Class System

Upon reviewing our classes class discussion this week, I believe the current class separation in the US requires a fundamental restructuring. While a class system may be necessary in order to reward hard work and diligence, it should in no way suppress those without the ability excel. The US should provide social services similar to that of Europe: free public health care, subsidized, if not free college tuition, and countless other programs for the general public. The current class system in the US seems to encourage selfish advances, assisting those in need is seen as secondary to ones own private advancement. The US currently has one of the lowest tax rates in the world, the result is severely underfunded public programs. Despite being the most wealthy country in the world, the US has a disturbingly high percentage of its population in poverty. Higher income and property taxes should be placed on those earning comfortable incomes. It would in no way be "punishing" the rich as it would provide a general benefit to society. Fundamental American values would have to be altered in order to provide such necessary changes, while such changes would have to be incremental, over time, significant change to the social services system may be achieved.

Occupy Pics

This woman has earned herself a graduate degree, normally this would result in a stable career throughout ones life. However, even with a higher education this woman is working 3 jobs simply to support her family. She would define a more fair situation as one that provides greater economic security and rewards individuals for pursuing a higher education. This picture states that even a higher education does not guarantee a successful career, this highly contradicts the American ideal of hard work being rewarded with positive results.

This is a fairly young individual that has lost all hope in the American educational system. He is unemployed with no health insurance. He left America, the richest country in the world, to move to one that that provides public health insurance, free college, and other amenities not present in the US. He would most certainly wish for a America that provides the necessary public services for the majority of the population. This pic states that America is only favorable for those who have the wealth to prosper while the majority struggles to live life day by day.


This individual has earned a college degree and currently works minimum wage to pay off loans and credit card debt. This persons own sister is stating it's his/her own fault. This letter also states how a college education is no longer a guarantee for future financial security. It also states how America has become highly individualized, with the sister saying its her sibling's own fault rather than the many limiting situation factors that may have stalled the person's ambitions.  The writter of the letter would most likely agree with public healthcare and more government organizations to provide those with new degrees prosperous job opportunities. It relates to our current class system as pictures such as this expose the deep economic and social flaws present in American society.

Positive Deviance

1) Positive deviance may be demonstrated by acting in a kind and compassionate manner with which people are not normally accustomed to. Given that many actions in society are based a system of reward, positive deviance would constitute a selfless act in which no personal gain may be derived. Diaz is an excellent example of positive deviance as he responded to the robber's demands not with fear and panic but in a calm tone which enabled him to see the desperation in the robber's act. Diaz turn offered the robber his own coat and dinner and demonstrated to the robber a truly selfless act.

2) This weekend my friends and I decided to visit downtown Chicago for a day. While we were walking around the city, a random group of girls came up to us asking for help on a scavenger hunt. Normally, any request from strangers that requires an individual to break from his/her routine would go ignored. However, my friends and I decided to be good people and help the girls on their hunt.

3) In the end, helping the girls on the scavenger hunt made our day much more entertaining. The challenges ranged from "planking" on random landmarks to staring down complete strangers through the window of a starbucks. We made good friends with these girls and if we ignored their original request, we would have never met them. This act of positive deviance demonstrated to me that helping complete strangers may result in the formation of new friendships and that one should not be weary to assist those outside of ones social circle.

Nov 4th blog

1) Gender display is defined as an individual performing the roles expected by one's society. Gender displays are often subconscious physical cues we display as a mark of our gender. For example, men often walk with a very firm stance and move their shoulders from one side to the other to display masculinity; women, however, have a tendency to sway their hips in a sexual manner and minimize shoulder movement to display femininity.

4) The movie attempts to expose advertisements of men and women for their underlying stereotypes. Men in the movie were pictured fully upright to display confidence and were also pictured with a deliberate gaze symbolizing full awareness and alertness. Women were shown in a generally defenseless and innocent manner. They were pictured lying down staring into the distance, implying an obliviousness to their surroundings. They were also shown holding and cradling themselves, implying insecurity and vulnerability. These types of advertisements are extremely common in the music industry. In Taylor Swift's "Fearless" album, she is ironically shown lying down with her neck fully exposed. This implying weakness and vulnerability much to the contrast of the album name. In J.Cole's "Coleworld," J.Cole is pictured sitting firmly on a bench with a definite stare into the camera. This implying confidence and awareness.

7) Western Societies definition of masculinity often stems counter to its definition of femininity. A "man" is expected to everything a "woman" is not. Thus masculinity is expected to guard femininity. A masculine individual is expected to be confident, poised, emotionally restrained and to have natural leadership qualities. While feminine characteristics reflect a self consciousness, innocent and submissive individual. Masculinity ideally is meant to "fill in" feminine short comings and the same goes for femininities affect on masculinity.

Socialization

Family has without doubt been the most prevalent agent of socialization throughout the course of my life. Media and religion often broadcast messages with which they may influence the broadest demographic and thereby play a much more minimized role. Family, however, remains with an individual despite difficulties and change. My family has taught me many of the characteristics which I consider core to my ideals, they have taught me morality and ethics as well proper life goals. My peers and local environment plays the second most role in socialization as it is what I interact with most outside of family. I believe I have made excellent friends over the years with whom I may share many similar ideals and approaches to life. This has been a positive social influence. Media and religion has played a smaller role in my socialization as media is an entity with which I dissect with the greatest skepticism; religion has played a greater role than media, however, given that my family is not very religious it has not been critical to my development.

Family

A. Before I was born, my parents stated they wanted me to acquire many of their positive traits and wished for me to be intelligent as well as determined.
B. My parents have put in significant effort to pass on their own traits of hardwork and diligence to me; they always stressed the importance of having set goals throughout life and to strive to reach those goals despite any possible obstacles.
C. To my parents they find it very important that I carry and pass on my own cultural heritage. They stress that I should never disregard my native language and blend aspects of both American and Ukrainian culture in my life.
D. My parents say they rarely had struggles to discipline me. As a child, however, I apparently blurted out thoughts to my heart's delight and they had to tell me what specific things were and were not acceptable to say out loud, they say that period of obliviousness was often the source of much comical relief.
E. My mother says I have taken on my father's humor and his somewhat immature personality, to which I have no real objections. They also say I have taken on their trait to prioritize goals well and also the motivation required to reach to reach them.

2. None of these answers surprised me to any particular extent as I have had these sorts of conversations with my family multiple times before. I found the many stories my parents told of me as a child to be quite comical, for example my parents said when they bought me my first suit in first grade, I wore it everywhere we went for 3 weeks straight. I have learned that through the many struggles my parents have faced, humor and family affection are often the best coping mechanisms. They say that while I should always be prioritized and have goals in sight, I should always enjoys the pleasures of the present and not be burdened by the stresses of the future.

Material/Symbolic Culture

Material and Symbolic culture is present in any given society. Material culture reflects the physical aspect of civilization and the common artifacts and objects used in their society. Symbolic culture, however, takes on a much more broad definition; it essentially encompasses everything material culture does not. Symbolic culture can range from the language and gestures used in a society to its values and beliefs. In American society, material culture has turned into somewhat of an obsession. Specifically, in the technology craze, many individuals feel the need to keep all of their technological accessories up to date. The smartphone, specifically the iPhone, is an excellent example of material culture as it demonstrates the extent to which technology is integrated into our society; smartphones can configure ones home security, pinpoint the phones location from anywhere in the world and access the vastness of the internet all from the flick of a fingertip. This directly coincides with our symbolic culture as it demonstrates not only American's need for control but also the importance of prioritization and scheduling. Smartphones are often used to keep track of an individuals daily schedule by keeping appointments and specific information; smartphones can also communicate with anyone from nearly any location in the world and can be used to make rapid changes throughout one's daily life. Advances such as these contribute the overall on-the-go lifestyle of Americans and demonstrate the prominent connection between material and non material culture.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is often a prevalent component in many cultures, especially that of America. In AP Psychology ethnocentrism is attributed to an evolutionary theory in behavior where early human ancestors had to quickly distinguish between friend and foe, thus forming an ingroup (group one belongs with) and outgroup (group one does not belong too) bias, this then severely limited the acceptance of diversity. Ethnocentrism has since been ingrained in the human psyche and is much easier to apply than to avoid. Early last year I had an Indian girl in my APUSH class who said she already had her marriage arranged with a boy she has never met. Given that my own family and culture ideals stress marriage with someone I feel a deep emotional connection too, an arranged marriage to me seemed like a very callous move by the parents and a flaw within her own culture. I had not noticed it at the time, but the girl was not the least bit bothered by the fact of an arranged marriage. I attempted to put myself in her shoes but that only resulted in anger and protest. I projected my own cultural ideals onto the girl and was oblivious to the fact that her values were far different from mine. I have since learned to accept values and ideals that are different from my own and have strayed away from ethnocentrism.

Sociological Perspective

Through ones sociological imagination we can see how historical and modern events have impacted the lives of individuals in society. This most definitely applies to my own life as while I was growing up in Ukraine the economic hardships in the country made it an unfavorable environment to raise a child in and as a result, my family and I moved to the US. Although most individuals were experiencing difficult times in the country, just the simple fact of a negative economy impacted the entire course of my families life. This has influenced my sociological mindfulness as it has made me more acute to the changes in the world and how they may impact individual lives. It has also made me much more grateful for the life I am currently living considering just how quickly the conditions can change. My parents decision to move has also impacted my social construction of reality as it made me realize just how quickly social institutions and foundations can fall apart when the majority of the population is severely impacted. Thus this one event has impacted my own view of society and made me realize just how fragile its foundations really are.

Week of September 2nd

This week in school my english class visited the college career center for the purpose of discussing  college applications and what we should expect from the admission process. Sitting in that room and listening to the counselor speak of college and stressing the importance of applying early I realized just how quickly high school has passed. It seems like no more than a year ago I was a freshman walking through the halls, confounded by the vastness on the school. Now I am a senior with a mere 7 months left until graduation. While it may be true that highschool and college are said to be the best years of one's life, I was in no way warned at just how quickly these years pass by. I hope the college years do not go by at nearly the same rate as highschool and I have time to savor in the moments of this relatively stress free youth

Doing Absolutely Nothing

I chose to do the "Doing Nothing" assignment during lunch in the wood commons. I felt lunch provided an optimum location for this assignment as it has a high volume of people and is a very social environment, thus doing absolutely nothing in an area where people are constantly occupied would be interesting experience. Sitting in my lunch table, I completely froze for 10minutes in the middle of the period. I did not inform my friends I was doing this, thereby when they noticed I was completely unreactive they started screaming my name and poking at me. I felt very uncomfortable at first and was extremely tempted to respond to their inquiries, but I kept trying at the silence. I tried to ignore their yelling and observed the rest of the lunch room. Given that today is the Freshman Mixer we had some kind of contest going on at lunch and whoever won received a pizza party. I looked on as those in the contest were attempting to complete the challenges. The people that were involved looked as they were having a very enjoyable time with the challenges provided. The first challenge consisted of keeping a balloon from hitting the ground by bouncing it on top of one's head until the finish line was reached. As I observed the people watching the game, I noticed they looked to be having just as much fun looking at the game as those who were in it. I concluded that in some way the entertainment those playing the game were experiencing was somehow projected onto those watching the games and allowed them to share in the fun. I managed to last 8 minutes during this assignment as I felt obligated to answer when one of my friends asked for help on a homework assignment. In total I thought this assignment provided a unique experience that I have normally not been asked of during school. At first I felt a need to start talking as by being in such a loud environment made silence feel cumbersome. However, as soon I became occupied by watching the games it became fairly interesting to observe the people and the environment around me and this experience became a unique one.