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Required entry: How did role strain and role conflict affect your life?

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Required entry: How did role strain and role conflict affect your life?

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I would say I have been in these situations a lot. Last summer I was a student, a worker, friend, and a sister. Role strain used to be when I was only a student and only used to be stressed about homework and exams. But when I started working the conflict started. I had so much work that I had to do double shifts because I was the only one working at that time, but I also couldn't attend my friends get together or I remeber I wasn't even home at my brother's birthday. It made me very sad and think about how life can get so hard when you have multiple roles and responsibilities. Not only I was stressed about work but how disappointed my brother would be of me. Role conflict affects me mentally since I get pressure from more and different roles while having so many expectations.

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Required entry: How did group conformity or obedience conformity affect your life? 

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Required entry: How did group conformity or obedience conformity affect your life? 

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Personally, both have affected me. I come from a Sikh Punjabi family where we follow rules and our culture. But I grew up in Greece where the European culture was different. My friend circles affected me in terms of changing my dressing sense, wearing jeans or dresses, but not enough to start drinking or partying lime them. I think I am pretty balance, I do try to fit in groups, but I also follow my ethics and norms. Group conformity affected me more in terms of taking advice from friends about relationships or career, or anything in general.

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Required entry:  The federal minimum wage is $7.25.  Around the country, many are fighting to increase that to $15, $20, or higher.  How do you feel about the issue?  Should all full-time jobs pay a living wage that would cover all of life’s expenses?

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Required entry:  The federal minimum wage is $7.25.  Around the country, many are fighting to increase that to $15, $20, or higher.  How do you feel about the issue?  Should all full-time jobs pay a living wage that would cover all of life’s expenses?

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I absolutely agree with this. How can the minimum wage be $7.25 when a gallon of milk nowadays is literally $6? I think there should definitely be an increase since expenses are increasing too. Groceries are getting more expensive, taxes are very high, and now there's also tariff. If this is to be the fixed minimum wage, in my opinion things should also be cheaper. How can someone with this wage afford rent, food, clothes, utilities, and extras? Especially if someone has a family. I alone would need at least 70k to support myself. Can't imagine having a family.

Yes, I believe all full-time jobs should pay a living wage enough to cover all the expenses. Food, rent, bills, transportation, AND education and healthcare. Don't forget how expensive these two are. Everyone working deserves a salary to be economically stable and not always looking for opportunities to rely on the government.

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Wishard explains how societies are shifting to the modern world. It explains how social changes from technology, economics, and globalization can affect people's everyday life. It combines the past with today. How America used to be the ''role model'' for other countries. Everything is changing. For example, people used to work more in offices or factories and now there's a majority of people working remotely. In the old times, men used to be the lead and the provider in a family, and the wife would be a housewife, marriage, kids etc. Now, there are equal contributions, even single parenting or dating the same gender, not getting married until the 40s. As of technology and globalization, a perfect example for me is how we contact other people. In the past, we used to hang out and meet locally. Whereas now, we have the ability to connect to people worldwide throughout technology.

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(H) Leidner, Over the Counter at McDonald's

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(H) Leidner, Over the Counter at McDonald's

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In this article of Robin Leidner, it is showed that workers in fast food workplaces are trained to be a specific type of worker. They have strict rules on how to work and interact with others. There is no option for individuality and to create something different of your own. What's really shocking is how flexible workers need to be. They can leave work early or late based on how much the workload; the customers are. I never get it. Plus, sometimes workers don't even get paid overtime. As a business that would make sense to have workers in need, but it is so wrong to think that employees don't have lives. I used to work 10 hours in summer, and they would call me last minute to cover shifts, and I'd get so mad because I had planned other things with family and friends already. According to this reading, the staff at Mcdonald's sound robotic. Whenever I've visited some are nice, others are rude. I get it, everyone has their days. The Humberger University was something I was not aware of. It so sad going to work doing the same thing over and over every day.

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(H) Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich

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(H) Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich

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Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist and does an experiment by going and doing random jobs that have a low wage like waitress and maid. It is absolutely hard to survive in today's generation based on how high and expensive living costs are. Nowadays for example, in a family of 4, if only one parent is working, it is very hard to afford rent, food, bills, transportation etc. Also, we can't forget how expensive health care is!

Plus, even if we are working and we are still getting low-paid, there's lack of respect, Higher coworkers or other in higher positions treat workers badly as if they have no value. Barbara also mentions the American dream myth that only hard work is enough to be economically stable in poverty level payments.

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Through economy, society's resources are made and managed. There are three types of economic systems, capitalism, socialism, and mixed economies. Capitalism is a private ownership, and socialism is a government ownership.

In the functionalist perspective the economy is important for the society to be stable and work together to keep the society functioning. The conflict perspective is more into inequality and class divisions. It's the owner VS the workers. The symbolic interactionist perspective is related to daily interactions at work, how jobs are socialized, how someone has a specific identity. Big role in this plays job satisfaction. I used to work in a supermarket back home for summer break and my coworker would get so pissed if the manager told me to do a higher task or praised me instead of her. She used to be happier and more satisfied when she was the lead and had a higher position.

Globalization is the process of integrating economies, cultures, and societies with investments, migration, technology, and international trade. Multinational companies are the biggest resource.

On the one hand, it accesses to new markets, there's a difference in the producing costs, and generally sharing ideas with other has an outcome of growing economically.

Working in the United States can be a challenge. So many jobs are low paying and not paying the wage that should be paid in the first place.

Meritocracy is when someone gets a reward or a job based on their education, their ability, their talent and not who they are. But I believe that this is not reality. The fact is that in today's generation there is a lot of inequality, people judge you and give you jobs based on who you are, social status, race, wealth, gender etc. For example, yes someone who has college degree can get a higher income but how in the first place will someone get into college if they do not have the money to afford college.

Immigrants often work jobs that citizens don't; they face legal, economic, and social issues.

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Society is a group of people who share the same beliefs, values, cultural components, and norms. There are three categories of society, preindustrial, industrial, and postindustrial.

Preindustrial society is based on local resources and the environment. There's hunter-gatherer, pastoral, agricultural, feudal, and horticultural.

Industrial Societies are based on producing goods. There is labor, people are moreover moving to urban areas from rural areas.

Postindustrial societies are about services, information, and knowledge. Technology is the center. Education is very important. There are also social classes that are divided based on who has what education and how much of technology does someone know.

In my opinion, preindustrial societies, environment limits people. It decides how people like for example, climate, weather, nature etc.

Technology is the game changer. It develops every area like how people think, how they think of other people, where they move, and different jobs.

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Required entry: How have your interactions with various agents of socialization affected your decision to be in college?  

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Required entry: How have your interactions with various agents of socialization affected your decision to be in college?  

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My agents of socialization have always been my family and my friends. My family wanted me to be in college. Families always have high expectations from kids. I am the first in college from my whole bloodline which makes my family very proud of me. That was one of my motivations to attend college. Mostly Punjabi families want their kids to be either a doctor, or an engineer. My family did not have any problem as long as I went to college. They have always supported me. I remember when I was in 11th grade, I was decided I wanted to be a psychologist and when I told them they laughed. I guess it's a stereotype back home calling psychologists the "doctor of crazy people". But they were okay with it as long as I was happy. And I really appreciate that. Now for friends, all of them are in college. Everyone wanted to be in college, and I guess that motivated me to do something similar. While friends don't have expectations, we used to talk about majors and where we want to study. One of my friends got the opportunity to be an exchange student in Chicago and do her senior year there. It made me feel more determined. Thats how today I'm attending college in the U.S. from being a student in Greece.

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(H) Meyer, If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger Would You? 

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(H) Meyer, If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger Would You? 

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Most of us would think that we would never follow such harmful orders, especially when it is unethical. But is it really? When we are under pressure, we're most likely to do what we're being told to told to do. Authority plays a big role. Social pressure makes us do things even if we don't want to. For example, the professor in class told us what to do, touch random things. Although it made us look stupid, we all did. Is it because the professor instructed so? Not much I'd say. I did it because everyone else was doing it so I just followed. It would have been awkward if I was the only one not doing it. We usually think of something else but in real-time we actually go off the script based on the situation we're in.

In my opinion, the most important thing is who is giving the order. If it was my mom telling me to go grocery shopping, I wouldn't. But if I was kidnapped, I would have done anything the kidnapper tells me to do to get out of there.

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So, basically, groups and organizations make our identity and the way we behave. From small primary groups to large bureaucracies. I prefer primary groups because they are smaller, personal, and long-lasting. Just like my family and my close friends. They give me emotional support and make me feel belonged. I do have some secondary groups like in my English class, but I know that once the semester is done, I won't interact with any of those classmates again. I agree that as the number of people in a group is increasing, there's less intimacy sand everyone's get confused. I mostly prefer dyad or triad. In a group, usually I'm, the authoritarian. I focus on tasks and decisions and I'm good in crisis.

As for bureaucracies, I think Amazon is one. It has hierarchy of Authority, from the warehouse workers to supervisors etc. Workers are specialized in tasks like packaging, delivering, or customer service. It has specific rules and policies.

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(H) Thompson, Handling the Stigma of Handling the Dead

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(H) Thompson, Handling the Stigma of Handling the Dead

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In the U.S. death is a topic which people fear or avoid talking about. Nobody really talks about it openly; it is indeed uncomfortable. But there are people who work with death like morticians, funeral directors etc. Society often criticizes them. We call morticians cold, creepy, or ghoulish. We often imagine how can someone do this job for a living. "I rather stay homeless than look after dead bodies" we usually say because they touch dead bodies, embalm, and prepare corpses. It's a dirty work. These workers try to protect their self-image and gain respect. Mostly using humor. They joke about their work. It makes them feel less tension. Morticians avoid telling their occupation afraid of what the other person is going to say. Not going to lie but if someone came up and told me "I embalm bodies", I'd be like " ew, that is disgusting and creepy". It's just the society has some negative reactions on this job, including me.

Also, isn't it weird that we only judge and stigmatize morticians and not doctors while both work with bodies? It's just how culture and the society has made its own mentality.

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(H) Goffman, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life

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(H) Goffman, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life

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Erving Goffman explains how we are full of performances in our daily life. We act like something we're actually not. We are always changing the way we behave, manner, how we appear based on where and what are we doing. For example, when we are going to a job interview, we dress formally and try to look as respectful as we can. But when we visit out grandmother's house, we dress like we do at home, talk however we want etc. That's because we are trying to impress the employer, we want to get hired.

We change roles. The time I'm in school, I'm a student but once I get off, I'm just myself, wearing what I want, listening to music etc. I behave according to where I am. Something else in a classroom or an office, and something else when I'm home or with my friends.

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Reality is nothing but what we as a society think that is real. According to Berger and Luckmann we interact with each other every day to create, keep, or change something that we believe is real. I agree that we learn reality through family, religion, and school.

For example, money is just a piece of paper, and it has no value itself, but it is real for us because it represents worth and the hours, we worked to earn it. Likewise, a degree is just a paper, but, for us it shows the level of our education and achievements. A major example is colors. I never understand why we choose blue for boys and pink for girls. This is not written anywhere, just socially created.

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This chapter tells how psychologists focus more on internal processes while sociologists think social interactions and society plays a big role in self-development. I agree with Erik Erikson, a psychologist, that personality develops throughout the lifespan. But in my opinion, society plays a bigger role in this. For example, Charles Cooley says that we develop our self-image based on how we think others see us, which is very true. Whenever I go to a party, I try to dress the best I can or what are my friends wearing so I'd dress accordingly. That's because I think what people are going to think about me. The way I dress, the way I talk, behave, and act. However, the first factor in self-development is family. We grow up seeing our parents, our older siblings, how they behave, how they love, and hate.

Carol Gilligan criticized Lawrence Kohlberg for being gender bias. That boys tend to focus on rules and justice while girls show care and focus on responsibility. To be honest, I don't really agree with this some boys are different, and some girls are different. I think it's just the way everyone grows up and develops themselves.

Culture, nature, family, friend circle, and school matter in getting socialized. Socialization teaches people how to act, behave, talk, eat and interact with other. No one is born with these skills. Without socializing, I think it would be really hard to fit in society. For example, kids that grew up doing home-school, or living in orphanages lack of social skills. They don't know how to interact or act in crowded social places. Socializing also makes us understand rules, values, and the expectations of the society. Social media or any other type of mass media also teaches us how society works.

However, socialization is kind of a never-ending thing. Even after high school, when we go to college or start work, we resocialize, and we learn new values and norms.

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 Required entry: Coffee Shop Ethnography:  Go to a coffee shop and sit and observe for at least 30 minutes. 

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 Required entry: Coffee Shop Ethnography:  Go to a coffee shop and sit and observe for at least 30 minutes. 

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I went to Starbucks in Elk Grove; it's like 10 minutes away from my home. I entered, went to the counter and ordered an iced coffee. After getting my coffee, I sat down at a table there with my laptop so people wouldn't think I'm there to observe. There were 2 girls and 1 boy in the front taking orders and giving them to the customers. A couple entered, they were holding hands, the girl sat down, and the boy went to order. After ordering, he went to the girl. After him there was a girl waiting in line with an old lady, I think it was her grandmother. I could feel like the old lady couldn't speak and understand English by the way they were ordering. After getting their orders they left. I looked behind me and there was a girl just sitting, looking something at her phone. She seemed very sad, like she was ab out to cry. The couple that was sitting in front me started arguing, the workers started staring at them and I could feel them judging. I got uncomfortable sitting there alone, so I left.

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Devah Pager-Would You Hire an Ex-Convict?

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Devah Pager-Would You Hire an Ex-Convict?

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Pager talks about how criminal records affect job prospects. Having a criminal record is lowers the chance of getting hired. But what is even worse is that race matter more. If black people have a criminal record, then it is even worse than a white person having a criminal record. Black people are more disadvantaged due to their race. Black people face huge barriers in employment not just because of their criminal records but because of racism. I think this is very concerning since it's not about criminal records but white people hiring white people. I am brown, will I get hired because I'm well educated, and have experience or they won't hire me because of my race?

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James Henslin describes how sociologists study society. As I mentioned in the last post, he lays out the same steps to do sociological research. He mentions surveys, participant observation, secondary analysis where we study data already collected from other sociologists, documents like newspapers, diaries, or videos, experiments, or unobtrusive measures which is studying people without the knowing which in my opinion is unethical. Personally, I wouldn't like going out with my friend and her just studying me. When we do research, we should not interfere with someone's privacy and confidentiality. No harm to participants, we should take their consent before studying them. Lastly, researchers should be honest in the reports. Different methods suit different studies. It depends on what are you trying to find.

Henslin talks about rape. I think nowadays rape is a normal topic for today's generation. People mostly blame women, why they're going out so late, why are they wearing short clothes etc. But, in my opinion, what do they have to say about the 7-year-old girls getting raped? About the doctor that got raped in India who was just working in her work's uniform. Honestly, it's just the mentality of this society. Even if a girl is fully covered, including her face, if a man wants to, he will.

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Scientific method identifies a problem, reviews existing research like looking at what other sociologists think about it, form a hypothesis, choose a research method, collect data and statistics, analyze the results, make a conclusion and finally report what they have found. I think that this method gives sociology a feel of science.

There are some methods to do research, for example surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments. My favorite one is face-to-face interactions; I have also done some when I was in middle and high school. Surveys are good to collect data from a specific number of people, could be from a specific group like college students but I think people are not that honest because they think and answer according to what the society or the person studying the survey is going to think. They work better anonymous. Observations let the researcher see real life and real time behaviors of other. This is really interesting. I, myself, have a future project to go to a court and observe a trial/hearing. Interviews although can take a lot of time, they're very good to hear personal stories, and understand the persons behavior.