Ben Walgren Sociology Mrs.

Creely April, 2014 Journal #7 Eleanor Roosevelt once said: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent Using self-concept, looking glass self and significant others as evidence in your answer, explain why Roosevelts quote is true This quote is completely true because ultimately you shape how you view yourself according to the concept of looking glass self. Basically, people imagine how others see them and then come to a conclusion of what they think. This eventually leads to shaping our selfconcept, which is how we actually see ourselves. Often times, people have a distorted looking glass self. They either think too highly or too lowly of themselves. Both these can be positive and negative at times. It is likely best just to have a nice understanding of who you are and what you can accomplish. One major advantage of having a very positive view of yourself is it keeps you from giving up on certain things you are doing. I personally have low self-confidence and often too negative of a self-concept. This often causes me to lose motivation in certain goals that I am trying to achieve. I need to alter my process of judging myself and get better at keeping what others think of me from getting to me. People think negative thoughts or say negative words about everybody no matter what, even rich and famous celebrities. Some people just take it

better and are able to maintain a steady, positive view towards them. Allowing others to make you feel inferior is truly your own fault and this can be changed.

Journal #8 How do Barbie and Ken dolls reflect our societys values? Are these images realistic or misleading? Explain the effect these images have on young people. Barbie and Ken dolls provide a perfect example of our societys distorted values and standards. American culture praises such qualities as being extremely thin to the point that it is not healthy far more than being honest or kind. Other such admired qualities include nice clothes, perfect teeth, and flawless facial features. The media can be deemed the main culprit of these misguided values. Celebrities and various advertisements promote slaving endlessly to attain these admired qualities. The images the people of our country constantly see and look up to are unarguably misleading. Our culture in the United States needs to change its notions of what qualities are good and important, and what is not as they have even been known to be unhealthy in multiple cases. Overly perfect models for society such as Barbie and Ken can actually cause negative and even dangerous problems to society. A primary example of one of these issues formed by societys values is stress. People worry so much about being faultless that it can harm them mentally and physically. For instance, stress can cause such symptoms as depression and drug or alcohol addiction. Misleading images in society causes many other issues such as anorexia or the destruction of self-confidence. Something clearly must be altered in our society to keep these unnecessary problems from occurring so commonly.

Journal #9 Your daily life includes many social networks, or groups that regularly contribute to your socialization. They include family, friends, teachers, people at work, teammates and so forth. Identify one of these groups and imagine your day if you suddenly lost contact with one of those groups. What specific support would you be missing? Why is that support important? What key elements are provided by this particular social network? One of the central groups that contribute to my socialization is my main friend group, which I call my weekend friends. They do not go to Kennedy and I usually just get to see them over the weekend. Generally, we only engage in fun activities such as going to parties or golfing. Therefore, these times are when I can simply relax and get rid of a lot of stress. It would honestly be difficult for me not to have these friends. Without them, I would have much less of all three main functions of a primary group including emotional support, socialization, and the encouragement of conformity. I am able to talk about different things that I do not feel comfortable discussing with my family or secondary friend groups at school. This support helps me to get rid of stress and help with any depression as I previously mentioned, but also helps me feel as if I am part of a group. I am able to socialize with and conform to them. For one, this provides more self-confidence as I feel like these people enjoy being with me. This can also be important in the future when in college or looking for a job. Furthermore, this social network could end up directly helping me to get a job.

Journal #10 Rights are behaviors that individuals expect from others; obligations are behaviors that individuals are expected to perform in front of others. In your sociology class, one student continually makes loud noises and twitches while the teacher is speaking. This behavior distracts you and disrupts your concentration. What do you perceive as your rights in the classroom? What obligations does that student have to you? Do your thoughts change if you find out that the student has Tourettes syndrome and cannot control his outbursts, even with strong medication? I feel as if my only rights in this situation are to ask the student politely to stop or talk to the teacher and ask to move as far away as possible if it might help. This situation does not call for any sort of violence or cruel words. It should be handled as respectfully as possible. You never know what sort of issues this person may have and should expect the worst to keep from coming off as mean to the person, the teacher, and the rest of the class. On the other hand, this student is obliged to do his best to remain quiet or keep from twitching even if it may be very difficult for him. If this student does happen to have Tourettes syndrome and cannot control his outbursts, you may try to ask him if there is anything he can do to be slightly less distracting to you. Once again, it is important not to get frustrated and be kind because you have no idea what this person is dealing with himself. I feel like the only real action you can take in this situation at this point would be to talk to the teacher about solutions. You could see if there is a special class the other student could possibly get moved to where he would fit in better and be less distracting to the other students.

Journal #11 Modern societies have been given the role of providing an education for all of their members. This education is conducted in schools. Some people, however, are returning to the ways of older societies and teaching their children at home rather than sending them to school. What are some of the role conflicts and strains that might exist for those who choose to home-school their children? What do you think some of the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling might be? In the modern day, home-schooling children can prove very difficult due to role conflict and role strain. It is more common nowadays for both a father and mother to work full-time. Therefore, role conflict comes into play for those choosing to home-school their children. They might find it difficult to balance the roles of being an employee, a teacher, and a mom or dad. For instance, there are times when a mom who teaches her children may stay in late for work and have no time to educate and make dinner for her children. The parents involved also deal with a large amount of role strain. They, for example, may find it challenging to maintain a good relationship with their children when they have to discipline them and constantly pester them about their schoolwork. Additionally to the disadvantages for the parents, the children being home-schooled face drawbacks as well. They do not learn to conform or receive a proper amount of socialization. There are some advantages of home-schooling, on the other hand. Children get much more directed help with their work and may learn more. It also can save time as they do not have to wait for others to catch up when they are ahead on something.

Journal #12 (skipped)

Journal Prompt #13 At some point growing up, nearly everyone displays some minor deviant behavior, such as cutting class or telling a lie. Getting caught in such behaviors generally results in attempts at social control. Recall such instances in yourself. How successful were these controls in changing your behavior? Why/why not? (Be specific as to the types of control and their precise application to you.) All children, including myself, engage in some deviant behaviors growing up. Most of the time, it is nothing to worry about. Other times, it can prove to be a probable when the disruptive behaviors grow worse and do not slow down any. Therefore, society does need to take some steps to attempt to stop these minor deviant behaviors from growing into a problem as much as possible. I have gotten in trouble many times for such behaviors like sneaking out and playing pranks. One time, I was at a friends house and we went out late at night just doing silly pranks like ding dong ditching. A cop ended up getting called and caught us. He then took us back to my friends house and issued us a violation for being out past curfew. We just got a warning that does not really count on any records, but it still did enough to make me stop and think about the next time I get involved in any deviant activities. Our group of friends used to do these things all the time and this definitely slowed us down and helped us to mature. Our parents also played a role in this as well. They scolded us and threatened not to give us as much freedom. I believe that these social control techniques worked because they both frightened me and made me feel like an outcast in a way.

Journal Prompt #14 Describe someone you know (anonymously) who falls into one of the four deviant response categories identified by strain theory innovation, ritualism, etc. Provide specific examples of how this individual falls into one of these categories A lot of my friends from De Smet, mostly scholar athletes and members of the National Honors Society as I discussed in a past assignment, fall into the innovation category of deviant responses. Members of this category usually accept goals of success, but use illegal or immoral ways to achieve them. The top students at De Smet were all very competitive. We all compared grades and strived to be the best at everything. Unfortunately, this often led to students cheating in school and enrolling in various clubs that they had no true time to be a part of. All of these half-hearted attempts were made out of good intentions, but were not fair ways of attaining success. I also have a friend at Kennedy that could be classified under retreatism. This is a deviant response in which people do not strive for success. They do not use either legitimate or illegitimate means to accomplish any goals. This friend of mine does not really care about school. He puts absolutely no effort and never does his homework. He could also be considered a drug-addict which makes him a prime example for this category.

Journal Prompt #15 Think of someone you know or know of who has been labeled as deviant by some members of society. Analyze the consequences of this labeling for the person identified as deviant

The first example that comes to mind when I think of labeling is Lindsay Lohan. She had been an innocent Disney star for a long time. Growing up, she got into some trouble like every teenager seems to. Unfortunately, she was labeled as a deviant or rebel by society and then went completely downhill from there. I feel that societys perception of her completely destroyed her life. She felt as if no one liked her or had any hope for her and then ended up losing hope for herself. Other celebrities labeled by so many others like Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber seem to go down this same path. Another major example is Michael Phelps. A picture of him smoking was released and it seemed like everyone immediately lost respect for him. They think that because he is a professional athlete representing our country, he cannot do anything that might allow him to have some fun and relieve him from all the stress and pressure he faces. People think these celebrities should be perfect examples for everyone to follow when, in reality, they are only human like everyone else. It is very unfair in my opinion that they should be labeled as deviants so easily just because of their status. I imagine it would be hard to be constantly judged by so many people.