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The reason I interested in taking this class is because it is a co-requisite for nursing. I’m excited to learn the social factors that influence healthcare. I’ve also always been curious as to why humans do what they do.

1. What sort of career are you interested in? How could studying sociology help you in this career? 2.  How might sociology better help you in navigating and coping with life?

I’m interested in a nursing career. Sociology is the study of social life and the way humans interact with one another. This would help me in my career for various reasons; sociology will allow me to fully understand the cultural, economic, and societal aspect of a patients lives to provide efficient and compassionate care as a nurse. Another one of those reasons is understanding social factors that make a person human. With that being said sociology can help me navigate and cope with life by understanding why people do what they do and what influences.

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Describe something about our culture the way miner would?

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Describe something about our culture the way miner would?

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In the Divided States, there is a cult known as ARN. They worship mythical objects known as “fire-sticks”. These “fire-sticks” can unleash thunder and lightning with the simple push of a button. ARN is present in each faction of the Divided States but each faction has different rituals. One faction in particular, Ilac, had a ritual where man must show they have enough brain power to activate the “fire-stick” over a 10-day period in order to even obtain it. They could only have one “fire-stick” every 30 daysto ensure they don’t soak up too much energy and rebel against the Divided States and even need a golden ticket in order to carry the mythical object in their satchels. However, in contrast, some factions like Old Mahshire allows children barely developing brain power to obtain a “fire-stick” without having to go through the rituals of practicing how to operate the strong and powerful object or even testing their brain power over a 10-day period. It is still a wonder to anthropologists as to why each faction can differ so greatly from one another and why some require more brain power to obtain a “fire-stick” than others.

Ilac: Cali

Old Mahshire: New Hampshire

ARN: NRA

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I just arrived to the coffee shop and I can see this area isn’t too busy. I’ve always seen this Starbucks off the freeway when driving home from the Livermore Outlets, but I’ve never been inside until today. There are 3 baristas working today, at least the ones who are out in front. One just left for her lunch break I assume because she said “See you guys in 30” as she walked out the doors with a lunch Tupperware in hand. The other 3 are working and talking. The smell of coffee hits my nose and since it’s fall, I can smell a hint of their most popular flavor, Pumpkin Spice. I hear the milk frother working, the crackling of whip cream coming out of the can, and cups hitting the sink after the baristas are done mixing drinks in them. It’s not too loud though, quiet enough I can do my work but still loud enough I can hear conversations.

I’m seated on a long booth that extends across the wall, my laptop in front of me on top of a small circle shaped table. I have a quarter-eaten cream cheese Danish to my right and an iced mocha above it. The condensation is dripping off the sides of the cup and falling onto the table, making a border of water around the base of my cup.

There are long rectangular windows that scatter the walls so I can see the cars passing in front of me. Thedoor to my left leads to the parking lot of the gas station next to the coffee shop. All the customers I’ve seen so far have entered through that door, unlike me who came in from the one directly in front of the barista counter to my right. There’s only been about 4 customers since I arrived, but it seems like they're familiar with this location because they’re on a first name basis with the man I assume is the manager.

He sits at the head of a long meeting table with a laptop in front of him and papers scattered around him.I’ve heard him talking with the baristas about scheduling and orders. He wears a black button-down dress shirt with small Polka dots, black slacks, and burnt orange/brown dress shoes. He has thin rimmed glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose and short hair tousled up with gel. His voice is stern and professional but polite and inviting.

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As stated in the text, two major activities of sociologists are conducting empirical research and constructing a theoretical base. Empirical research is based on objective observations. In the past, I've watched a lot of “Social Experiment” YouTube videos where people do experiments such as a man abusing his wife in public or hearing a man trying to lure a young child to his car. I feel like conducting these experiments in public allows us to objectively observe because we would have no control over how people react. Because they don’t know it’s an experiment, we get genuine responses. Theoretical base is based on theories. We take what we know and compare it to objective observations or facts and try to make sense of it. I’ve heard of something called the Bystander Effect. From what I understand, it happens in public where there are multiple people, and everyone fears helping or feels like someone else will help because there’s so many people. In the case of the social experiments I had previously mentioned, I saw a video where the man grabbed a child suddenly from a park with many people around and although everyone knew it was wrong, they didn’t react. They stood and watched with fear and confusion, even as the child screamed. Instead, they went directly to their children and held them tight. I would imagine that to come up with the concept and understand it, sociologists would have to conduct multiple similar experiments and take what they saw and what they know to come to an understanding of this Bystander effect. To see that many people would ignore those situations in fear of being judged, or of it happening to them, or even the naive thought someone else will probably help so I don’t need to, right?

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In high school, I surrounded myself with people who made the wrong choices, who chose to skip class and didn’t care about their grades. Eventually, I fell into that same habit and my grades began slipping and I started doing things I shouldn’t have. Once I realized this, I spoke to a counselor and she recommended I join a Quasi-Military program where you live on a military base supervised by Army Cadre. There they instilled discipline in me, made me take classes to fulfill my credits, and mentored me. There I started to see a different version of myself and once I graduated, I went on to join the military. Mead’s work talks about how our identities are shaped through social interactions and environments and since joining, my life has changed significantly. I’ve been able to experience so many things from studying medicine to interacting with so many people from different cultural, social, and financial backgrounds. For example, one of my sergeants is a paramedic, one is a pharmacist, and a few of my fellow soldiers are studying to become nurses. Speaking to them has made me realize that life isn’t as small as this bubble I put myself in. I have so many options and so many things I want to do. A quote by Mead said, “The self is not a social structure but a social process as well”. I relate to this so much because the person I am now was definitely a process of going through life and seeing and experiencing so many different things. In plain terms, seeing people my age succeed has made me want to succeed. Seeing people have goals makes me want to set and meet my goals. We are who we hang out with.

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In chapter 4.3 we dive into roles and social status in day to day life and how one person can have many of each. I have the status of a student, employee, and soldier but I also have the roles of being a son, brother, boyfriend, and friend. Sometimes it’s hard to be so many things at once. Sometimes I find it hard to juggle everything. For example, when I first started school, I was also in the process of starting a new job. The orientation was a week long and fell on the same week classes started. I so wanted to keep that job because I wanted to be able to provide for myself and start a career but I also knew that school and my status as a student was more important than the role of an employee. This is what the text calls a role conflict.

The text also mentions Goffman’s idea that we’re are all actors on a stage which I think could not be more true. I see it on a day to day basis in others and even see it in myself. The way I carry myself and act when encountering different people and situations varies. When I’m working, I act professional and put together. I ensure I’m on task and responsible whereas if I’m at home with my brother or girlfriend, I can relax and have fun but I also do realize that they way I act is somewhat like a mirror. Charles Cooley’s idea of the looking-glass self is an important part of social construct because people are always trying to become what they think people see them as. Many times I’ve done this where I change my mannerisms or appearance or cologne to gauge a reaction and use that reaction to become a version of myself.

All of this—the roles, status, and presentation of self—constructs society to what it is now and it’s definitely interesting to see how I fit into society.

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When I was in high school, I liked to have many friends. I liked bouncing around and never settling. When I read this chapter, it reminded me of myself at that time. I liked talking to different people because I could portray myself as whoever I wanted to be. I could put on an act and be this new person and it was exciting. I could be the “bad boy” for one or the “kind and warm” guy for another. Like Goffman said, I was an actor on a stage. Another thing I could relate to was impression management. Like in the text, “Since a girl’s dormitory mates will glean evidence of her popularity from calls she receives, we can suspect some girls will arrange for calls to be made”. This scenario reminded me of elementary school when we had something called Valentine’s Grams. It was a fun fundraising thing where kids would buy roses, conversation hearts, and chocolates to be sent to their crush on Valentine’s Day. These “grams”would be passed out during class in front of all your classmates and it became a show of how popular you were. Some girls would receive 10+ grams, some would get only one. It appeared the same girls who had 10+ grams would have even more by the time the Christmas Grams came around. It was like they knew how popular they were when everyone saw how many grams they had, and it made them not only more popular, but it also made them more desirable.

At such a young age, these girls were already aware of their presentations of self and how portraying themselves in a certain light gave them the attention/responses they wanted. Everyone does this in some way, shape, or form. In all aspects of our lives, we must put on different pants to fill a role, whether that be a father, husband, employee, or employer. We all have different variations in our personalities to fit in with our different roles.

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Handling the dead is seen as cold and heartless and makes anyone think, “Why would they choose to work with dead people and how heartless can someone be to profit off other’s deaths?” The thing is morticians and funeral directors don’t see it that way. They see it as preparing our loved ones for an “eternal slumber” and making them presentable to be seen by others. They do their best to portray themselves in a way that goes against stigmas by being very bubbly, happy, and warm and never speaking about their work.

This same thing can be said for so many different professions as well. For example, exotic dancers. Exotic dancers are seen as crude and inappropriate, and people wonder if they even have any self-respect for themselves or wonder “How could someone sell their body like that?” I read an article called Stripping Stigma from Exotic Dancers from The Commonwealth Times and in this article, the author wrote about how exotic dancing was an outlet for her to express herself and how using her femininity helped her cope with depression. She spoke about how it opened a whole new world for her, allowing her to see women from all different walks of life. For her, it wasn’t about the money. It was about doing something she thoroughly enjoyed. And yes, she said there were women who were dancing to make money to support their businesses and their children but even if they weren’t, why should they be stigmatized? The stigmas surrounding these jobs have no foundation other than the judgement of people who think they don’t fall in with societal norms. Society will look at morticians, or strippers and see someone less than. Someone who doesn’t deserve the same respect doctors or nurses or lawyers do. Someone who is undignified. Because of this, they feel the need to change themselves and portray themselves as someone the total opposite of their job.

In the text, one funeral director said he “always carried a handwarmer in his right-hand coat pocket so that he could warm his hand before shaking or touching someone,” that way no one could associate him with being “cold”. I have also heard stories from personal friends who say their friends always feel the need to hide that they’re exotic dancers because they don’t want to be scrutinized at their child’s school. They always dress and speak professionally so that no one can question what they do for work. It’s sad to see that these people are simply working hard and trying to make a living and society brings it upon themselves to stigmatize careers that we don’t feel are “normal”. These people are “normal” people too and live “normal” lives just like we do.

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How does role strain and role conflict operate in your life

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How does role strain and role conflict operate in your life

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Role strain and role conflict operate in my life in various ways. As a combat medic, I'm expected to provide immediate medical care under intense pressure, while simultaneously staying alert and sharp. This involves not only diagnosing and treating injuries but also knowing what medications to administer for different situations, all while being fully aware of the chaotic environment around me.

At times, we’re randomly selected for simulations, where we're placed in combat scenarios with casualties who have unknown wounds that we must treat on the spot. Throughout these exercises, we're subjected to intense evaluations, with superiors yelling at us and questioning our every move, testing both our medical skills and mental resilience.

Balancing these demands can create role strain, as the expectations to be both an excellent soldier and a medical professional come with a lot of pressure. However, overcoming these challenges also sharpens my abilities and makes me more effective under real-world conditions.

In terms of role conflict, I’m a son, boyfriend, brother, soldier, student, and employee. I have come to see that there is a lot of conflict when trying to maintain each of these roles. As a son, I am always trying to help my mom and make her life easier. In order to do this I try my best to be a good employee, work plenty of hours, and make a lot of money. However spending so much time at work takes away from time I can be spending with my girlfriend or brother. I am also a soldier and have to spend time away for drill which takes away time from not only my family, but also work and school. Trying to balance each of these roles proves conflict because I want to be able to juggle all aspects of my life.

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How does obedience to authority or group conformity shown up in your life

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How does obedience to authority or group conformity shown up in your life