Changing the dating norms/hookup culture of college

From Contexts, here: https://contexts.org/articles/love-me-tinder-love-me-sweet/

love me tinder, love me sweet

by Jennifer Hickes Lundquist and Celeste Vaughan Curington | December 11, 2019 | Fall 2019

Are “hookup” apps leading, ironically, to a revival of dating culture on college campuses? In our forthcoming book with Ken-Hou Lin on online dating, Through a Screen Darkly: American Interracial Intimacy Then and Now, we find that dating apps are providing a way to bypass the romantic gatekeeping that campus party culture has long dominated. Many students are now leveraging these apps to circumvent the worst of the college hookup scene. Yet, online platforms also introduce new challenges. Women and racial and ethnic minorities, in particular, resent how the disinhibitory effect of cyber-communications can expose them to a wide range of racialized and sexist online interactions. However, dating apps give these students greater control over partner choice empowering them to set the context of a first meeting, which is a unique advantage of online dating that tempers the negatives for many of those we interviewed. Despite their drawbacks, these new technologies have the potential to make college intimacy not only safer but also more fulfilling for a larger cross-section of students than traditional hookup culture.

Outliers...Success and the Sociological Imagination

Applying Sociology:  The Sociological Imagination and Outliers


Please read the intro from Outliers.

When you are finished, try to answer:

1. Describe life in Roseto.
2. What did Dr. Wolf set out to study originally?
3. What did he find instead?
4. Were the people aware of these effects? Explain.


In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell uses a sociological imagination to understand extreme success stories (aka Outliers). Using the introduction to understand sociology we see a few important ideas.
First, sociologists study how people are affected by their social groups. People are influenced by the groups they are a part of, whether it is family, a church, a town, etc. This often contradicts the idea that people are the sum total of their own individual genes and decisions. An important sociologist, C Wright Mills, calls this having a sociological imagination.   The "sociological imagination" is an important theme throughout our semester. The idea of the sociological imagination was developed by C. Wright Mills who said that having a sociological imagination helps one to see the connection between history and biography. That is, who we are (our biography) is determined by where and when we live (history).

Second, we see that sociologists do not simply make opinions or philosophical ideas, rather they make claims based on research and data.

Lastly, understanding sociology can change how we think about the world and who we are. For example, in this excerpt, one might change how he thinks about good health.

Do you see how the excerpt highlights these three ideas? 

The rest of Gladwell's book uses a sociological imagination to explain extreme success stories. For example, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs tremendous success and wealth stemming from the development of computers:

Gladwell describes how being born in the mid 1950s was particularly fortuitous for those interested in computer programming development (think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both born in 1955). It also helped to be geographically near what were then called supercomputers, the gigantic predecessors to the thing on which you’re reading this post. Back in the 1960s, when Gates and Jobs were coming of age, a supercomputer took up a whole room and was not something most youngsters would have had a chance to see, let alone work on. But because of their proximity to actual computers, both Gates and Jobs had a leg up on others their age and had the chance to spend hours and hours (10,000 of them in Gladwell’s estimation) learning about programming.

We can apply this model to more than just financial success. Think about what opportunities your own biography and history have afforded you. How has when, where, and to whom you were born shaped your life today?

The Outliers reading provides an example of how the people of Roseto were affected by where and when they live. Because they lived in the town of Roseto at that time, they lived in a way that affected them (without even knowing it) so that they had a much lower chance of getting heart disease and living longer than the rest of the country. 

Learning Strategies

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed:

‘Sneaky Learning’

Students come to college armed with some really misguided ideas on how to study. Cramming before an exam is a classic one. So is rereading the same passage over and over in hopes of understanding what it means. But what’s the best way to get them to think differently and study more successfully? 

Colorado State University has been experimenting with the role that science and technology can play in breaking those bad habits. Anne M. Cleary, a psychology professor who studies human memory, has helped develop a number of these efforts, including the creation of a course called “The Science of Learning,” which is open to all undergraduates. The primary message, says Cleary, is don’t trust your gut. Learning is not intuitive. Research shows a disconnect between what people think are the best ways to learn and the habits that actually lead to true understanding and retention.

“Those strategies that are most effective may feel least effective,” she says. “Part of the goal is to help them appreciate science as a valuable source of information.”

To that end, students study the research behind different learning strategies. Take cramming, for example. Students learn that, while people estimate they learn better studying all at once versus spacing out their learning, studies show the opposite. Similarly, people perform better when they test themselves on what they know while they are studying, as opposed to reading the same material over and over. 

Students are encouraged to put these strategies into practice in their other classes as they take the course, which has been open to all students since 2015. Cleary says one particular comment from a student perfectly encapsulates its approach: “I’ve been implementing these techniques & it doesn’t feel like it is going to have any effect,” the student wrote. “Then I take a quiz or a test & realize how much I’ve learned, & it’s almost like the learning just sneaks up on you. It’s like, I would call it, sneaky learning.”

Cleary loves that phrase: sneaky learning. So far, she says, the course has been successful. Evaluations show that undergraduates come away with a much better understanding of what works. “Where we still struggle is implementing the strategies,” she says. “Knowing is half the battle.” 

Students may intend to space their studying out over several days, for example, but find themselves cramming yet again for a big exam because they have trouble juggling their schedules. 

That’s where the second leg of her strategy comes in: technology. She and her colleagues are experimenting with a program that, when fed relevant questions, can ping students at random times throughout the week. While watching Netflix one night, for example, a student may see a question pop up on her smartwatch: How many plates make up the earth’s crust? A minute later, the answer appears. 

The strategy builds on the idea that “downhill changes,” as Cleary calls them — those that can be easily incorporated into your life — are more likely to stick than major changes in behavior. It also uses the concept of nudges, popularized by the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, which holds that you can prompt positive changes in behavior through small incentives.

Of course the investment needed to make this work on a large scale is considerable. After testing out the technology on a dozen people with good results, her team is now working with the campus Center for the Analytics of Learning and Teaching to scale up the experiment to an entire course.

Other experiments include a one-credit recitation session for a biomedical-science course, in which instructors give students exercises tailored to the class — like having them write a letter to their grandmother explaining a concept they learned that week. Cleary has also brought her message to a campuswide initiative called the First Four Weeks, a workshop in which faculty members who run large-enrollment, first-year courses are taught about the science of learning, among other things. 

Her goal, ultimately, is to develop enough venues for this work so that all students and instructors will have exposure to practical applications of the science of learning. She’d love to see the “Science of Learning” class offered to every first-year student, for example. “I mentioned this idea to administrators, and always get an enthusiastic response,” she says, noting that the course wouldn’t have been possible without support from the provost’s office. “But pushing things through is a whole other challenge.”

In January, Oxford University Press is releasing a book written by Cleary and her colleagues Matthew G. Rhodes and Edward L. DeLosh. It’s called A Guide to Effective Studying and Learning: Practical Strategies From the Science of Learning, and is based on their work to date.

Research Project Overview

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Research Project Step by Step Overview

I.  Introduction. 
Expectations include:

• Explain what you are attempting to study and why.
• Explain your research in the form of a question.
• Explain how the topic connects to sociology (1b)

1a. Identify what you’d like to study.  Brainstorm topic ideas.  What topics are you interested in?  Can you frame your interest into the form of a question?  Why are you interested in this topic?  Were you inspired by research that we read in class or some other source or something from your own life?   Brainstorm ideas.

1b. Focus the topic sociologically:   What group/people are you attempting to study?  Are you interested in studying how this creates and reinforces social norms and stability?  Are you interested in how this creates social inequality?  Are you interested in how this creates meaning between people – either values, norms, etc.? 

II.  Literature review.   
Expectations for your literature review include:

• Citing sociological sources
• Consulting several sources
• Explaining the distinct claims that the authors make 

In order to exceeding expectations, students should structure the literature review around different concepts/ideas by writing about an idea and then explaining how various sources connect to the idea  (This is as opposed to structuring the literature review around the sources and simply writing about each source and the ideas in it).

2a. Key terms/words/phrases.

Make a list of search terms for your topic. 

2b. Search the terms

Methodically research what has been published about your topic already. Keep track of which search terms reveal which results.  This is a gathering info phase - you should not be spending too much time reading articles yet.

    

1.  Also use the “The Society Pages,” a website of sociology resources, especially Discoveries page, and on the Contexts page, the In Brief section.

2.  Use academic sociology journal articles.  The SHS ILC database JSTOR will be especially helpful here.JSTOR, an online database that you can search by subject. Go to the SHS Library online where you can login to JSTOR under "Academic Journals". Click here to go directly to JSTOR Advanced search. Once you are logged on, scroll down to select "sociology" then search any subject you would like.

3.  Google search “sociology” and the relevant terms.  Carefully select sources from here based on the source info.

Make a list of the sources that seem relevant which you find with each set of search terms.

2c.  Review the Literature

Once you have gathered the research that is available, read through the most relevant sources.  Note the citation information for each relevant article you study. You should add each article to a bibliography and annotate/summarize these articles.  What does the source say about your topic? 

2d.  Write your literature review. 

In your research project, you should make sense of the background research you find.  You might want to start with an outline that organizes what you found.  How does the research fit together?  What story does the research tell?  What information is left out of the previous literature?

III.  Conclusion or Hypothesis 
Expectations include:
Having a thorough conclusion or hypothesis that addresses your original question(I) in light of the research you find in your background literature review (II).

After making sense of the literature review, write either a conclusion or hypothesis about what the answer to your original question is.  Your conclusion or hypothesis should include operational definitions.  What exactly was the conclusion?  What exactly did the research study?  For example, if you are studying "violence" in the "media", how did the researchers define "violence"?  What counts as violence?  What counts as media?  What was specifically studied?

3a.  Conclusion:  If you find research that answers your question, explain what what did you conclude?  Why?  And what sources were most helpful?

3b.  Hypothesis: If it is a hypothesis, include an explanation about what you think the answer to your question might be and how the research supports that, even if it is indirectly supporting it.

IV. Moving Forward: Propose Research, Do Research or Propose Policy Changes.

This last section should explain, based on your research, what to do next to understand your topic.  You can explain what research still should be done and why and how.  This can be considered a research proposal.  Basically, you are suggestion what research should be done next.   Second, you may actually conduct research using some of the accessible data on my blog page or even gather your own research through surveys or interviews or qualitative methods.  A third option for this section is proposing policy changes for addressing your topic.  What should be done by individuals or institutions to address the problem that your research studied.  

V.  Citations: Have a Bibliography (or footnotes if you prefer).
You should cite your research in your document.  Do not be afraid to cite other research.  This is the point of the literature review!  You can cite either within your writing or in parenthesis after the research you cite.  These citations might be either direct quotes or just ideas that are paraphrased.  Either way, you should be sure to cite these both.  Citations should include author and date within the paper and then in a bibliography at the end, include the whole citation.  There is an ASA format, but I don't mind if you use MLA or whatever you are familiar with, just be consistent.  Below is a picture of in-text citations and the bibliography page.

Here is an example of a literature review from one of my students.



Here is a second example.

Hello Class; Introducing Social Class

Last unit we saw that people are shaped by the structures of society.  Family, school, peers, media all have profound effects on who we become.  This unit, we will see that these structures also create inequalities.  Often, these inequalities are overlooked because the dominant groups and structures look past these inqualities.  The first type of inequality we will examine is social class.

Brief Background of Social Class in Sociology

As sociology began to coalesce as a discipline in the 1800s, the changes of the industrial revolution created large disparities in health and income.  As we learned about the sociological perspective in unit 1, we saw the examination of inequalities was the focus for early scholars of sociology.

Karl Marx and the Inequalities of Capitalism

Marx studied these disparities and wrote about them.  For example, Marx points out that middle-class persons lived an average of 38 years, but laborers only made it 17 years.  Marx also wrote about earlier class systems such as feudalism and slavery.  His paradigm was focused on who owned the industries of the 1800s and who were the workers in those industries.  

Max Weber and Three-Component Social Class

Following Marx, Weber wrote about social class just before WWI.  Weber argued that social class was composed of multiple components, namely wealth, prestige and power.

Pierre Bourdieu and the Cultural and Social Reproduction of Class

Later still, in 1977 Pierre Bourdieu wrote "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" which was a study of French educational system.  Bourdieu made the claim that social class involves hidden assets that sustain one's class such as education, style of speech, how to dress, as well as how to conduct oneself to fit into a class system.   

Annette Lareau and Social Class, Race and Education 

In 1989, Annette Lareau published a seminal study that examined American education and social class and race. Here is an explanation from Lareau's publisher,

Class does make a difference in the lives and futures of American children. Drawing on in-depth observations of black and white middle-class, working-class, and poor families, Unequal Childhoods explores this fact, offering a picture of childhood today. Here are the frenetic families managing their children's hectic schedules of "leisure" activities; and here are families with plenty of time but little economic security. Lareau shows how middle-class parents, whether black or white, engage in a process of "concerted cultivation" designed to draw out children's talents and skills, while working-class and poor families rely on "the accomplishment of natural growth," in which a child's development unfolds spontaneously―as long as basic comfort, food, and shelter are provided. Each of these approaches to childrearing brings its own benefits and its own drawbacks. In identifying and analyzing differences between the two, Lareau demonstrates the power, and limits, of social class in shaping the lives of America's children.

Here is Lareau from the Stanford Center for Inequality:



And here is an Atlantic article (2012) explaining Lareau's research.

Summary
So this is the background with which sociologists approach social class.  Social class is complex and made up of various components that interconnect with each other.  These various components create opportunities and obstacles for the members of a society.  Not only does social class affect people's life chances, it also affects how people experience the world; it constructs their reality.

Social Class (inequality) in the USA by comparison

Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are relative to the rest of the world because the media is saturated with stories of the super wealthy. Here is a website that will rank you among the WORLD's population. That should provide some perspective as to how lucky we are.

However, relative to other Westernized modern countries, the US does not look so equal.  In fact, the inequality in the USA is closer to China, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina and even Cuba!

This map shows the inequality present in countries around the world. The bluer countries are more equal and the more red are less equal:Notice how many countries are more equal than the United States.

And here is a post showing that the US has gotten more unequal over the past several decades.

 Here is another blog's post about the growing inequality in the U.S.

Here is a post from the Society Pages about the damaging effects of income inequality.

Here are a host of facts about inequality from inequality.org

Implicit Bias

Besides being explicit, biases can be implicit too.  Prejudices and stereotypes exist in our subconscious.  These hidden biases are called implicit bias.  Although implicit bias can be about myriad topics (gender, occupation, age), it can also promote racism.  Here is an explanation from Teaching Tolerance:

While the brain isn’t wired to be racist, it uses biases as unconscious defensive shortcuts.
As human beings, we are not naturally racist. But because of the way our brains are wired, we are naturally "groupist." The brain has a strong need for relatedness.
This wiring for “groupism” usually leads the dominant culture (the in-group) in a race-based society to create “out-groups” based on race, gender, language and sexual orientation. A system of inequity is maintained by negative social messages that dehumanize people of color, women and LGBT people as “the other.” For folks in the in-group, the brain takes in these messages and downloads them like software into the brain’s fear system. This leads to implicit bias: the unconscious attitudes and beliefs that shape our behavior toward someone perceived as inferior or as a threatening outsider.

Look at the following pictures and captions which both appeared in the press after Hurricane Katrina.

How does this represent implicit bias from the editor?

How does this promote implicit bias in society?


Police Surveillance and Implicit Bias from the Sociologist Toolbox
Here are a number of other examples (A NY Police Lt., Harvard U. President, State Senator Obama)


A Girl Like Me

Watch the following video and explain what evidence it provides that explicit bias exists and promotes racism and implicit bias exists and promotes racism.



What evidence does the video provide that explicit bias exists and promotes racism?

What evidence does the video provide that implicit bias exists and promotes racism?

The Police Officer's Dilemma from University of Colorado at Boulder

And another example of implicit bias is from the University of Chicago's Joshua Corell who showed how people react in a split second when they confront someone with a weapon. Soc Images explains it here.  See here for a link to the game and conclusions.

The Kirwan Institute from The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University does extensive research on implicit bias through their Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

The institute publishes a yearly review of the state of implicit bias research.  You can find that here.

Kirwan Institute and Medicine

Kirwan's 2017 research shows that even doctors and patient health are affected by implicit bias.  The research is supported by the American Association of Medical Colleges.  You can download it here.










University of Chicago School of Economics and Labor Market

Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan published a study of implicit bias and the labor market in The American Economic Review called Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination?

Labor Market and Felonies
From the NY Times, When a Dissertation Makes a Difference shows not only how unconscious bias can play a role in hiring in a most inequitable way, but also how sociology can make a difference that influences policy.

As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Devah Pager studied the difficulties of former prisoners trying to find work and, in the process, came up with a disturbing finding: it is easier for a white person with a felony conviction to get a job than for a black person whose record is clean.

Sociology of Education and School Discipline

Edward Morris and Brea Perry's research found that discipline in school for subjective offenses might be shaped by implicit bias.  See their research published in the ASA's journal here or here.


What Would You Do? 
And this video showing how people are more quick to be suspicious and to call the police if they see a black man committing the same crime as a white man.

Explicit Bias

As you enter, please read this:

Over the last few years, the  United States has elected its first black/ mixed-race President, there are more black actors and actresses on network television, and the cultural norm is that it’s wrong to be racist, so,

 Is racism still relevant? Should we still be concerned about racism or have we moved past racism? 

(Please jot down a response to this)

Even though race does not exist biologically, it does exist as a social construction. This means that people believe in it and act on it even though it is not real (Thomas Theorem).  One of the ways the social construction of race affects people is by creating and ideology that a dominant group is superior than other groups without power, or minority groups.  This is called racism.  Racism is often used to justify unequal social arrangements between those in power and minorities.

One type of racism is explicit racism - directly and consciously believing that one's own "racial" group is superior to others. Another way that Americans have been shaped by "race" is prejudice and discrimination.  Prejudice is having a predetermined attitude about a group of people usually based on a stereotype.  Discrimination is an action or behavior that results in unequal treatment of individuals because of his or her perceived "race."


Checkout these recent events in our country:

Miss America 2013, Nina Davluri came to SHS. But when she won the pageant, there was a flurry of tweets about her race.

Here is a post about tweets from the 2013 Miss America pageant.
Is this racism?
Is this prejudice?
Is this discrimination?


Here is a post  about a 2013 racist incident in an unlikely place.


Racism in College

Fraternities and sororities hold racial-themed parties that display very directly the racialized stereotypes that persist in the United States. Does this surprise you?  How would you feel/react to a party like this when you go to college?
Here is a post about why dressing up in this way is not okay.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has an ongoing list of racist incidents.


Racism in Sports





In 2018, Racism at Wrigley in the bleachers.

The stakes of the moment are made clear by a Latino female fan who security rescues from physical and verbal harm. She stands on the bleachers and points at each member of the white security team.
“You and you and you will never know what it’s like,” she says.
A few seconds later, a Latino fan involved in the altercation accuses security of “taking the white people’s side.” The fight appears to be ending when the non-Latino fan bellows the same slurs, putting his hands on either side of his mouth to amplify his voice and ensure he’s heard. It’s only then that he realizes he’s being recorded. (If you feel the need to fully absorb these words, you can watch the videos here.)
It’s a telling moment. He feels safe enough to shout those words next to security personnel. But when he realizes his actions might be seen outside of the stadium, he accosts the person recording the fight. Security also instructs this person to “put your phone away” and says “you’re on private property, you don’t have permission to videotape anyone.”

In 2017, Fans at Fenway made news numerous times over there racist taunts of opposing teams'  players.

In 2017, Yu Darvish was taunted and mocked for looking Asian.

In 2012, Joel Ward, a black NHL player scored the winning goal in the NHL playoffs and he became the target of racial slurs.


Racism in the Marketplace
A college student from Queens got more than he bargained for when he splurged on a $350 designer belt at Barneys — when a clerk had him cuffed apparently thinking the black teen couldn’t afford the pricey purchase, even though he had paid for it, a new lawsuit alleges.
“His only crime was being a young black man,” his attorney, Michael Palillo, told The Post.


Racism in Politics


During the Healthcare debate in 2009, Representative David Scott of Georgia had a 4foot swastika painted over his office sign.


The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies hate groups in America. This link will show you a map of all the hate groups in the United States.   Is this surprising?  Is this concerning?


This article from the Mail Online, A British online newspaper:

And with Mr Obama reportedly receiving more death threats than any other American president - 400 per cent more than those against his predecessor George Bush, according to a new book...A black U.S. Congressman had a swastika painted over his office sign after he yelled at allegedly racist protesters at a Southern town hall meeting, it emerged today.

Racism in the Media

Jeremy Lin is an example of the racial stereotypes in sports and how stereotypes can be more or less permissible for different groups within a society. Here is a post explaining that dynamic from the society pages.  Here is a clip of the skit from the daily beast.  Have you seen or heard any explicit racism in your own life?

Explicit Racism Backstage

Sociologists Leslie Picca and Joe Feagin explain in their book Two-faced Racism that racism can be explicit even if it is not always shared publicly.  Read an excerpt here.  Watch a video of Leslie Picca here:



SOCHE Talks: Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage from SOCHE on Vimeo.


Takeaway (for more info see Ferris and Stein pages 219 - 222)

What is the difference between racism, prejudice and discrimination?

What is explicit racism? 

What evidence is there that the U.S. is not post-racial and explicit racism exists?