Instruction
IV. Micro-Marco Connections: Social Status, Society, and Identity 4-5-page Paper & Presentation to a Small Group
This assignment will help you learn to think sociologically about your own life and the world around you and to make micro-macro sociological connections. A minimum of four full pages of text (not counting a cover page and reference page) is required (shorter papers will be penalized). A paper slightly longer than five pages is acceptable, but a longer paper does not mean a ‘better paper’ or grade.
A. THE PAPER: Pinpoint an instance when your social status changed because you:
a. were promoted or demoted
b. retired (or left a career like the military)
c. became unemployed (laid off, downsized fired, quit, closure of business, you moved)
d. had a significant ‘milestone’ birthday
e. married
f. became a parent or stepparent
g. were seriously ill or injured
h. experienced a sudden loss through death or divorce
i. became a student
j. joined the military
k. moved a significant distance
l. emigrated from or immigrated to another country
m. Another idea? (check with me)
Write your paper, using sociological concepts to make micro-macro connections: In your analysis, use specific sociological concepts from Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, & 6 to analyze and interpret your sudden change in status. NO external sources are needed for this assignment. Do not use them. Use your class readings, meeting notes and lectures, videos. Answer the below questions.
ALL QUESTION MUST BE ANSWER
1. What change or changes in social status accompanied the change?
2. Did you experience role conflict?
3. What social roles did you have to adjust?
4. Discuss how various dimensions of culture and cultural expectations shaped your experience. Consider the influence of norms, values, stereotypes, notions of deviance and social control, sanctions, material and non-material culture, language. If relevant, you might consider subcultural aspects, political ideologies, mass media effects, culture shock, sexism, racism. Did American consumerism have any influence on what happened?
5. What agents of socialization shaped your changing sense of self and your behavior during the time of change?
6. Did you have to modify essential aspects of your identity and self-perception to adjust to the change? Why? How so?
7. Using Goffman’s Presentation of Self, describe and analyze the impression management efforts you made to control others’ perceptions of you as you adjusted to your change in status.
8. Think about what you have learned about the conflict, functionalist, feminist, and symbolic interactionist theories. Which of these theories are useful for interpreting the changes that occurred in your life? Make micro-macro connections.
FOR THE BELOW QUESTION I WILL BE ATTACHING THOSE PAGES YOU ONLY NEED 2 OF THE EXAMPLES
9. If you were to design a study to better understand the kinds of changes you experienced, what kind of data would you want to collect? (review Conley, pp. 59-69). Choose two and explain your reasoning.
.
An essay that is descriptive only is not acceptable. You must use interpret what happened, using sociological concepts and analysis. You may find it useful to underline or highlight concepts as you write and reframe the above questions. For example, “One agent of socialization that shaped my behavior is the mass media. I had a sense of how I should behave from observing norms about how to act when I was fired from having watched numerous films and TV programs. For example, in the series….” In the above example, you would analyze how the mass media as a socialization agent helped shaped your cultural response of proper or improper norms of behavior after being fired.
• Cite specific instances of your use of Conley, like this: (Conley, p. 101). Grading Criteria: Review the COLS grading policies and rubrics, at the end of syllabus. You are graded on your essay writing ability as well as the content of your writing in COLS classes. Make an appointment with the Writing Center if you know you have trouble with your writing.
Key Terms Chapter four
• Socialization
• Self
• Me
• I
• Other
• Generalized other
• Resocialization
• Total institution
• Status
• Roles
• Role strain
• Role conflict
• Status set
• Ascribed status
• Achieved status
• Master status
• Gender roles
• Symbolic interactionism
• Dramaturgical theory
• Face
• Ethnomethodology
Chapter one – key terms
• Sociology
• Sociological imagination
• Social institution
• Versteben
• Anomie
• Positive sociology
• Double consciousness
• Functionalism
• Conflict theory
• Symbolic interactionism
• Postmodernism
• Social constructions
• Midrange theory
• Microsociology
• Macrosociology
Key Terms Chapter 2
• Research methods
• Quantitative methods
• Qualitative methods
• Deductive approach
• Inductive approach
• Correlation v. association
• Causality
• Reverse causality
• Dependent variable
• Independent variable
• Hypothesis
• Operationalization
• Validity
• Reliability
• Generalizability
• Reflexivity
• Feminist methodology
• Participation observation
• Population
• Sample
• Case study
• Surveys
• Historical methods
• Comparative research
• Content analysis
• Experimental methodology
Key Terms Chapter Six
• Social Deviance
• Crime
• Social Cohesion
• Mechanical/Segmental solidarity
• Organic solidarity
• Social control
• Formal social sanctions
• Informal social sanctions
• Social integration
• Social Regulation
• Egoistic suicide
• Altruistic suicide
• Anomie
• Anomic suicide
• Fatalistic suicide
• Strain theory
• Conformist
• Ritualist
• Innovator
• Retreatist
• Rebel
• Labeling theory
• Primary deviance
• Secondary deviance
• Stigma
• Broken windows theory
• Street crime
• White-collar crime
• Corporate crime
• Deterrence theory
• Recidivism
• Total institutions
• Panopticon
Key word chapter 3
Culture
Media
Material culture
nonmaterial culture
subculture