The importance of sociological research and secondary sources: Lesson 1 Soc Research

This is the beginning of our second unit of study, sociological research.  The last unit we examined how sociology began as a discipline and how sociologists view people and society.  This unit we will turn our focus to how sociologists actually do sociology.   

Unit 2 Soc Research will examine what sociologists research and how they conduct their research.

HW:  Read Gang Leader for a Day Introduction by Sudhir Venkatesh
For homework, read the excerpt in the link above.  This reading is the introduction of a widely popular book called Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Venkatesh grew up in California and attended undergrad there.  He then went to the University of Chicago for his PhD in sociology.  Venkatesh really wants to study race and poverty and he tries various types of research to learn about race and poverty's effects on Chicagoans.  As you read, think about all the ways that he tries to learn about race and poverty.  Additionally, think about the benefits and challenges of each way.

FYI -

I will link to each individual reading as we go along, but if you want a full packet of all the readings in this unit, click here.

If you want a guided notes packet, click here.

To start this lesson, please open this Common Sense Quiz and answer True or False for questions 1-15.  Use your previous knowledge or simply use common sense to guess the answers for each question.  Do not spend much time on these questions.  If you don't know the answer, go with your gut.

When you are finished with the 15 questions, click here to see the answers.

Open the Google Form for this lesson and answers the questions as you go along.

1.  How many answers from the quiz did you get correct?

2.  What is one of the answers that you were surprised about?

Why is research important?

Hopefully, that quiz shows that common sense and your own experiences are not always reliable in understanding society.  For deeper understanding about why our own knowledge/experiences are unreliable, see these psychological concepts:

· overgeneralization - basing all of your understanding on a limited experience.

· selective observation/confirmation bias - seeking out only evidence that supports your opinion.

· premature closure - deciding on a conclusion and then being unable to see evidence contrary to that conclusion.

· halo effect - having a positive view of one aspect of a person or idea and that affects your view of all other aspects associated with it.

· false consensus - the tendency to overestimate how much others agree with us.

Background

Auguste Comte - started as positive philosophy (aka positivism) the early 1800s, then popularized the term "sociology" (1838), the empirical study of society using scientific methods and data.

3.  Do you understand why research and the scientific method is important to sociology?

Finding Good Sources of Research

Sociological research shows up in everyday life a lot more than you may notice.  The chart below details the many places that you can seek out information: television, radio, and print media like websites, journals, magazines and newspapers.  The X-axis shows the tendency of the sources below to have a partisan bias (liberal, centrist, conservative).  And the Y-axis shows the reliability of the reporting from most in-depth to sensationalized.

4.  Examine the chart.  What is the most in-depth and nonpartisan source?

For more information, our SHS ILC has a lesson on sources here.  Here are some main points:

• There is a difference between biased news and fake news.
• Don't be fooled by the appearance of the page: a professional-looking page, a .org extension, links all might confuse you to thinking the page is not what it is.
• Read laterally - go outside the page to learn about it. These sites are reliable for lateral checking: Snopes, Sourcewatch, Wikipedia, Allsides, Factcheck
• Find the source of the article, who published it?  Who funded it?
• More news on the internet is fake than real!

The point is that our understanding of society should be empirical, unbiased and research-based.  The most reliable news/research is from academic, peer-reviewed journals.  These are journals that publish articles that have been reviewed by experts in the subject of the article.  For example, if I wanted to publish an article about sociology, other successful sociologists would review my article before it gets published.  These articles are often original research or primary sources.  We will focus on primary sources in the rest of this unit.  Before that, let's examine other sources.


Examples of sociological research in secondary sources

Often, sociological research shows up in secondary sources.  These sources explain the findings of the research without detailing the research methods and background.  Most of the chart above (and most news) is from secondary sources.  These sources will summarize bits and pieces of research based on what the source deems significant.  Be sociologically mindful about where your information about society has come from up to and until now.  Here are some other charts of news and bias:

AdFontes regularly updates media bias on their website.

AllSides provides left - center - right coverage of various issues as well as news bias rating.

5.  Take a moment to be mindful about your understanding of society.  Where does your knowledge of current events/news come from?  List the sources where you get your news.

6.  Now examine the two links above.  Where do your sources fall in terms of bias?  How do you think that affects how you view the world?

Here are examples of secondary sources that have sociology in them:

• Textbooks; for our class; Real World Sociology by Ferris and Stein. The text might seem to just be musings/opinions about society but there are 30 pages of references at the end of the book.  Here is one page showing the references for the text.
• News articles;  One example is the article, The Myth of the Two-Parent Household, from Harvard professor Christina Cross in the NY Times (2019) also available here.   7.  What research is this article based on?  You can do your own search in the NY Times for sociology by clicking here for a Google search of "sociology" in the NYT.  
• Contexts magazine; A publication by the American Sociological Association that explains the latest research in an accessible way for students and general public to understand.  Here is the Contexts website, especially in the In Brief section   You can access Contexts by issue through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

• The Society Pages:  Website of sociology resources, especially Discoveries page.

• Journal of Contemporary Sociology, a journal of reviews.  You can access Contemporary Sociology through the ILC page using the search by title page here.

Applying your secondary source understanding

Choose one of the secondary sources bulleted above (NY Times, Contexts, Society Pages, Journal of Contemporary Sociology).  Find an article about a topic you are interested in. Then explain what research the article was based on.  Feel free to try a few sources or articles before you decide to answer the questions below.

8.  What secondary source did you choose?

9.  What was the article you read?

10.  What research was the article about?

  

Are you going to eat that? The Social Construction of Reality; 1SocPerspective Lesson 5

We have learned about three paradigms that influenced the beginnings of sociology as a discipline.  They were the foundations of sociology as a discipline and most of what sociologists study can be viewed through one or more of these three paradigms.  These three paradigms are also three ways of having a sociological perspective.  Other sociologists have tried to explain the sociological perspective in their own ways.  There are three other theories or ways of having a sociological perspective that are helpful and important within the discipline. 

Saliva in a spoon?  

The first theory that will develop your sociological perspective involves spitting into a spoon.  Yes, spitting. into. a. spoon.  This is a lesson first published in Teaching Sociology (2003) by Brouillette and Turner and updated in ASA's Trails.  Here is a little experiment to try:  Get a clean spoon.  Put some of your saliva in it.  Then read about all the ways all of the ways that saliva is beneficial:

Saliva continuously moistens the linings of the mouth, throat, and general bronchial area. Saliva aids in the prevention of infection in these areas. Some cold remedies, for example, so dry out the linings that the microscopic cracks in the linings often bleed and are very susceptible to infection. Also, the admonitions of parents to their children to eat slowly and chew well is not just to prevent choking on large pieces of food. The leisurely eating of food mixes saliva with the food, which shortly thereafter is blended with the gastric acids in the stomach. This compound now sets the stage for a catalytic combination of saliva, food, and gastric juices, which produces optimal digestion. The addition of an adequate amount of saliva allows the body to extract needed nutrients throughout the digestive tract. Finally, saliva offsets the possibility of too much acid in the stomach, and therefore lessens the possibility of heartburn or ulcers.

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.

1.  After reading all of the beneficial uses of saliva, would you take it back from the spoon?

Is that gross?  Why?

Sociological Literacy: What is the social construction of reality?  What is the Thomas Theorum?

Simply put, the average American will be repulsed by the idea of spitting into a spoon and then swallowing it back again.  However, we are constantly swallowing our own saliva all day long.  But we have defined a difference between saliva and spit.  Saliva is in our mouth and is not gross.  Spit has left our mouths and is gross.  But 


There is no difference between spit or saliva except for how we think about each.  But how we think about each matters greatly to how we feel about the experience.  In other words, our reality is how we experience the world. The social construction is that our society or the people around us influences how we experience the world.  Hence our experiences(reality) are created (constructed) by others (society).  This is called the social construction of reality. Spitting in different cultures or different situations (baseball) can be experienced differently, i.e. more or less acceptable.  For example, many of us have been to baseball games and watched players spit all throughout the game. We didn't get repulsed by that.

During one World Series, Reggie Jackson averaged 19 spits per at-bat! Another example is when parents or siblings use their saliva to wipe off a baby's face. We don't find that repulsive, but if a teacher even accidentally drops saliva onto a desk it becomes gross. Can you imagine a teacher who spits like a baseball player? We have been conditioned to accept spitting on the baseball field but not in a classroom.  Watching a teacher spit in a classroom would feel gross and disgusting.  This can be true for many of our experiences; feelings of happiness, sorrow, stress, worry.  Experiencing these feelings is often a product of  the society we are in and the people around us.  

Another example is spitting in other countries.  One experience I had was in visiting parts of China where spitting was much more widely accepted.  The sign posted above was on a boat in Hong Kong harbor.  Spitting was so prominent there, that they had to post a sign saying where you CAN'T spit.  The picture below is from the top of the Great Wall.  I was taking in the view away from the crowds when, in the silence and beauty of the wall, I hear a loud "hawk" from someone down below in the valley.  It was a funny moment for me, that I won't forget.  

Different types of spitting are so common that a British sociology professor spent time in different Asian countries studying the different types of spitting (2013).  

Ross Coomber, who is a professor of sociology at Plymouth University, will spend about a month visiting six Asian countries.
He said people should take historical and cultural influences into account before forming opinions about those who spit.
He added, in many nations it was an accepted part of their lifestyle.

Here is the paper published by Coomber and his team.  And here is another study in the British Journal of Cancer about the many different spitting practices around the world and some of the possible health benefits of them.  It should be noted though that some cultures find sneezing and blowing the nose in public as repulsive.  But this would not even be noticed for many people in the U.S.  The point is that each culture shapes people to feel a certain way or experience the world a certain way.  In other words, each society constructs a reality for it's members.  

The point is that people have learned what to expect from their social groups and those expectations shape how individuals react to situations.  Related to this is the Thomas Theorum which was published by the University of Chicago Professors William Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas.  The Thomas Theorum says, "If people define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences."

On the graphic organizer called A Framework for Sociological Perspective, add the social construction of reality to the center of the pyramid.

"Food" as a social construction

Another example is how your society makes you feel about food.  For example, how do you feel about these recipes from Time Magazine or these from AtThirstForFirst.  How would you feel about eating mountain chicken or closer to home is this recipe for Rocky Mountain oysters.


Here is an example that you might not realize.  The Japanese would be grossed out by the typical American bathroom. In Japan, toilets are located in a different room than the shower and bath. And the Japanese shower is always separate from the bath. They see the shower for cleaning and the bath for soaking after you have cleaned. 


Another way social construction can be illustrated is in our symbols and how they shape our reaction. For example, there is a feeling that you should not walk on the Patriot.



There is no real reason why, but it is a social construct. Finally, another example is the faculty restrooms. Some of the restrooms are for individual use, which is one person at a time. These restrooms are exactly the same: one toilet and one sink. However, the rooms are labeled with "Men's" and "Women's" signs. That makes men feel weird if we use the "women's" room, even though the men's room is exactly the same. (and vice versa). The sign is a social construct that elicits that feeling.  There is a restaurant like this at Voodoo Donuts in Austin, TX.  The donuts themselves challenge our feelings about what a donut should be, but the bathroom goes even further.

2. Can you explain the theory of the social construction of reality?  

3. Can you explain, in your own words, how one of the examples above is a social construction?  Just choose one:  spit/saliva, food, bathing, bathrooms.  

Applying social construction of reality to teen-parent conflicts:

4. How is the idea of "teenager" an example of a social construction?

5. How does the article say that the idea of "teenager" gets constructed?

6. What is the reality of "teenager" to adults? To the teens themselves?                 

Applying social construction of reality to your own life:

7. Think about something from your own life; your religion, sports, fashion, or something else.  How are your feelings/experiences shaped by what you have learned from people?  

Hello, My Name is Max; Symbolic Interactionist Paradigm: The Sociological Perspective Lesson 4

Please review the lesson from yesterday.  Please explain the answer to one of these questions with the partner at your table or someone near you.  If have trouble explaining the answer, please discuss it with your partner or a neighbor or ask me.

What does Marx's conflict paradigm focus on?

How might the conflict paradigm be used to examine teens?

Max Weber and Symbolic Interaction Paradigm

Max Weber's contribution to the development of sociology during the  Industrial Revolution

Max Weber (pronounced VAY-ber) studied the development of capitalism in European countries.  He found that countries that became more Protestant also became more capitalist.  This is peculiar because religion and economics seem to be separate.  But Protestants held shared meaning with each other about their wealth and finance.  They saw living within their means and investing their money as signs that they were living righteously within their Christian beliefs.  This created an economy that was based on investment.  It led to the creation and expansion of capitalism, investing profit to make even more profit.   It might seem strange for religion to be connected to the economy, but in their interaction with each other, it was real for them.  


The development of the symbolic interactionist paradigm 

Building off of Weber's work, two sociologists created a third paradigm for which sociologists view the world.   Weber showed symbolic meaning in the Protestants' lives and in their everyday interaction with other people.  Stemming from Weber's work, George Mead and other sociologists focused on the shared meaning in everyday life between people.  This paradigm became known as symbolic interaction.  It is more focused on face-to-face interaction, or small groups, as opposed to large scale institutions.  Much of our interaction with each other holds symbolic meaning to us.  The words we chose, our body language, our clothes all hold symbolic meaning for us.  They convey an identity we have to the world. 

Let's add Weber and symbolic interaction to the sociology framework graphic organizer:

How might symbolic interaction paradigm connect to names?

A name isn’t just a random set of syllables.  It has meaning.  

And it can be interpreted by people differently.  Read "Conventional Wisdom Tells Us...What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" from sociologists Cerulo and Ruane.

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.  Please open it in a new window and fill it out as you continue.

1.  According to the authors of Conventional Wisdom Tells Us..., what are some examples of the different meanings that names hold?  

2.  What are some ways that Cerulo and Ruane show these meanings affect people?

For more on names and symbolic meanings, you can listen to the Freakonomics podcast episode by Wells, Katharine.  How Much Does Your Name Matter? Freakonomics Radio Podcast. April 8, 2013.

The episode draws from a Freakonomics chapter called “A Roshanda By Any Other Name”and includes a good bit of new research on the power of names. It opens with a conversation with NYU sociologist Dalton Conley and his two children, E and Yo. Their names are a bit of an experiment.  Indeed, there is some evidence that a name can influence how a child performs in school and even her career opportunities. There’s also the fact that different groups of parents — blacks and whites, for instance — have different naming preferences. Stephen Dubner talks to Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney about a mysterious discrepancy in Google ads for Instant Checkmate, a company that sells public records. Sweeney found that searching for people with distinctively black names was 25% more likely to produce an ad suggesting the person had an arrest record – regardless of whether that person had ever been arrested.  Names do, however, reveal a lot about the people doing the naming. Eric Oliver, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, talks about his new research (with co-authors Thomas Wood and Alexandra Bass) that looks at how children’s names are influenced by their parents’ political ideology.

If names do affect their bearers' chance of success, it may not always be because of the reactions they cause in other people (the "looking-glass self"), they might also be because of "implicit egotism", the positive feelings we each have about ourselves.  Brett Pelham cites the concept in explaining his finding that individuals called Virginia, Mildred, Jack and Philip proliferate in Virginia, Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Philadelphia - he believes they are drawn to live there.  

Another intriguing 2007 paper, entitled Moniker Maladies, found that people's fondness for the initials of their names could get in the way of success. Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons analysed almost a century of baseball strikeouts and found that hitters with the initial K had a higher strike-out rate ("K" denotes a strike-out in baseball). They also found that graduate students with the initials C and D had a slightly lower grade point average than A and B students, and A and B applicants to law school were more likely to go to better colleges.

Parent-teen conflicts and Weber's symbolic interaction paradigm

Think about the teen-parent conflict reading.  

3.  What are the meanings that the label "teen" might hold for parents?  For society?  

4.  How might the label of "teen" affect the face-to-face interactions between teens and parents, teachers, peers?   How did this meaning come about?


5. Do you understand how the sociologists view the world through a symbolic interaction perspective?  Any questions about that paradigm?

Lesson 5, 1SocPerspective : Are you going to eat that? The Social Construction of Reality;

 We have learned about three paradigms that influenced the beginnings of sociology as a discipline.  They were the foundations of sociology as a discipline and most of what sociologists study can be viewed through one or more of these three paradigms.  These three paradigms are also three ways of having a sociological perspective.  Other sociologists have tried to explain the sociological perspective in their own ways.  There are three other theories or ways of having a sociological perspective that are helpful and important within the discipline. 

Saliva in a spoon?  

The first theory that will develop your sociological perspective involves spitting into a spoon.  Yes, spitting. into. a. spoon.  This is a lesson first published in Teaching Sociology (2003) by Brouillette and Turner and updated in ASA's Trails.  Here is a little experiment to try:  Get a clean spoon.  Put some of your saliva in it.  Then read about all the ways all of the ways that saliva is beneficial:

Saliva continuously moistens the linings of the mouth, throat, and general bronchial area. Saliva aids in the prevention of infection in these areas. Some cold remedies, for example, so dry out the linings that the microscopic cracks in the linings often bleed and are very susceptible to infection. Also, the admonitions of parents to their children to eat slowly and chew well is not just to prevent choking on large pieces of food. The leisurely eating of food mixes saliva with the food, which shortly thereafter is blended with the gastric acids in the stomach. This compound now sets the stage for a catalytic combination of saliva, food, and gastric juices, which produces optimal digestion. The addition of an adequate amount of saliva allows the body to extract needed nutrients throughout the digestive tract. Finally, saliva offsets the possibility of too much acid in the stomach, and therefore lessens the possibility of heartburn or ulcers.

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.

1.  After reading all of the beneficial uses of saliva, would you take it back from the spoon?

Is that gross?  Why?

Sociological Literacy: What is the social construction of reality?  What is the Thomas Theorum?

Simply put, the average American will be repulsed by the idea of spitting into a spoon and then swallowing it back again.  However, we are constantly swallowing our own saliva all day long.  But we have defined a difference between saliva and spit.  Saliva is in our mouth and is not gross.  Spit has left our mouths and is gross.  But 


There is no difference between spit or saliva except for how we think about each.  But how we think about each matters greatly to how we feel about the experience.  In other words, our reality is how we experience the world. The social construction is that our society or the people around us influences how we experience the world.  Hence our experiences(reality) are created (constructed) by others (society).  This is called the social construction of reality. Spitting in different cultures or different situations (baseball) can be experienced differently, i.e. more or less acceptable.  For example, many of us have been to baseball games and watched players spit all throughout the game. We didn't get repulsed by that.

During one World Series, Reggie Jackson averaged 19 spits per at-bat! Another example is when parents or siblings use their saliva to wipe off a baby's face. We don't find that repulsive, but if a teacher even accidentally drops saliva onto a desk it becomes gross. Can you imagine a teacher who spits like a baseball player? We have been conditioned to accept spitting on the baseball field but not in a classroom.  Watching a teacher spit in a classroom would feel gross and disgusting.  This can be true for many of our experiences; feelings of happiness, sorrow, stress, worry.  Experiencing these feelings is often a product of  the society we are in and the people around us.  

Another example is spitting in other countries.  One experience I had was in visiting parts of China where spitting was much more widely accepted.  The sign posted above was on a boat in Hong Kong harbor.  Spitting was so prominent there, that they had to post a sign saying where you CAN'T spit.  The picture below is from the top of the Great Wall.  I was taking in the view away from the crowds when, in the silence and beauty of the wall, I hear a loud "hawk" from someone down below in the valley.  It was a funny moment for me, that I won't forget.  

Different types of spitting are so common that a British sociology professor spent time in different Asian countries studying the different types of spitting (2013).  

Ross Coomber, who is a professor of sociology at Plymouth University, will spend about a month visiting six Asian countries.
He said people should take historical and cultural influences into account before forming opinions about those who spit.
He added, in many nations it was an accepted part of their lifestyle.

Here is the paper published by Coomber and his team.  And here is another study in the British Journal of Cancer about the many different spitting practices around the world and some of the possible health benefits of them.  It should be noted though that some cultures find sneezing and blowing the nose in public as repulsive.  But this would not even be noticed for many people in the U.S.  The point is that each culture shapes people to feel a certain way or experience the world a certain way.  In other words, each society constructs a reality for it's members.  

The point is that people have learned what to expect from their social groups and those expectations shape how individuals react to situations.  Related to this is the Thomas Theorum which was published by the University of Chicago Professors William Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas.  The Thomas Theorum says, "If people define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences."

On the graphic organizer called A Framework for Sociological Perspective, add the social construction of reality to the center of the pyramid.

"Food" as a social construction

Another example is how your society makes you feel about food.  For example, how do you feel about these recipes from Time Magazine or these from AtThirstForFirst.  How would you feel about eating mountain chicken or closer to home is this recipe for Rocky Mountain oysters.


Here is an example that you might not realize.  The Japanese would be grossed out by the typical American bathroom. In Japan, toilets are located in a different room than the shower and bath. And the Japanese shower is always separate from the bath. They see the shower for cleaning and the bath for soaking after you have cleaned. 


Another way social construction can be illustrated is in our symbols and how they shape our reaction. For example, there is a feeling that you should not walk on the Patriot.



There is no real reason why, but it is a social construct. Finally, another example is the faculty restrooms. Some of the restrooms are for individual use, which is one person at a time. These restrooms are exactly the same: one toilet and one sink. However, the rooms are labeled with "Men's" and "Women's" signs. That makes men feel weird if we use the "women's" room, even though the men's room is exactly the same. (and vice versa). The sign is a social construct that elicits that feeling.  There is a restaurant like this at Voodoo Donuts in Austin, TX.  The donuts themselves challenge our feelings about what a donut should be, but the bathroom goes even further.

2. Can you explain the theory of the social construction of reality?  

3. Can you explain, in your own words, how one of the examples above is a social construction?  Just choose one:  spit/saliva, food, bathing, bathrooms.  

Applying social construction of reality to teen-parent conflicts:

4. How is the idea of "teenager" an example of a social construction?

5. How does the article say that the idea of "teenager" gets constructed? 

6. What is the reality of "teenager" to adults? To the teens themselves?                 

Applying social construction of reality to your own life:

7. Think about something from your own life; your religion, sports, fashion, or something else.  How are your feelings/experiences shaped by what you have learned from people?  

Hello, My Name is Karl; The Sociological Perspective Lesson 3

As students arrive, review from yesterday:

What does Durkheim's structural-functional paradigm focus on?

Try to apply that to teens - How can you apply the structural-functional paradigm to the Parent-Teen Conflict article?  What parts of the article would a structural-functional sociologist focus on?


Summarizing yesterday's lesson:

Durkheim theorized that societies are made up of different systems (like family, education, economy, government). These systems function to provide order and stability.  If they don't provide order and stability, then he called the systems "dysfunctional".

 

So to apply this idea to teens:

Family and school both provide teens with direction and stability like food, housing, learning.  However, they are dysfunctional in providing teens independence.  

 

To apply this to names:

Certainly, last names serve as a connection to family and they also display a patriarchal structure.  But first names can pass on a connection to family members or share the value of family as important, or they can share the importance of religion or culture or even simply reinforce values or morals.  In all these ways names are an example of a functional structure of society.


Karl Marx's Conflict Paradigm

The second paradigm that emerged from the changes of the industrial revolution is called conflict paradigm which developed out of the influence of Karl Marx.  He studied the inequalities in industrial Europe and how those inequalities affected individuals.  For example, Marx found that a working-class person lived an average of 25 years less than a wealthy person.  Like Durkheim, Marx concluded that his findings were not just the result of individual choices.  Instead, people were forced to work in unhealthy conditions and forced to yield to the demands of the wealthy owners of the factories.  

Marx's Focus   

Marx's focus led sociologists to examine who had power in society and who did not.  The natural extension of that became the effects of power on groups of individuals and how those in power gained and maintained that power.  Initially, Marx's focus was on social class, especially in Europe, but early sociologists in the U.S. like W.E.B. Dubois applied the conflict paradigm to race, while others like Alice Paul applied it to gender in the U.S.   Oftentimes, the study of inequality and the fight for equal rights led to overlapping movements such as social class and gender led by Chicago's Jane Addams and other overlapping movements such as race and gender which was led by Chicago's Ida B. Wells.  In fact, the University of Chicago was the first sociology department in North America (1892) and Chicago was a leader in sociology for the next 50 years leading to what became known as "the Chicago school" of sociology.

Open your framework chart from yesterday, and add Marx's paradigm to the lower left:

Here is the Google Form for today's lesson.  Please open it in a new window and answer the questions as you read along below.  

Applying conflict paradigm to names

1. Hypothesize:  What are some ways that names might create power or inequality?


Small group discussion (based on this lesson from Rabow, et al...):
2.  Has your name ever been mispronounced?  By who? When? How often?


3.  Has anyone had their name changed or taken on a  nickname because of mispronunciation?  If so, were there any benefits to the new name?  Were there any negative consequences?


Race and names
These articles provide research-based evidence of the importance of conflict perspective in examining names and power:

Emily and Greg v. Lakisha and Jamal

In a study from 2003, called Are Emily And Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan sent nearly 5,000 CVs in response to job advertisements in Chicago and Boston newspapers. The CVs were the same, but half were given fake names that sounded like they belonged to white people, like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker, and the other half were given names that sounded African American, like Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones. The call-back rate from employers was 50% higher on the "white" names then the "black" names. The effects were noted even for federal contractors with "affirmative action" policies, and companies boasting they were "equal opportunities" employers.  The researchers inferred that employers were using first names to discriminate unfairly against black candidates, perhaps at an unconscious level. Those same prejudices might also come into play at the interviewing stage, but a black applicant called Greg Baker, who receives an invitation to an interview, has at least got his foot in the door.

Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da'Quan

There is also striking evidence of names triggering different outcomes for schoolchildren.

David Figlio, now at Northwestern University, analyzed the scores of some 55,000 children in a school district of Florida. Instead of just distinguishing between "white" and "black" names, he codified what aspects of names meant that they were more likely to belong to black children and children from low-income families. This allowed him to create a sliding scale, which went, for example, from Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da'Quan. Figlio found that the further along this scale he went, the worse the school test scores and the less likely the student was to be recommended for the schools' program for "gifted" students. Strikingly, this held true for brothers within a family, and even - although the sample size was small - for twins. Figlio believes that the fault lies with the expectations of schoolteachers and administrators - at schools with more black teachers, the effects were less marked.  In separate research, Figlio used the Florida school data to show that black boys who are given names more common among girls are more likely to develop behavioral problems when they reach puberty. The problems increase significantly when there are girls in the same year group with the same name.

Both of the above is an example of how conflict sociologists view society and how inequality is created and maintained.  Read the following and look for how studying names can be viewed through a conflict paradigm.

Ethnicity, immigration and names

From American Immigrants and the Dilemma of the White Sounding Name in the Atlantic (2019),

A lot of research on immigration and names examines the subject from an economic perspective. A 2016 paper in the American Sociological Review looked at the first names given to the generation that came after the wave of immigration to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. “Native-born sons of Irish, Italian, German, and Polish immigrant fathers who were given very ethnic names ended up in occupations that earned, on average, $50 to $100 less per year than sons who were given very ‘American’ names,” the researchers wrote. “This represented 2 to 5 percent of annual earnings.” (They determined the “ethnic-ness” or “American-ness” of a name based on how frequently it was given in each immigrant and native-born population at the time.) 

Some of this effect, the researchers estimated, was due to class differences among parents (which remain a strong determinant of a child’s future job prospects), but most of it had to do with the symbolism of the name itself. Interestingly, the economic advantage that came with having a “more American” name still applied to people with surnames that clearly indicated their parents’ foreign origins. The researchers surmised that American-sounding first names, then, functioned more as a signal of “an effort to assimilate” than a means of “hiding one’s origins.” 

Immigrants in that era frequently felt pressured to change their own first name. A separate study, also from 2016, found that “at any given time between 1900 and 1930,” about 77 percent of immigrants had an American-sounding first name, and it was the norm for them to have dropped their original name within a year of entering the U.S. There were economic overtones here too: Male immigrants were more likely to change their name if they lived in counties where other immigrants had trouble getting jobs.

School and Conflict Paradigm

From PBS's, Why Getting a Student's Name Right Matters

For more info, you might want to visit the My Name, My Identity website[vi].

For students, especially the children of immigrants or those who are English-language learners, a teacher who knows their name and can pronounce it correctly signals respect and marks a critical step in helping them adjust to school.  But for many ELLs, a mispronounced name is often the first of many slights they experience in classrooms; they’re already unlikely to see educators who are like them, teachers who speak their language, or a curriculum that reflects their culture.

It can also hinder academic progress.

...the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.

• Mispronunciation can hinder academic progress, and make students feel invisible.

...the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.

Carmen Fariña, a native-Spanish speaker, had a teacher who marked her absent every day for weeks because she didn’t raise her hand during roll call. The teacher assumed Fariña was being defiant, but the future New York City schools chancellor never heard her name called; the teacher had repeatedly failed to pronounce it correctly, including rolling the r’s.

Mispronouncing a student’s name essentially renders that student invisible, Fariña said Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom, is littered with stories of students who endured shame, anxiety, or embarrassment, and sometimes a mix of all three, when their names were called in class.

There’s the tale of a Portland, Oregon-area student with a traditional Chinese name who had her name garbled by a vice principal during an honors ceremony. Set to present the student with an award, the principal laughed at his mistake, drawing chuckles from the audience.  To avoid embarrassment, the student slumped in her seat, refusing to rise to receive the prestigious award. She later skipped her graduation.  The mispronunciation wasn’t an isolated event. Having endured years of slights, she felt the need to become invisible long before the principal’s laughter marked the tipping point.  The woman, who went on to become an educator, changed her first name to ‘Anita.’ “If someone mispronounces your name once as a high school student, you might correct them,” said Kohli, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India. “But if this has been your entire existence in education, what do you do?”  Kohli’s own brother had a teacher mispronounce his traditional South Asian name, Sharad (‘shu-rudth’) as Sharub during a ninth grade class. The teacher and the students decided it was easier to call him Shrub, and it stuck for the rest of high school. The nickname forced him to check part of his identity at the door.

While the diversity of the nation’s public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African-American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasn’t kept pace. Gonzalez, a former teacher in school districts in Kentucky and Maryland, said she often observed a ‘these people’ attitude from her mostly white female colleagues. “They approached it like, ‘It’s your fault for having a weird name,'” Gonzalez said. To some degree, Gonzalez understands the struggle students face. She grew up with a Russian surname, Yurkosky, that befuddled teachers and classmates. She said it rhymes with “her-pots-ski,” minus the “t” sound in pots. “But I did not experience all the other stuff and other ways that a person can feel discriminated against,” said Gonzalez, who is white.

Butchered names are not just a problem for English learners and immigrants; students from a number of cultural backgrounds have their names garbled or ridiculed. Hawaiian and African-American students, with names that link to their ancestry, also shared stories of how constant mispronunciations made them feel uncomfortable with their names.

• Names can even lead to direct mocking of a student:

In an extreme case, a teacher in Wayne Township, New Jersey, lost her tenure status and job in 2015 for mocking a student’s name on Facebook. Several letters in the student’s name spelled out a profane word, legal documents show. More often, the mocking is more direct and reflexive: laughing off pronunciation, asking the student to take on a nickname, or making a spectacle of their name, Kohli said. “It matters what you do when you’re in front of a child and struggling with their name,” Kohli said. “Is it framed as my inability to say someone’s name or is it framed as the student doing something to make your life more difficult?”

The episode called "Substitute Teacher" from Key and Peele is a funny take on how student names can be messed up by a teacher and how that can affect students.

Applying conflict paradigm to teens

4.  Finally,  apply conflict paradigm to the teen-parent conflict article.  What are some ways that you can analyze Coontz's Teen-Parent Conflict excerpt through Marx's lens of inequality and power?  

HW:  Read "Conventional Wisdom Tells Us...What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" from Cerulo and Ruane.

Hello my name is Emile; The Sociological Perspective Lesson 2

As we wait for students to join class, please read the following:

Emotional Warning: This lesson discusses research about suicide.   (Just a heads up in case that is a traumatic topic for you.)

FYI-

If you want a guided notes packet for this unit, click here to view/download it.

Prep for today's lesson
Good students prepare for each class.  While you wait for your peers to enter, please review your readings from last night.
You will have to demonstrate your ability to both recall the information from the readings and comprehend it.

A NOTE ON CONNECTION ISSUES/LESSONS:

If you ever get disconnected from the Zoom or you can't hear or if you are absent, simply log onto this blog and read the lesson for the day.  As you read, answer the questions in Google Forms as you go along.

ALSO PLEASE BE SURE TO SUBMIT A GOOGLE FORM FOR EACH LESSON THAT WE DO.

INDIVIDUAL BREAKOUT ROOMS - take 5 min to answer the quiz questions below:

Reading Quiz
This quiz will help you see if you can comprehend and recall the readings (Teen-Parent Conflicts and Syllabus) assigned yesterday.  Once we are ready to begin, click here to open the reading quiz in this Google Form.  Open it in a new window and answer the questions as best you can without using your reading.

WHEN FINISHED with the QUIZ, RETURN TO THE MAIN ZOOM ROOM.

Today's Lesson

Once you have finished the quiz, click here for the Google Form for today's lesson and open it in a new window so that you can answer the questions as we go along.  

Questions 1:  Any questions about the syllabus?

Today's lesson:  Emile Durkheim and Structural-Functional Paradigm

Sociology was created as a reaction to the profound changes during the industrial revolution.  The industrial revolution brought about changes from:

• agricultural to industrial economy
• rural to urban living
• cottage system to factory system method of production
• a focus on group membership (tribe, religion, nation, family) to a belief in individualism

Three important thinkers studied these changes and wrote about them which inspired the beginning of sociology as a social science discipline.  Each thinker's theory lead to a paradigm that sociology still uses today.

Structural-Functional Paradigm

The first paradigm we will consider is structural-functional.  This paradigm was created by Emile Durkheim.  Durkheim studied suicide and found that within industrial Europe, the rate of suicide varied from country to country but it also stayed stable within each country.   So, something that seemed like an individual choice, such as suicide, was really a product of the country a person lived in.  Someone living in Britain was much more likely to commit suicide than someone living in Italy.  In other words, something was happening in British society that was creating a problem for the individuals living there.  Suicide was not an individual problem, it was a social one.  Durkheim called these social problems dysfunctions.  

What does Durkheim focus on? 

Durkheim said that societies have a structure made up of different systems that function to keep order in society.  Just like a body has different systems such as a respiratory, circulatory, digestive and nervous system, a society has different systems like family, education, economy, religion and government etc…  These systems serve a function of keeping order in society by creating a structure for stability and continuity.  Therefore, Durkheim's paradigm becomes known as structural-functional.  Durkheim says that when the structures help to make life healthy for individuals, the structures are functional, whereas structures that are not healthy for individuals are called dysfunctional.

Graphic Organizer for the sociological perspective
Download this framework for understanding sociology.  This will be a graphic organizer to help you quickly recall the lessons from this unit and see the connections between them.  After you download the document, find the top of the pyramid as indicated in the picture below:

Then, add the notes for Emile Durkheim's paradigm:

2.  Any questions so far about the beginnings of sociology and Durkheim and his structural-functional paradigm?


Names as an example of Durkheim's structural-functional paradigm

As an example of the structural-functional paradigm,  names, like people, seem individual and unique.  For example, when someone calls your name, you probably look up automatically and assume they are talking about you.  And, indeed, for many of us, we are the only person who we know with our exact name.  I don’t know anyone named Christopher Joseph Salituro other than myself.  

However, names are not a unique trait unto ourselves.  Instead, names are our first connection to community.  Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of South Africa once said, “A solitary individual is not possible.  We come into being because a community of people came together.”  That community of people gives you a name and sees to it that you survive.  We would not be alive if it wasn’t for their influence and nurture.  So, names are a great way to examine how sociologists look at the world.  Many aspects of our lives that seem like individual choices or individual traits are actually guided by social forces that are larger than us.  Our families, schools, religions, governments and other social institutions all influence who we are, including in ways that we don’t even realize.  The sociological perspective examines these influences from different perspectives.

3.  List any ways that your name: 

• connects to family 
• connects to religion 
• represents morals or values 
• transmits cultural preferences and popular ideas

Some students will say that their parents just chose the name because they liked it.  But closer research reveals that even this is not always the case.  The Social Security Administration Baby Names Database tracks all of the names babies are given each year.  You can view that data here: SSA Baby Name Database.   
Notice that the data shows that names go in and out of style, even if we don't notice it.  For example, my parents named me Christopher, but they just thought that they liked the name.  Looking at the data, it is now evident that Christopher was the second most popular name that year! 

4.  Do you see how your name reflects the influences that come from families, schools/peers, religions, popular culture?  

And do you understand that when people are given a name it can impart values or traditions that connect you to family, religion, or other social structures?  

If you don't understand either of these, please indicate what is confusing.

Additionally, a respected sociologist from Harvard named Stanley Lieberson studied trends and fashions.  He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity similar to how fashion spreads.  His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability.  The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other.  Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data.  If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.  Lieberson found that:

• Name choices, like clothing choices, reflect the desire to be different, but not too different.
• Names branch off of each other with similar suffixes or prefixes 
• Names reflect societal patterns like Mexican immigrants
• Names are changing more frequently than they used to reflect a stronger desire to be different.

5.  (OPTIONAL) Search the SSA Baby Name Database.  

Can you find examples of any of Lieberson's finds in the social security database?  Give a specific example.

6. Analyze the Teen-Parent Conflict reading using Durkheim.  Using examples from the author, how are school and family functional for teens?  How are they dysfunctional?


7.  The structural-functional paradigm is one perspective that sociologists use.  Can you explain it?  Can you use it to examine your own name?