Erving Goffman and George Herbert Mead are the leading proponents of symbolic

interactionism.

Goffman's Identity Typology:

-This is the idea that nobody can walk in another person's shoes, meaning that no two persons
share the exact same socialization experiences, or hang out with the exact same group of
persons, or hold the same ideas about the world and the people around them.
-Role performance is how a person expresses his or her role. Sociologist Erving Goffman
presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy,
Goffman believed that we use “impression management” to present ourselves to others as we
hope to be perceived.

Charles Cooley, sociologist, is credited for the looking-glass self theory. This theory posits
that one's identity comes from how one thinks other people perceive them; these perceptions
are based on one's interactions with others.

John Locke is famous for the theory known as tabula rasa. It is the idea that at birth, the
(human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and
rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences.
Possibly the most important contribution Locke had to psychology was his role in founding
British Empiricism, a scientific school of thought that believed knowledge can only come from
observable experiences.

George Herbert Mead's theory of the Social Self, explores how our self-identity develops
through social interactions. He proposes 4 stages: preparatory, play, game and other. In
each stage, our understanding of others' perspectives evolves, shaping our "I" (individual
response) and "me" (social self).
"me" is the socialized aspect of the person.
"I" is the active aspect of the person.

Socialization is the process whereby an individual's standards, skills, motives, attitudes, and
behaviors change to conform to those regarded as desirable and appropriate for his or her
present and future role in any particular society.

Presentation of Self
Goffman argued that we put on different performances based on who our audience is. The
presentation of the self is a person's efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of
others. This process, sometimes called impression management, begins with the performances
we carry out each day.

What children groups are play labs particularly beneficial for?

Low-income Children Ages 1-5, because 80% of their brain develops during this time.
The parents and higher ups of Bangladesh don’t believe play is important for their
development.
They believe that play is a waste of time, and they believe they only learn through academics.

Gender Roles:
how we're expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our
assigned sex.

Gender stereotyping:
the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or
roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men.

Agents of socialization:
the influence of key factors on a person's development and ability to play a role in society. The
primary agents are family, schools and daycares, peers, and media.

Who is a primary agent of socialization?

Family.

Mead defines Generalized Other as the community or the organized social group that,
perceived by individual, allows her/him to build up and structure the unity of one's Self.

Cultural relativism refers to not judging a culture to our own standards of what is right or
wrong, strange or normal.

A hybrid culture is a culture that is a mix of two or more cultures. It can also be a culture that
is a mix of two or more subcultures.

Although each parent in a family has a role in the upbringing of a child, in many cases, the
mother initiates the socialization process in a child. Besides giving the sense of belonging or
identity, a family imparts culture, traditions, norms, social roles, and values into the child.

Socially Isolated children are at increased risk of health problems in adulthood.

Furthermore, studies on social isolation have demonstrated that a lack of social relationships
negatively impacts the development of the brain's structure.

Story of The Girl In The Window

A girl named Danielle Crockett was so severely neglected that she had never learned to talk,
walk, or feed herself. After being taken into foster care at age 7, Dani's photo was displayed in
Tampa Bay, Florida's Heart Gallery. Diane and Bernie Lierow saw Dani's picture and eventually
adopted her. She is now 26 years old and is doing very well.

Norms:
a standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected of a group.
Culture Shock:
the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar
culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.

Social Institutions:
These exist to meet society's fundamental needs, such as providing structure, guidance and
order. Common examples of social institutions include family, religion, education and
government. Social institutions play a significant role in shaping gender and racial norms and
values.

Total institution:
A place of work and residence where a great number of similarly situated people, cut off from
the wider community for a considerable time, lead an enclosed, formally administered life
together. The term was coined by the American sociologist Erving Goffman.

Culture:
The ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from
generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such,
it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art.

Folkways:
Specific social norms that define and guide behavior in society.

Sanctions:
A way for governments to put pressure on foreign governments to get what they want out of the
state.

Values:
The beliefs that we have about what is important, both to us and to society as a whole.

The stereotypical expectations of males and females?

girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite,
accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.

The social task of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation (Made by Erik Erikson).

Generativity:
a concern for people besides self and family that usually develops during middle age. A need to
nurture and guide younger people and contribute to the next generation.

Stagnation:
The lethargy, lack of enthusiasm, and involvement in individual and communal affairs. It may
also denote an underdeveloped sense of self or some form of overblown narcissism.
Mead sees the parent as:
Necessary to mold the child 's future. It is the almost invisible process by which our parents
shape our lives with their unwavering support and advice. Parents are the first teachers who
help children learn the norms of society so that they can become good citizens as they grow up.

Initiation:
Consists of pro-social behaviors that build social relationships, understanding, empathy, civility,
altruism and moral decision-making.

Positive sanctions:
Rewards given for conforming to norms. Ex: A promotion at work is a positive sanction for
working hard. Negative sanctions are punishments for violating norms.

Non-material Culture:
Thoughts or ideas that make up a culture.
Ex: Knowledge, Beliefs, Spoken Language (Slang & Dialects), Norms of Behavior.

Life Course of Socialization:

The belief that socialization occurs during all aspects of life.
There are four stages of the life course:
-childhood
-adolescence
-adulthood
-old age
Socialization continues throughout all these stages. What happens during childhood may have
lifelong consequences.

The nature vs. nurture debate:

-It centers on the contributions of genetics and environmental factors to human development.
Some philosophers, such as Plato and Descartes, suggested that certain factors are inborn or
occur naturally regardless of environmental influences.

Nature believers: Francis Galton, Plato, Thomas Hobbes

Nurture believers: John Locke, Aristotle

*Piaget and Vygotsky believed in the power of both.

Mores:
A set of moral norms or customs derived from generally accepted practices.

Socialization:
The lifelong process of learning the values and norms of a given society.
Resocialization:
Undergoing this process again by drastically changing one's values and beliefs. Typically, this
occurs in a new environment where the old rules no longer apply.

What does Mona “Sad Girl” think is the future of Chicano culture in Japan?
“Well, to be honest, I think it will disappear. There are a lot of girls in the younger generation
who learned about the existence of Chicanos through me, but these girls are just taking what
they see from me, and don’t know the true lifestyle of the Chicanos. The ones who really
appreciate the culture, I can count with one hand…well, at least in Japan.”

What is cultural appropriation?

the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one
people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.
Cultural Appreciation is about honoring a culture.
Cultural Appropriation is dishonoring or demeaning a culture.

What is identified as the biggest misconception about drag queen performers?

That drag queens want to be women. This could not be further from the truth. They embody the
person they are, similarly to how a doctor embodies their role through wearing their scrubs.

How did the Chicano subculture originate in Japan?

A man named Junichi Shimodaira brought chicano culture to Japan through shipping lowriders
to Japan and educating the Japanese public. Slowly, more people set up shops with Chicano
items bought from LA, and created art based on the culture.

How does artist Night tha Funksta challenge negative representations of Chicano
culture?
He did this by making art that presented the positive side of Chicano culture. Since the
Japanese are unintentionally representing the bad side of Chicano culture, Night tha Funksta
shows the family-oriented, community-based beliefs that the culture believes in.

Who is Dr. Rachel Zellars and what does she connect acts of cultural appropriation with?
Dr. Rachel Zellars is a lawyer with a PHD in history who teaches at McGill University. She
connects acts of cultural appropriation with Capitalism.

Who is David Reimer?

David Reimer (Formally Branda Reimer) was a child who was originally raised as a female in an eye-
opening and tragic experiment, due to a botched circumcision. He later found out the truth, and re-
transitioned back to a man. But the psychological scars of the scientist’s mistreatment of him, and the
over 15 years of gender dysphoria due to being in the wrong body, led him to end his own life in 2004 at
age 38 years old.
Does his story support the nature or nurture side of the debate?
This story greatly supports the nature part of the debate. The doctor and his parents nurtured him like a
female, but he refused to believe it because it didn’t feel right. He severely suffered as a result. It’s
tragic.