because it would help us feel more confident and relaxed. I think Amy Cuddy does a really good job though at expressing how body language can affect how others see us and how we think others see us. This concept is called “the looking glass self” which comes from Charles Cooley.”The self emerges from our ability to assume the point of view of others and thereby imagine how they see us” (Conley, 2017, p. 121). We are constantly thinking about what others think of us. From every little thing like the clothes we wear, the way we talk, how our hair looks,etc. I know I am extremely guilty of this. I think to myself “okay, I am going to the grocery store and it’s Friday morning. I more than likely won’t see anyone I know, but just in case I do I should probably put a full face of makeup on even though I am only going to be there for a half hour.” It sounds ridiculous, but I am sure you can relate somehow. Amy Cuddy says that if we stop and take a minute to do a power pose, our confidence will increase. This is because the power pose is symbolic and often associated with superheroes, who are viewed as being confident and brave.When you are lacking confidence, like right before giving a speech to a class full of strangers, Amy Cuddy suggests “fake it til you make it” which basically means that you if you get yourself in the right mindset, you will succeed in whatever you are doing. 

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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To the Future Students of Intro to Sociology, 

First things first, do NOT procrastinate on this project. I am currently sitting at my dining room table typing this on a Saturday afternoon. I pushed this off until the weekend before this is due and now I am missing out on warm sunny weather. But back to the point. This class is no joke. You might be taking it because it’s required or maybe just as an elective credit, but whatever the reason do not slack off. You really dive deep into all things sociology in this class, and things move at a fast pace. Look over the content BEFORE coming to class. Even if it is a few minutes before class starts, it will help tremendously. DO NOT FORGET YOUR READING QUIZZES. If you have the time. work ahead and take the reading quizzes for the units you haven’t learned yet. Those are easy points that you do not want to miss out on. For in class quizzes, use the study guides that are provided for you. Don’t rely on your class notes, because not all the answers can be found there. Most importantly, besides work ethic, just enjoy yourself in this class. Everything you talk about is relatable. If you apply what you learn to your everyday life, you will better understand the world around you. 

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I feel like almost anyone can relate to this photo. The idea is simply this: we put time, effort, and hard work into something only to have someone else take all the credit for it. This happens at work but even sometimes at school, like during a group project. This is the everyday life for people in the lower class. They work their butts off at a factory job making pillows and barely make minimum wage, while the entrepreneur of the company is tanning on the beach in Mexico because why not? He doesn’t need to work because someone else can just do it for him. Of course, he can defend himself and say “I worked my way up to the top, I deserve this” but not all people in the upper class work for the position they are in. Sometimes, they are simply born into it. Those people can take the same vacation to Mexico, but what will they use for their reasoning? They really don’t have one except this: money. It is all about the money. Unfortunately, money defines who you are in society. The class system separates people into upper, middle, and lower classes (Coley, 2017, p. 251). If you are lower class, you are poor. If you are upper class, you are rich. If you’re in the middle, you’re not either one. You’re just average. The kind of job you have doesn’t matter if it isn’t showing in your physical appearance, the kind of car you drive, or the type of shoes you wear. Money creates unfairness. For example, a high school senior born into a upper-class family doesn’t have to worry about where they go to college because money isn’t an issue. Meanwhile, a high school senior in a lower-class family has to depend on financial aid and scholarships, and even then they might only be able to afford to go to the local community college or have to commute 45 minutes to the nearest university. The next time you buy something expensive or fancy, think about all the work it took for that product to get into your hands. Consider yourself lucky that you can buy nice things, because the people that make those nice things will probably never make enough money to afford them.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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This article talks about how two black men were asked to leave Starbucks simply because they sat down for a business meeting, but did not actually order anything from the menu. Now, this may seem like no big deal because who wants to have people in their restaurant that aren’t paying to be there? But, a white woman went to the same Starbucks location, sat down, and did not order anything. Not once was she approached by any of the employees. So of course, Starbucks is now getting a ton of negative feedback for being racist. Starbucks’s CEO Kevin Johnson responds to this by deciding to close more than half of all the Starbucks locations on May 29th to conduct racial bias training for the staff. Will this actually help the issue? Probably not. Racism is something we are taught. We learn racism from our friends, family, and most importantly, social media. In our textbooks, Conley talks about how we basically turn racism into something fun. We use hashtags like “stuff white people do” which offer humorous yet pointed critiques of privileges that affluent white people tend to have in America (Conley, 2017, p. 347) If we make racism seem like some big joke, it will continue to happen. Forever. And unfortunately, I do not think that one day of racial bias training is going to change how people feel at work. Sure, you might suck it up and tolerate it when a person of color comes into your restaurant, uses your bathroom, and then leaves without even ordering anything. But as soon as you clock out for the night and head home, you are no longer using your front stage and your racist mindset return. This is the world we live in. Even if we do continue to take steps forward to stop racism, somewhere, someone or something (say a Starbucks for example) is taking a step backwards.

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References 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.