Social Paper

Strategic Note-taking for Social Sciences Research: QRSTUV

Title and Author

Question Research Methods

Summary of Findings Takeaway Message

Unfamiliar Vocabulary

Kenneth Gergen, “Together We Construct Our Worlds” P5-12

Since what we consider real is socially constructed, what makes people agree it is real.

For example: Before we know tree is tree. What makes people believe it is tree?

Observation Gergen argues the most important means of reality maintenance is conversation. It is through conversation that we create social common sense, which is also what makes our world today. For example, if we do not agree on trees as trees, then, there will be no trees.

Social Origins of Good and Real:

• The ways in which we understand the world is not required by “what there is.”

• The ways in which we describe and explain the world are the outcomes of relationship.

• Constructions gain their significance from social utility.

• Values are created and sustained within forms of life (including science).

If everything we consider real is socially constructed, then nothing is real unless people agree that it is.

Social Convention : are those arbitrary rules and norms governing the countless behaviors all of us engage in every day without necessarily thinking about them, from shaking hands when greeting someone to driving on the right side of the road. Social Utility : is a service, or characteristic, that benefits the majority of population of any given society.

Gerld Handel, Spencer Cahill, Frederick Elkin, “Human Neural Plasticity and Socialization” P13-19

Is it possible to have a child who were born with disability to succeed as a normal child?

Observation, Content Analysis

• This article introduce the debate of nature versus nurture focusing on human development and individuals’ consequent abilities and characteristics.

• The author of shows a couple studies that is limited to the importance of neural plasticity during primary or children socialization.

• The author is proven that neural plasticity of human brain are the foundation of child development. It is what shapes the child’s personality and abilities.

• However, socialization/experience shapes biological functioning. In another word, experience is what shapes the neural circuitry of the human brain and sustain it.

Humans have not a single but dual nature.

Human Neural Plasticity : The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.

Synapse : a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter.

Infantile Autistic: characterized by lack of interest in others, impaired communication skills, and bizarre behavior, as ritualistic acts and excessive attachment to objects.

Kent Sandstorm, “Symbols and the Creation of Reality” P20-27

What is some downside when converting our experience to symbols.

Observation • Sandstorm sated that symbol is the key factor that make us different from all other creatures in the world. In this article we look at symbol, sign, and meaning through the symbolic interactionism perspective.

• Importance of symbols: 1. Symbols are abstractions

which allow us transcend our immediate environment and to have experience that are not rooted in the here and now.

2. Symbol allows us to remember, imagine, plan, and have vicarious experience. And through observing those experience allow us to understand others’ experience.

3. Symbol is also the transmission of culture.

4. Symbol provide us with templates for categorizing our experiences and placing them within a larger frame of reference.

We convert our experiences into images and symbols.

Human Perception: the process by which the brain interprets and organizes the chaos that bombards our senses, is formed and how it affects our memories. Conceptualization: the action or process of forming a concept or idea of something

Eviatar Zerubavel, “The Rules of Denial” P28-36

As described in the article, during a meeting we tends to ignore the person’s button’s color. Is it always true that we tends to ignore little things like that?

Content analysis • Zerubavel illustrates how our socialization shapes our perception and interpretations of the objects and people we encounter.

• We are born into a world already interpreted and organized by others. Moreover, they also provide us with filters that prompt us to ignore, disregard, or deny certain stimuli and events.

• When social attitudes shift, our focus will shift as well. We tends to focus on issues which the society all agreed on as important.

• What society expects us to ignore is often articulated in the form of strict taboos against looking listening, and specking.

Our brain automatically ignore things that socially agreed as not important.

Proverbial: well known, especially so as to be stereotypical.

Physiology: the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions.

Tact: adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues.

Taboo: prohibited or restricted by social custom.

Susan Blackmore, “The Meme Machine” P37-42

If imitation is what make us differ from other animals, is it true that there is nothing else that animal can do but we human can not?

Content analysis • The article starts off questioning what makes us different than animals?

• There are three common answers to that question:

1. We are simply more intelligent than any other species.

2. Human consciousness is unique and is responsible for making us human.

3. Existence of a human soul or spirit that transcends the physical brain and explains human uniqueness.

• Blackmore, however, disproved all three points above and argue that: what makes us different is our ability to imitate.

• Imitation comes naturally to us human. • And it is named “meme”.

Everything you have learned by imitation from someone else is a meme.

Versatile: able to adapt or be adapted to many different functions or activities.

Dennis D. Waskul, Phillip Vannini, “Smell, Odor, and Somatic Work” P47-57

Is there a specific type of smell/odor that is easy to catch attention on?

Content analysis, Observation, Data collection, Experiment

• Unlike other sense, olfaction is a rich arena for sociological investigation, because odor is fundamentally public and shared.

• • Habits of sensing

• Participants in this experiment were more likely to distinguish between enjoyable and disagreeable odors in terms of habits of sending that olfaction evokes.

• We intend our concept of habits of sending as filters of all the material that reaches our perception and thought.

• Even an odor generally deemed pleasant or neutral can be interpreted as noxious when linked to negative memories.

• Somatic Rules and Somatic Escalation • Hygiene is associated with care

for the self and others, class, status, health, and civilization.

• Perception is often associated with cultural values.

• Somatic rules are contextual and diverse, however, their application is consistent but variable.

• Unpleasant odors can be made tolerable if the circumstances are appropriate.

Smell is cultural. Somatic Escalation: naturalization of why something smells bad. Hygiene: conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness. Perception: the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses. Nostalgic: characterized by or exhibiting feelings of nostalgia. Pathogenic: (of a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism) causing disease. Putrefaction: the process of decay or rotting in a body or other organic matter.

Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Emotion Work and Feeling Rules”, P58-64

Do we use deep acting every day?

Content analysis • The author of this article credits Goffman for recognizing that emotion are subject to social regulation. But she also criticizes him for limiting attention to outward expression of emotions.

• The article starts comparing Goffmanian’s focus on consciously designed appearances; and Freudian’s focus on unconscious intrapsychic events.

• EmotionWork • The act of trying to change in

degree or quality an emotion or feeling.

• NOTE: it is the act of trying, not the outcome.

• Two types of emotions: 1. Evocation: in which

the cognitive focus is on a desired feeling which is initially absent.

2. Suppression: in which the cognitive focus is on an undesired feeling.

• Three techniques of emotion work.

1. Cognitive 2. Bodily 3. Expressive

Inside is as important as outside.

Acquiescence: the reluctant acceptance of something without protest.

Continue • Feeling Rules • Rights and Duties:

1. The extent( one can feel too angry or not angry enough)

2. The direction( One can feel sad when one should feel happy)

3. The duration( of feeling)

Nancy S. Berns, “Closure Talk” P65-72

Why are people so into the idea of grief? Is it socially constructed as well?

Content analysis • Berns argues that closure has become a new emotion for explaining what we need after trauma and loss and how we should respond.

• Closure can mean so many things. The author use the term “closure talk” to refer to how people use the concept of closure and emphasize that closure is a part of storytelling.

• Six types of closure talk: 1. Closing a chapter—moving on. 2. Remembering —closing the fear

of forgetting. 3. Forgetting—leave behind the

pain. 4. Getting even 5. Knowing — to end unresolved

questions and worries. 6. Confessing and forgiving—

confessing or receiving an apology or forgiving someone helps one find closure by ending angry.

• Closure is: Possible; good; desired; and necessary.

• Today closure become a great selling point. Unlike proving other services, closure provide emotional appealing which resonates with many people.

• Industries profit from people’s emotions; and shaping the idea that people are supposed to feel and respond to death(you need money to grieve properly.)

Closure is a socially constructed concept that often causes more harm than good.

Consumerism: the protection or promotion of the interests of consumers

ChristianVaccaro, Douglas Schrock, Janice Mccabe, “Managing Emotional Manhood” P73-83

Is it true that pressure can give you confidence in area you already mastered in?

Data collection; Interview; Fieldwork;

• The author conducted experiment on MMA fighter to study fear management.

• Study have shown a long-lived cultural that real man control their fear and other emotions.

• Through the interview, we have studied that most fighter suffer from fear before the game or even during the game. They are afraid being hurt or losing the game. However they usually avoided saying “I’am afraid/scared/fearful.” Because that will make them look like woman.

• For fighters, their emotion work is to transforming fear into confidence by gathering information of future opponents and scripting game plan.

• Fighters’ emotional framing most often involved defining cage fight as:

1. Just another day in the gym 2. Business 3. A valuable experience

• Fighters also gain confidence by defining themselves as superior to their opponents.

• Ex. Creating powerful visual self; defining their opponents as inferior.

• Keeping one’s own fear under control was thus key to instilling fear in opponents.

Emotion work is a form of gendered identity work.

Paramedics: a person trained to give emergency medical care to people who are seriously ill with the aim of stabilizing them before they are taken to the hospital.

Ostracize: exclude (someone) from a society or group.

Brandon A. Jackson, Adia Harvey Wingfield, “Getting Angry to Get Ahead” P84-92

Why would UP leader place such a strong emphasis on brotherhood, since the right way to fit in the society is to fit-in in all social groups?

Participant observation, In-depth interview

• This study focuses on students with in a particular campus organization for black men. Uplift and Progress (UP) is a national organization that is dedicated to eliminating the negative stereotypes of black men and instead encouraging positive ones.

• This article illustrate how the leaders of UP teach recruits to suppress emotional displays stereotypically associated with young African American.

• Black man are culturally seeing as the “angry black men”

• So they may face pressure to avoid behaving in ways that reflect this stereotype.

• Research hav shown that anger is more likely to be target toward those with lower status. Such as lower class, woman, or colored people.

• People with lower status may not feel that they have the freedom to express their emotions.

• Key actions that elicited bible anger from black men in leadership roles int he UP organization:

1. Express anger in order to facilitate boing among their recruits.

We should display a professional demeanor at all time.

Elicit: Evoke or draw out (a response, answer, or fact) from someone in reaction to one's own actions or questions.

Ethnography: the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

Sara B. Chadwick, Sari M. van Anders “Do Women’s Orgasms Function as a Masculinity Achievement for Men?”

Do women’s orgasms function as a masculinity achievement for men?

Qualitative survey • The results of the survey conformed to the research hypothesis that women’s orgasms often particularly function just like a masculinity achievement for men. According to the results of the research, success conditions were observed as among the factors that would results into the highest scores for men. In this case, the results indicated that men who often take cultural and communal approach to sex are likely to find abundant pleasure in sex more than men who take exchange approach and focus of his sexual partner pleasure. In summary, the results indicated that men often feel more masculine and report higher satisfaction for sex in case they have a feeling that women’s orgasms encounters with them during sex; however, this is opposite for men with high masculine gender role stress.

• Three key points discussed in the article: 1. Women’s orgasms are the main

symbol for sexual satisfaction. 2. Several factors such as state of

mind and high masculine gender role stress interfere with men’s performance and satisfaction for sex.

3. How women’s orgasms can function as masculinity achievement for men.

Embracing cultural and communal approach to sex as a man would make you find abundant pleasure in sex more than men who take exchange approach and focus of his sexual partner pleasure.

Masculine gender role stress : This is the outcome of emotion distress and it often results from failure to obey the norms of traditional masculine gender role.

Women’s orgasms: The ability of a women to attain sexual climax during sexual intercourse.

Marin A. Martin, “Becoming a gendered body”. P93-114

How are body- related behaviors and self- perceptions related to interpersonal and social experiences of objection?

Semi-structured field observations

• The researcher found out that schools often discipline children’s bodies. In this regard, the kind of conditions and situations that children encounter while in school regulate and control their behaviors regardless of being physically active thus preparing them for social world. The kind of disciplinary controls that children get from schools do not only make them have docile bodies, but also make them have gendered bodies and body adornments and clothes were found to be the most explicit way in which children’s bodies become gendered. In addition, the kind of clothes that children dress during their schooling shapes their experiences.

• Three key points discussed in the article: 1. Schools play very vital roles in

shaping children’s experiences and defining their gender roles.

2. The kind of disciplinary controls children receive from school help them have docile and gendered bodies.

3. Clothes and body adornments given to children during their preschool make them become gendered.

The conditions and situations that children encounter while in school regulate and control their behaviors regardless of being physically active thus preparing them for social world.

Becoming gendered body: This is the ability of the body to evolve and reproduce to separate whether a girl from a body or indicate clear differences between a male and female.

Social world: The word is broadly used to define the universes of discourse where certain common symbols, activities or organizations emerge i.e. the gay community is often considered a self- conscious of social world.

Dennis D. Waskul, Phillip Vannini, Desiree Wiesen, “Women and Their Clitoris” P115-129

The fact that women’s genitalia are generally unspeakable is it counted as gender equality?

Observation; Purposive sample; Questionnaire

• `The authors portray how somatic experience cane reflexive and meaningful even when symbolic resources are relatively scare or absent.

• Women’s genitalia are generally unspeakable.

• During the study we found out that They did not acquire this information in primary and secondary educational setting.

• This result in lots of women learn that spot through playing their genitalia without learning the name it all. Often during rest-less nights or in the bathtub according to the study. The author describe this circumstance as symbolic purgatory.

• In some case, women reported learning their clitoris from peers as well.

• Most women in the study said that they learned the name through popular social media.

• Many women remained incapable of find a label for the clitoris for extended periods of time. When the word was brought up, it is the feeling and the experience that is being remembered.

• It is common to understand/see masturbation experience as shame and guilt associated.

• Women in this study equally illustrated that the body may be inscribed by discourse.

Women’s genitalia are generally unspeakable.

Clitoridectomy: excision of the clitoris; female circumcision.

Symbolic purgatory: having the quality of cleansing or purifying.

Vulva: the female external genitals.

Greg Lukianoff,

Jonathan Haidt,

“The Coddling of the American Mind”

How triggering warnings are hurting mental health?

Content analysis • The article indicates that trigger warnings such as the use of on message boards, pathetic images and pictures and pathetic stories can trigger flashbacks by an individual making them remember the traumatic situations they went through sometimes back. This is observed by the author as being wrong, for example, showing women images of women being raped, assaulted or killed might provoke their emotions thus awakening their past traumas. According to the article, the majority of extreme PTSD cases especially in various campuses result from triggering warnings that are used in these institutions that finally severely hurt the lives of these individuals.

• Triggering warnings like the use of on message boards and assaulting pictures is likely to awake trauma in people.

• Moreover, fortune telling and telling of tragic stories is able to provokes the emotions of audiences thus making them suffer PTSD.

• Areas where trigger warnings are predominantly used include feminist forums and self- help.

The majority of extreme PTSD cases especially in various campuses result from triggering warnings that are used in these institutions that finally severely hurt the lives of these individuals.

Trigger warnings: These statements from a video or piece of writing alert the viewer or reader to the fact that it has distressing contents. Traumatic situations: These situations result into psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual harm.

Angela Orend, Patricia Gagene, “Corporate Logo Tattoos and the Commodification of the Body” P130-140

What is the relationship between plastic surgery and culture?

Qualitative ethnographic observation; Field work; In-depth interview; Conservational interviews

• This study focuses on the relationship between culture and body by interviewing people with the following questions:

1. What are the meanings that those who acquire corporate logo tattoos ascribe to them?

2. What motivates some individuals to inscribe themselves with a corporate symbols?

3. Are corporate logo tattoos a form a resistance against the cultural industry?

• Two main theme gathered though data collection:

1. Their motivation to get the tattoo was brand loyalty and for them, the logo signified personal and group identity as well as adherence to a lifestyle associated with the brand.

2. The simulacrum was the intent to appropriate the logo and to extent the meaning s of the brand.

• For example: like the word or like the artistic style.

• The study suggest corporate marketers have skillfully constructed a reality that includes individual and group identity, community, and lifestyle.

Tattoo are symbolic of the commodification of the body.

Resurgence: an increase or revival after a period of little activity, popularity, or occurrence.

Panopticon: an experimental laboratory of power in which behaviour could be modified, and Foucault viewed thepanopticon as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance.

Simulacrum: an image or representation of someone or something.

Meika Loe, Leigh Cuttino, “Grapping with the medicated self” P141-152

Does people who take medicine get addicted to it ?

Interview; observation; Qualitative research method

• In this society, we manipulate bodies to meet the exceptions of others.

• In this section, research is conducted to study the lived experiences of individual who have ADHD through historical and demographic trends and macro-structural analysis.

• We live in a society where prescription drugs are available and accessible. Student will risk shame if their bodies do not perform in accordance with the collegiate academic ethic.

• Most student who refuse to take medicine because they believe it will make them lose their natural self.

• According to the participants of this study, many people didn't believe in ADHD until being diagnosed.

• Non-medical routes to managing their performance and avoiding failure:

1. Cooling out- the process where individual redefine their future on a more realistic terms. Setting easier goal. And do things that they are capable of.

2. Stop using prescription medication altogether.

In order to have control, they must allow themselves to be controlled.

Regimentation: the act of regimenting or the state of being regimented. the strict discipline and enforced uniformity characteristic of military groups or totalitarian systems.

Psychostimulants: is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those that increase activity of the central nervous system and the body, drugs that are pleasurable and invigorating, or drugs that have sympathomimetic effects.