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https://youtu.be/yRrVaFZpqNw?si=Acs9rW6F8KmaFVk_

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One of the most important things I noted learning about in this module comes from The Forest, The Trees and the One Thing written by Allan Johnson. It holds the idea that “We are always participating in something larger than ourselves, and if we want to understand social life and what happens to people in it, we have to understand what it is that we’re participating in and how we participate in it” (Johnson). I find this important to the perspective that we should have for ourselves and how we navigate the increasingly overwhelming world. It’s an idea I find progressive and creates an emphasis for having an observant mindset when it comes to introspection. Maintaining this perspective causes a dissociation from the individual and a more critical analysis of the individual’s character and what it's shaped by. Another idea I found to be important to know is how within a social system an individual participates in, there are paths of least resistance layed out for them. This thought is important to have when studying someone’s actions. Like how analyzing systems an individual participates in allows us to gain perspective and insight on their character, it can also give insight on their actions and perhaps their motive behind it. These ideas allow for a deeper look into someone’s character and a better understanding of the world that the individual is navigating.

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Early on within the module, its’ mentioned by Allan Johnson in The Forest, The Trees and the One Thing that culture is constructed using things such as symbols and language: “We use symbols to name things as a way to focus our attention and build a reality to live in. As the philosopher Susanne Langer put it, using symbols to construct reality lies at the heart of what makes us human.” This idea had me analyzing the kinds of cultures that surround me and how our perceptions of reality are shaped around it, and the most obvious symbols of our culture are the kind of language we use, particularly slang. Our generation places a value on hustle culture, given the kinds of phrases we use such as “I’m on the grind” and “oh my god, go girlboss!”. This kind of language is often used with a hint of irony, but it also creates a normality for this mindset of having a large emphasis on work culture and working to have an advantageous position in systems of work. Ironically while the english language was built with male dominated grammar, modern day slang is more female dominated. For example, it’s been normalized for me, a male, to stare at my male friend and say, “Girl…” This can be reflective of a more gender inclusive culture with an empowerment on femininity. Although the slang the younger generation uses can be seen as simply being said for being funny catchphrases, it can also be reflective of the kinds of values that the generation has even if it’s shown through a silly manner.

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During this module, the topic of roles was explored. In The Forest, The Trees and the One Thing by Allan Johnson, the concept of role conflict was mentioned in the third chapter “The Structures of Social Life”. In modern life, a person holds onto many roles and statuses and eventually the phenomenon of role conflict occurs when “the ideas of one role conflict with those of another” (Johnson). Even from a young age, everyone plays many different kinds of roles; they can be a student, a child in their family, a player on their school’s sports team, or maybe a president of their club. Sometimes the demands of playing these roles can clash with each other. For example, maybe there’s a club meeting at the same time as a family dinner and these two roles have to compete with each other. This sort of idea started to get me thinking about the kinds of roles I myself interact with and what roles other people around me have as well and if any of them conflict with one another. One night at my job, I was chatting with a coworker and the topic of dating was brought up. He mentions to me that he has a rule for himself that he would never date a coworker. His reasoning being that if things didn’t work out between them, then the awkwardness would be terrible. This sort of hypothetical involves a role conflict. The role conflict he’s afraid of isn’t exactly coworker and partner, but rather if the roles changed to coworker and ex. These two roles working aside each other conflict and could create an uncomfortable environment for him to be in. To avoid this role conflict, he creates the rule to never date a coworker in order to avoid ever attaining the role of ex in the first place.

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Module 4: Social Interaction and the Self

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Module 4: Social Interaction and the Self

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In the “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, Erving Goffman talks about how when someone puts on an act presenting the most presentable side of themselves to the target audience, he suggests two inevitable outcomes: “I have suggested two extremes: an individual may be taken in by his own act or be cynical about it. These extremes are something a little more than just the ends of a continuum. Each provides the individual with a position which has its own particular securities and defenses, so there will be a tendency for those who have traveled close to one of these poles to complete the voyage.” A cynical example of such a situation can be seen right here: I’m writing reflections for what I’m learning in my sociology class. This could be called an act or a performance. I understand my role as a student and being an earnest student is my mask. I must present myself as someone who is studying and learning a subject and convince others, particularly the authority figure of the class, that I am learning. I have this act of writing reflections about what I have learned in class to convince others of my role and my student self. This act can have two outcomes according to Erving Goffman: either I am taken in by my act or I am cynical about it. Perhaps I am truly taken in by my act in being a sociology student and truly desire to reflect on my learnings to reinforce the information that's soaked into my brain. Or perhaps I am cynical about the act and am only putting on the act to attain a grade. Of course however, being taken into my act has far more benefits with being able to become knowledgeable about the subject and attaining a grade.

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In “Medicalization of Deviance” written by Peter Conrad and Joseph W. Schneider, Emilie Dunkheim’s ideas about criminology is defined as committing the action considered deviant behavior and then the consequence of such action is a punishment, something to reprimand the individual. Throughout the reading, past’s consensus of deviance is referred to using the word “punishment” such as when the change in the consequence of deviance is referred to as “repressive to restitutive or, put another way, from punishment to treatment or rehabilitation” (Conrad and Schneider). The wording of “punishment” reminded me of a concept in psychology: operant conditioning. Operant conditioning refers to teaching behaviors through granting rewards or punishments; if a behavior were desired, a certain reward would be granted to incentivize the behavior, but if a behavior was not, a punishment would be given to create an avoidance for the behavior. For example, if a parent wanted their child to avoid poor table manners, they may punish the child with chores every time they were caught chewing with their mouth open. These two concepts are tied together; controlling deviant behavior through punishment is using operant conditioning, particularly the punishment side of it, to train individuals in knowing what kinds of behaviors are acceptable in a society and what will be deemed as criminal. If we were to use an example, an individual learns to avoid the behavior of thief. The undesired and criminal behavior is thief and the punishment stimulus used to create an avoidance for this behavior is legal action such as a fine or jail time.

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The idea of different cultural families holding different values is brought up during the article, “Not All Asians End up on Third Base” by Brenda Gambol Gavigan. It discusses a common stereotype of Asian Americans: Asians are likely to be successful in school. However, an anomaly Gavigan finds is that Filipino Americans don’t fall under this stereotype and are seen to be struggling in school. She later discusses the reasoning behind this to be that Filipino families hold different values and standards for their children that can clash with the expectations in school. One notable value being an emphasis on maintaining committed family relations: “children were expected to sacrifice certain extracurricular activities, like skipping basketball practice, to attend family gatherings and to choose a college close to home even if this meant opting out of attending a more prestigious university further away” (Gavigan). This certain aspect of priorities was also seen in a movie I had watched called Stand and Deliver. This movie centered around a highschool math teacher trying to teach calculus to a class of struggling students. Amongst these students was a girl named Ana who seemed to excel in the class but would often skip class to waitress at her family’s restaurant. In the end, she even left halfway through her AP Calculus exam because her family needed her to work. To the audience, Ana’s actions can be confusing. She can be seen as jeopardizing her success in order to help her family. The audience might ask the question: “Can’t they go one shift or night without her?”. However, Ana is prioritizing her family and her family has a different set of values from the audience that value education less and values their work more. Like the Filipino families Gavigan discusses, Ana’s families have different values.

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Gender was something ingrained into my life around and it’s a topic I hadn’t thought about too deeply when I was young. I took it as just a simple constant in life that just is as it is. It was interesting to hear about how gender is a bigger concept in life and that it can even be a social interaction. In What it Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous System by Betsy Lucal, the role gender plays in our social interaction is mentioned: “We apply gender labels for a variety of reasons; for example, an individual's gender cues our interactions with her or him. Successful social relations require all participants to present, monitor, and interpret gender displays (Martin 1998; West and Zimmerman 1987)” (Lucal). This idea got me to recognize how gender can cue the interactions in my own life. With my male friends, it is seen as normal and friendly if we are flirtatious with each other. It’s something “guys do” nowadays and the understanding between my friends and I is that we are just joking around. However, I don’t show such behavior with my female friends. I’m more cautious because I believe that to them, this behavior can make them uncomfortable and lead to wrong ideas. It isn’t something friendly, it’s an advance. I choose what kinds of behaviors and interactions I have with my friend depending on which gender they are so I can understand what’s acceptable to them and avoid any uncomfortable interactions.

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Social Class was a topic that’s been recurring in many of my past classes, specifically English since it makes for a good modern topic of discussion and research. One thing that struck a memory for me was in Robert Perrucci and Earl Wysong’s “Class in America” when the reading started to discuss how class was commonly determined: “In our society, the occupational structure as embedded in organizations is the key to understanding the class structure, and a person's occupation is one aspect of class position” (Perrucci et al.). Justifying someone’s class and position in a social structure using their occupation was something I had explored before in my previous English class. Another concept was brought up called Hierarchical Thinking which was a mindset that focuses on the idea that everything in life can be organized into a hierarchy. Those who have this mindset rely on hierarchies to navigate their way through life. For my class, I had explored the idea of applying hierarchical thinking to social class and structure. With my understanding of hierarchical thinking, I could infer that those who have hierarchical thinking would think everyone is where they should be on the social structure. Hierarchical thinking shapes the social structure into a hierarchy like a pyramid. The pyramid explains those who have a greater educational background and occupation should naturally be higher up on the structure. Those who are lower class would be justified as people who aren’t able to contribute much to society so should be in the lower class. It’s almost like a food pyramid; the more able are further up on the hierarchy.