Sociology: Nature and Nurture weekly assignment

1. Nature and Nurture: What do twin studies tell us about nature/nurture? Also, discuss the influence of heredity in explaining the process of one’s personality and intellectual development. Provide examples.
2. What is the self? According to Charles Horton Cooley, explain the “looking glass self” (discuss the three phases). George Herbert Mead also discusses the stages of the self: identify differences between I and Me. What is meant by significant others?  How are significant others related to the self? Identify Mead’s three-stage process of self-development.
3. Explain the dramaturgical approach. What occurs on the front-stage? What happens in the backstage? How can Erving Goffman’s idea of impression management and face-work be used to understand social behavior?
4. Identify the agents of socialization. What is the role of schools in gender role socialization? How has technology (computer, cell phone, email, & TV) influenced the socialization process?
5. What are total institutions? Identify Goffman’s four traits of total institutions. Discuss how a degradation ceremony is used to mortify one’s sense of self.
6. How does society deal with an elderly population? Discuss differences between disengagement theory and activity theory? Finally, provide solutions to ageism.

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