Reflection About Society

Racism, sexism, homophobia - these issues are still prevalent and are cultivated through misrepresentation and ignorance. We are blind to our primordial culture as advertisements portray our generation as one of the pinnacle of human achievement. They flaunt the words “new,” “innovative,” “bolder,” and “bigger” to try to convince us that they have the resources to achieve perfection. The messages that are sent to our youth say that there is room for improvement on the individual and a goal to reach, but in reality it is our society that should be the focus of criticism. Our anxieties overwhelm and consume us and older generations perceive this as egotism, even though our youth is facing societal pressure and judgement comparable to the youth of 50 years ago.

After taking a Sociology class this semester, I learned a lot of about the different topics and concepts in this course and how they are related to our society, which has changed my perspective as well as how I view and see the meaning of my surroundings. I would also think about what would be going on inside a specific person's mind and how he or she was feeling. After learning about different concepts in Sociology and watching the videos presented in class, it became easier to just stop and think about a person, wonder who that person was, and be curious about that person's life story. We pass by people all the time every day, but we never really know what is going on with them and don't really think about it or care since it is so

I think it’s fair to say that having community is a desire for most people, and supportive and stable group of friends would be considered to many a good community. In the environment of a summer mission with Cru the topic of community is one that comes up often and is greatly valued. And because of that it is a topic that has stirred up a lot of thoughts for myself about what makes a community good, and what makes a community MAGNIFICENT. The sunday school kid inside me eagerly raises her hand and shouts out “Jesus!” But why? What about Jesus or God make a community move from good to magnificent? And why does not every christian community feel magnificent?

Every day we have to decipher the information provided to us. The manner in which a sociologist would do this can be done using 3 different theories: conflict theory, functional analysis, and symbolic interactionism. Lets us use embryonic stem cell research as an ethical dilemma to apply these three theories. Before applying our theories it will be helpful to explain the meaning of them. Conflict theorists impress that society is made up of a system of social structures that compete with each other for scarce resources. Life the conflict theory, the functional analysis sees society as a system of interrelated parts, or subsystems. But in order for society to work as a unit all of those subsystems have to work together. The third

I believe a community is a group of people who live in a common location. The community is filled with people who have and share similar interests, income, ethnic backgrounds, and religious beliefs. There are many different communities throughout the United States that vary in their interest, beliefs, backgrounds, education, etc. I believe this plays a part in affecting the community’s health care, jobs, resources, etc. For example, there could be a wealthy community made up of doctors and lawyers who receive the best housing and the best health care. However, there could be a community within fifteen minutes of those same doctors and lawyers who are hard blue-collar workers that receive adequate health care and housing. This also could be the same for a community who is considered poor and has no health care and little opportunities for housing and jobs.

Community is a wonderful unity, one that allows the believer to live as Christ lived. In the book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains in practical ways the implication, responsibilities and freedoms in which Christin community can posses. Mediation on this book has caused me to view community in a better way, focused on Christ and others, rather than myself and what I am able to received from it all. This book has wonderful thoughts and encouraged me to look within myself and convicted me in ways I had not thought I would be convicted.

My Social class/ Socioeconomic status (SES) and Race/Ethnicity are two significant ways that my social position has shaped my own health. Coming from a very urban area, shuffling between the lower middle class, lower class, and being African American has contributed to my health as a child prior to being able to make my own health decisions, and living on my own.

Social psychology, the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to another, can be used to explain many situations and phenomena that happen in the world. For instance, it can be used to explain why and how people react the way they do when they perform poorly in an act that they’re usually good at, also known as self-serving bias. It is blaming external factors when bad things happen, but contributing internal factors to the reason why good things happen.

The Research in Human Relations course guided me in the application mindset of my studies. Mindfully being able to break down information, from the statement of the issue to the analysis of data, to even an appropriate outcome that is beneficial to a particular field of study, is what this course promotes. Don Miguel Ruiz states in his novel, The Four Agreements, that we make different types of assumptions simply because we do not have the courage to ask questions (Ruiz & Mills, 1997, p. 68). This course enables students to not only want to ask questions but also build on their incoming knowledge with the tools to support giving back to the field and community. I long to give back through the power of research in my given field, and upon taking this course I feel empowered to do just that. The Research in HR course set a solid foundation for APA style writing, which has not only benefitted me through graduate school but will continue to benefit me into my career path. Today, APA Style sets the bar that is well respected in journals, books, and electronic databases (American Psychological Association, 2012). I found this course beneficial because much like each of my other courses, it further refined my skillsets for my pursuit of clinical administrative work and research on autism and speech in the field of speech-language pathology. Through each assignment, I became even more critical of the research I consumed. Being able to produce solid sources to help push my field of

This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people’s social psychology as well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from the “Social Psychology” textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me,

Lisa later went on to discuss how her social class affected her social class inside of the classroom with both her teachers and her peers. Lisa considered herself to be talkative and diverse in her friends. She tended to pick on those that were the same but also was able to relate to the struggles that many of them had since they were of the same social class. Her friend group consisted of those of the same race and interests as her. She liked to refer to her as a “social butterfly” and was friends with people on the high end of social class and those that were at the lower end. Her friends that were at the higher end of the social class had an issue talking about certain people never having the latest trends in phones or new backpacks or clothing for school. She responded to them by telling the story of those who could not afford the to keep up with the new trend. She said “Not everyone is aware of the struggles that others go through on a regular basis just to get a new pair of shoes or the newest laptop. I tend to associate myself with people who are similar in their spending and the way they were raised, but those that I were friends with who did not understand that would get a talk from me letting them know not to judge or jump to conclusions.” Lisa also associated herself with people of different races and was not one to exclude someone due to their skin tone. She recalls this one incident where one of her friends was being picked on because he was wearing dirty clothing and had rips and holes in his shoes. Lisa decided to sit back and do nothing even though it was her friends making fun of him. Looking back Lisa would have said something to stick up for him. He had a hard home life where money was tight and buying new clothing and shoes was the last of his family's concerns.

Starting out coming into a new school at a young age, going into a borderline opportunity school, which a opportunity school is just half jail half school. Cops patrolling the school every few days making it hard to do anything. And with the kids crowding the school making any information given spread like a plague across all the classes, both literally and figuratively. The social class at South Central is hellish, painfully real yet just imaginary to the teachers. Everything told, expressed, or said from the “well-off” kids were followed by many and repulsed by few. Mostly followed from sheer fear from prior kids who revolted and were “dealt” with. The social class was a ongoing war between the few numbered well off kids, the ones who were rich using money as their only source of defense; Versus the excruciating large amount of the “bottom tier” kids, the kids who were poor, charismatic, and yet tightly bonded with each other.

I lied. I told myself that I would be happy to be on my own, but I lied. I need a support group and I need people that understand me. Luckily, I was able to find that here in Stevenson. There is a quote from Robert Ingersoll that I live by, “We rise by lifting others.” Here in Stevenson College and the Self and Society course, we do those exact things. We all learn from each other and every single students insightful comments or conversations help each and everyone of us become greater thinkers, writers, and/or humans in general. I found that in this course, the things that shifted my views the most were not so much the texts themselves, but the people I encountered in the course, from the plenary speakers to my peers who along with me were struggling to wrap their minds around some of the highly complex philosophical and religious texts we covered. I often realized while reading these texts that span over thousands of years, my mind was in a different world. In some cases I was able to place myself into the texts and become enlightened on how to live my life to the fullest and other times the texts made me hurt and realize how vile mankind could be.

The United States has often times been illustrated as a melting pot where different cultures assimilate into one diverse, cohesive whole. However, this metaphor is not completely accurate today. Despite how diverse the country may be, social stratification can enforce normalized identities upon those in society who differ in social capital.

While visiting the local church for a community event, I met the possible participant for my focus group. The Del City Church of Christ Community Cup is an event that takes place every Tuesday morning from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. The church provides free donuts and coffee to the community as we as free fresh fruits and vegetable. I arrived at 7:30 a.m. on June 13th to have donuts with my grandchildren, while sitting there and observing the different individuals and families that came in and out I began to walk around and greeting everyone. After visiting with them for a while, I introduced myself and told them I was a student at UCO and would like to know anyone would be interested in helping me with an assignment I would be doing regarding the needs of the Del City Community.