As human beings we all go through many stages of development through our entire lifetime. One of the stages is called the Stages of Pyschosexual Development, which enlists various steps that one goes through from their childhood to their adulthood. The first premises would include: the sex drive being the most important instinct and the second premises would be the sex drive shifted its attachment to different parts of the body as a child developed. For example the Oral was trust, Anal was order and disorder, Phallic was sex-roles and possible anti-social, Latency was suppress sexual, and Genital was independence and social relationships. Obviously as the child grew into their adolescent years all of that changed into different meanings and it deepened even more as they entered their adulthood. This shows how our society socializes the human being and influences their thinking without them even noticing it. As child grows they also tend to wonder which gender identity has better roles, freud on gender identity becomes an issue. Freud on Gender Identity has the premise: children begin to desire opposite sex parents at phallic stage, they have a fear of punishment from the same sex parent which leads to anxiety. Sometimes young children will favourite one parent over another as they feel that parent will protect them from the other parent, they develop this fear because they feel their sex is too intimating. In my own personal experience I can say that yeah I think at my younger childhood days I would always stay close to my father rather than my mother, I was always playing games with him more. I’ve noticed the same with my sisters’ and cousins, we all were closer to our fathers than our mothers but now at a older age we tend to be closer to our mothers. In my opinion we are fearful of those who are the same sex as us but as we grow we analyze and learn that our own sex is not that fearful.
My Journey Throughout Sociology (Final Reflective Essay)
Shivangni Shibha Narayan
Charles Quist-Adade
Sociology1125, S13
November 12, 2012
My Journey Throughout Sociology
Sociology is the study of society; sociologists focus around three main questions: what are we anyways, what holds society together, and why there is inequality in society and what are its consequences. A preconceived notion I had in the beginning of this course was there is not much to society only that is consists of people, throughout the course I discovered an individual cannot survive without being socialized hence they need society part of their lives. The issue of culture had the preconceived notion of being solely related to race and that we are born into. What I learned in this course that changed my mind completely about culture was that it is socially transmitted and practiced by a group of people who share the same beliefs, views etc. and pass it onto their generations…it is not only associated with race abundantly. One core concept that happened to appeal to me since the beginning of the course would be the sociological imagination. I did not know such a term or majority of the terms even existed in our society today; this course has opened my mind to many different things. The sociological imagination is a capacity, an ability, a quality of mind that allows an individual to understand and connect his or her life with the forces and dynamics that impact it. In other words the sociological imagination allows one to reflect their lives with the surroundings around them, one has to be able to embrace society and its’ ways while putting aside their personal issues. There are two tasks that it does essentially: understanding the intersection of biography, social structure, and history, and differentiating personal problems from the public issues. We all apply our sociological imagination to ourselves and many other factors of our lives such as: our minority status, gender, socioeconomic status, family structure, and urban-rural differences. It allows one to engage in taking a new critical look at what we have always taken for granted or assumed to be true, see the vast range of human diversity, understand what are the constraints and opportunities that affect people and our lives, participate more actively in society, and to ‘see the strange in the familiar; see the familiar in the strange’. What does it mean by “see the strange in the familiar; see the familiar in the strange?,” it means that we should not only limit ourselves to observing only what we recognise but we should also see what else is present, we should debunk the situation. When we observe something we do not familiarize then it should be looked in way as if it were something we already knew about, by doing so we would be able to relate to it and understand it rather than just overlooking the situation. For example when I first heard of this class I did not expect to understand any of its concepts or terms, as the course carried on I let bracketing occur and was able to relate myself with issues of others rather than just focusing on my own, I was able to see the problems society faced and notice how it related to me and others around me. This course has opened my eyes and enabled my mind to have a different perspective to everything I come across daily, whenever I judge a situation I now try to look beyond the outer layer and understand the other side of it as well before coming to a conclusion.
The Impression Management and Dramaturgical Approach
Today in class a topic I found very interesting is from the socialization lesson, Goffman’s presentation of the self ( impression management and dramaturgical approach). The impression management is: the individual slants the presentation of the self in order to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences. In other words the impression management is what one presents to the public, we all alter ourselves to make an impression that is proper and adjusts the environment we’re in. The dramaturgical approach is: people resemble performers in action, in other words the way one behaves when in private and with people we are comfortable with. Both concepts prevail the truth of human beings and their social interactions by highlighting how we present ourselves to the outside world and our own personal worlds. The term front stage behaviour can be associated with impression management as it stands for the presentation to society. The term back stage behaviour can be connected with dramaturgical approach as it stands for our behaviour that is presented when in private. I found these terms to be very interesting as we all do this everyday in our lives without even realizing it. In a theatrical point of view our two acts are put up based on the audience we have to impress and be with. People always try to understand whether they need to “fake” their impressions or to act normally like would around people they are comfortable with; we all do this throughout our days. According to Goffman people use props as part of their impressions, in my opinion what that means that we make sure we wear certain clothing, etc..to enhance their outlook and make sure they are not the odd one present. Without these impressions we all would be the same, no one would worry about how one thinks of them but on the other hand no one would be unique.
EXPLORING SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL ENTRY #13- Race Matters: Blacks documented by police at high rate(VIDEO SCREENED IN CLASS-PARAPHRAST)
“ Race Matters: Blacks documented by police at high rate” is a video which talks about the racial profiling against the Blacks, some feel that the police go over the top when it comes to questioning someone that is African American. The video presented many who spoke about how they feel like the police focus more on one group rather than the whole general group, they feel that there are high rates of crimes committed by the Blacks so they are the number one group the police turns to immediately. Police officers commented back saying that certain areas and certain situations require them to be present and question the people there even if they happen to be Blacks; police officers are only doing their jobs of policing they do not try to resort to racial profiling especially on Blacks. In one of my criminology classes we discussed this issue and I remember debating the fact that there is not actual proof that can prove racial profiling does occur. One segment that I found to be intriguing would be of how a person in the video explains that police officers come up to you if you’re black asking for your name, address, ID, etc..if you tell them you do not have you ID they start to interfere more and not leave you alone. It is astonishing to hear how procedures like this occur very often with them, in that is a prime example that could be a potential sign of racial profiling against the Blacks.
EXPLORING SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL ENTRY #12- Bikini and G-String are OK but Wearing Hijab or Veil isn’t? (VIDEO SCREENED IN CLASS)
“Bikini and G-String are OK but Wearing Hijab or Veil isn’t?” is a video with the speaker Sheikh Khalid Yaseen who presents the interesting topic of Muslim women and their hijabs/veils. The video starts off by introducing the fact of how a woman can walk around in a g-string or bikini and not have anyone think she is doing anything wrong as in society that are somewhat expected to do it. Another comparison the speaker spoke of was of naturalists, they are the ones who have the right to walk around naked because they feel it’s their right to; then why is it that Muslim women cannot wear hijabs or veils without society asking them various questions? Some fear that there could be “bombs” or “guns” hidden inside their clothing, which is such a common stereotype for Muslims.One segment that appealed the most to me was how the speaker said Muslim women who choose to wear the religious head coverings are not told to do so by their husbands, but instead God told them too; they are following their religion so why should others intervene and question a religious right that one has. I found this segment to be unique as most people do not know that that wearing a hijab and/or veil is a religious matter, they assume that the woman has to obey the rule of wearing one because of their husbands.
EXPLORING SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL ENTRY #11- Shift Happens (Video Screened in class)
“Shift Happens” is a video created by Karl Fisch which shows how our world today is rapidly changing from the old ways to our modern society today. The video focused on countries like England, China, India, and USA; it portrayed how China is one of the biggest countries and that its’ population is so huge that one can actually find someone that resembles them. As the the video proceeded along various facts were presented such as how: how we are preparing people for future jobs that are not even in existence yet with technology that has not been invented yet, and also facts such as how many babies were born while the video was presented. One interesting segment that appealed to me throughout the whole video would be that our world today is planning too far ahead by preparing our students for careers that have not been even invented yet. In other words the world is vastly changing from the old techniques to brand new modernized ones, there are various types of studies a student can wish to pursue as they are notified of how there will be a huge demand for the job they are being prepared for even if it does not exist in that very time. I selected that that segment to paraphrase as it it still inside my mind from the day I first watched the video and it really does make me wonder why/how the world can be so rapid in everything now. It stands out the most because it portrays how the young minds are full of such eager to bring forth a new change to our society yet they do not understand themselves that they are preparing for situations that do not exist and when they do it can be completely different from what they expected.
Socialization of the human being
This week an interesting concept that was introduced to the class was socialization, human beings are social and socialized. Socialization can be defined as the process by which we learn to become members of society; characteristics of it would include: a process, and a life-long process. The functions of socialization would be: it serves as a source of our sense of self (identity and self-awareness), provides a source of both commonality and differences, makes us learn cultural behvaiour, engenders conformity and cooperation, instills in us self-control…socialization makes us adequately human. Without socialization the human being cannot function properly as others would, hence this would decrease the chances of the human being life. We are all socialized by our families, our cultures, our traditions, and of course our society; we are born dependent on others and we continue to depend on others till we ourselves have learned to survive on ourown. Socialization is what creates what we have become aside from our heredity, socialization is one aspect that defines and shapes the person we all have become today. An example that was brought up in class was a baby boy that was left in the jungle and it was then adopted by wolves who brought him up to a certain age. The boy had inherited his walking skills from the wolves (he walked using his arms and feet like the wolves), at the certain age he was captured by human beings who then attempted to socialize him. Socialization of the boy turned out to be very successful as he learned to walk on two feet only, read and write English, and all the other aspects of being a “normal” human being in society; that shows that socialization is needed and any type of environment one is put in they adapt to it.
