People never really know their social class position in society. They tend to assume what class they belong to according to their economic stability. According to sociologist Daniel Rossides there are five class models to describe the class system of the United states. There is Upper and Lower classes. Rossides says 1 to 2 percent of the people living in this country are apart of the upper class. On the other hand their are about 20 to 25 percent belonging to the lower class. There is also middle class, which comes between the upper class and the lower class. In this class 10 to 15 percent of the population is apart of it. Then there is the working class, 40 to 45 percent of the population belongs to this class.
In my case, I never really became aware of my true social class position. Like many other poeple in this society I just seemed to assume that as an individual I am apart of the lower class because I just started to work and my economic stability is not that stable. As a family, I would consider my parents apart of the middle class because they own a house and they have good jobs that will make them apart of the middle class.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Response Paper 5
There are two tyes of social controls. The first one I am going to discuss is formal social control. Formal social control is social control that is enforced by authorized people such as police officers, judges, school adminstrators, and employers. At Kean University there are many people that keep the campus controled, like police officers that keep us safe and secure and make sure nothing happens on campus. There are professors that keep the class in order and teach the students. Then there is the dean which controls the whole school population, professors, students, and other staff. The second form of social control is informal social control. Informal social control is used to casually enforce norms. Some examples of informal control are smiles, laughter, raised eyebrows and ridicule. At Kean, students always use informal social control, by smiling at each other or giving them an attitude not by talking but by facial expressions.
In my opinion, Formal Social Control works alot better than than informal social control because people actually react correctly when they are being corrected by someone of importance. Example when a person is speeding and sees a police officer, their first instinct is to slow down but when an regular person tells them that they have to slow down their first reaction is to give them an attitude and most likely disrespecting them and giving them the finger. Informal social control causes many problems between people and is not a good way of controlling any given situation.
In my opinion, Formal Social Control works alot better than than informal social control because people actually react correctly when they are being corrected by someone of importance. Example when a person is speeding and sees a police officer, their first instinct is to slow down but when an regular person tells them that they have to slow down their first reaction is to give them an attitude and most likely disrespecting them and giving them the finger. Informal social control causes many problems between people and is not a good way of controlling any given situation.
Response Paper 3
For two days, keep a record of your mass media- tv, internet, including what you watched, read, or communicated. During these two days I watched tv some of the shows were Jersey Shore, Teen mom, storage wars, and soap operas. While watching these shows I realized that the people that are in these shows are from different cultures from all over the world. During Jersey Shore i realized that their little subculture is very different then any subculture that I have been apart of. These people only care about partying and drinking. Their values and norms are very different.
I also watched some episodes of teen mom and came to realize that depending on your culture your values and norms change drastically. I come from a family that teen pregnancy is not allowed and if it does happen, people will think that the teen is irresponsible and she will be an embaressment to the culture were apart of. These girls from teen mom come from a culture that there values and norms are very different. Some of these girls families were perfectly fine with them having a baby at such a young age. This comes to show that culture means alot on how people are raised and how drastically values change.
Facebook was also a big part of my media usage. Communicating with old friends and meeting new people also proved that peoples values are very different. The media effects people from all cultures and we tend to pick up different values as we go along. Learning things from other cultures we begin to start our own little subcultres.
I also watched some episodes of teen mom and came to realize that depending on your culture your values and norms change drastically. I come from a family that teen pregnancy is not allowed and if it does happen, people will think that the teen is irresponsible and she will be an embaressment to the culture were apart of. These girls from teen mom come from a culture that there values and norms are very different. Some of these girls families were perfectly fine with them having a baby at such a young age. This comes to show that culture means alot on how people are raised and how drastically values change.
Facebook was also a big part of my media usage. Communicating with old friends and meeting new people also proved that peoples values are very different. The media effects people from all cultures and we tend to pick up different values as we go along. Learning things from other cultures we begin to start our own little subcultres.
Response paper 2
My family comes from Portugal, however i had never gone there on vaction until the summer of 2006. In 2006 I was graduating from eighth grade and about 14 years old. I was old enough to know what I liked and what I didn't like. I was also old enough to have the feeling of being left out or out of place. In 2006, on my first vacation to Portugal was the first time I experienced culture shock.
Portugal is right across from the United States, but it was totally different, I was so used to this American Culture that once I landed in that country right away I noticed that life there isn't the same as it is here. My parents didn't really experience the same shock as I did because they were born and raised there, they loved the food, they knew people, they spoke the same language, and they also knew there way around. On the other hand, I have never been there before, was really picky about what I ate and didnt speak the language, all my family was older than I was so I didn't really have anyone my age to play with or to hangout with. I basically had to start my whole life again. In my opinion going on vacation to another country or being in a different culture is like starting life all over again. Being that you dont know anyone u have to be very social to make new friends, you have to open to try new things. It was very hard for the first couple of weeks but after experience a new culture, and being open to try new things by the time it was the day to come back to my home, I didn't want to leave. Now I visit Portugal almost every summer, and I love being there, meeting new people, and just relaxing.
Ethnocentrism played a big role in my experience because i thought that my culture here in the United States was the best culture, and i always thought i would never get used to any other culture but in during this experienced i learned that we always have to open to get to know different people from other cultures. Now I love getting to know how other cultures are, and trying things that I have never tried before.
Portugal is right across from the United States, but it was totally different, I was so used to this American Culture that once I landed in that country right away I noticed that life there isn't the same as it is here. My parents didn't really experience the same shock as I did because they were born and raised there, they loved the food, they knew people, they spoke the same language, and they also knew there way around. On the other hand, I have never been there before, was really picky about what I ate and didnt speak the language, all my family was older than I was so I didn't really have anyone my age to play with or to hangout with. I basically had to start my whole life again. In my opinion going on vacation to another country or being in a different culture is like starting life all over again. Being that you dont know anyone u have to be very social to make new friends, you have to open to try new things. It was very hard for the first couple of weeks but after experience a new culture, and being open to try new things by the time it was the day to come back to my home, I didn't want to leave. Now I visit Portugal almost every summer, and I love being there, meeting new people, and just relaxing.
Ethnocentrism played a big role in my experience because i thought that my culture here in the United States was the best culture, and i always thought i would never get used to any other culture but in during this experienced i learned that we always have to open to get to know different people from other cultures. Now I love getting to know how other cultures are, and trying things that I have never tried before.
Response Paper 1
Based on the information presented in chapters 1 I anticipate this course and the things that will be learned during this course to be helpful to view the world and the human groups in it very differently. It will help me have a broader look on how things work among people. It will help me throughout my education, I will learn how to communicate with other and have a deeper thought of the things they say. It will also help me in my career goals because I will have a better understanding on how things work in life and all around the world. I will know how and why things happen between people and will have a better understanding on all the racism, inequality, and all the feminism going on in the world. In this class I hope to learn many things.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sociological Perspective!
The Siciological perspective that I agree with the most is Charles Cooley looking glass self because I believe that his perspective is very true. We tend to learn who we are by what others believe we are. We view ourselves how others view us. It's just like looking in the mirror, we see how we look not by looking at oursleves but how the mirror shows us. So we basically are what society wants us to be because that's how we view ourselves also.
OUtside class get together :)
Brissy and I met on October 5, 2011 at 7:30pm in the Library (Starbucks)
and we started discussing class topics.
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