Tuesday January 31 y Exam II Study Guide Sociology I The social construction of reality Berger and Luckmann A Intersubjective agreement on expectations We do not first see then define we define first then see This means social reality relies on us defining it first The social world requires us to have labels in order to understand it Ex Susan Boyle Everyday life presents itself as a reality interpreted by men and sub jectively meaningful to them as a coherent world an intersubjec tive commonsense world is constructed B The Thomas Theorem Situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences What we socially negotiate as reality becomes substantial important and meaningful Ex Professor in Morocco grossed out that vender went to clean his knife in a puddle grew up in a society that teaches about germs Behavior does not depend on the objective existence of something but rather on our subjective interpretation on our definition of real ity II Presentation of self in everyday life Goffman A Dramaturgy Social reality is based on performance People shape re ality intentionally Social interaction is therefore acting This perspec tive is called dramaturgy B Presentation of Self 1 Tuesday January 31 y Society establishes the means of categorizing persons and the com plement of attributes felt to be ordinary and natural for members of each of these categories C Sexuality as performance Indeed who people are is based on their performance A performance is about making an impression on those present and notably about asserting to oneself and to the other parties present that we are who we pretend to be Key concept if Goffman s dramaturgical analysis Important part is the front person s expressions attitudes etc D Commercial realism One place that Goffman thought that we could see gender is in main stream advertisements where our culture demonstrates what is pos sible of gender He called advertisements commercial realism Ex Dr Pepper Ten Not For Women Smell like a Man Old Spice Man Wonder Woman pose Sex biological difference gender how our culture labels sex Impression management in virtual worlds In order to become what they have to and to be seen with dignity and in a good light people idealize impressions in social situations This is called impression management Participants efforts to control the impressions made during the course of interaction E III George Herbert Mead s theory of the self A Taking the role of the other the process through which we place our self in the position or role of another in order to see our own self 2 Tuesday January 31 y Mead argued that the self is fundamentally social in its origins and development The self emerges and becomes established through our relationships and interactions with others Through these interac tions we learn to take the role of others and see ourselves as social objects This capacity is the essence of selfhood The self is a product of social experience and develops only through interaction with others Thus society is IN THE PERSON IV Cooley s looking glass self A What we think of ourselves self image depends on how we think other people see us how else do you know who you are B In general then most of our reflective consciousness of our wide awake state of mind is social consciousness self and society are twin born we know one as immediately as we know the other and the notion of a separate and independent ego is an illusion Ex Dove Beauty Sketches H Agents of Socialization A Mass media Images and ads saturate TV and the web Socialize us into preferences and beliefs B Family and family environment Before school it teaches values be liefs etc Ascribed characteristics such as race ethnicity social class and gender Commodities play a particularly important role for parents to show their children other parents and their children s parents that they care and the kids are cared for C Peer group Members who have similar interests social positions and age Supervision of adults is not present social constraint comes in other forms from peers Commodities play a particularly important role by providing an economy of dignity through which kids socially negoti ate what commodities are important and consequently provide them with visibility I Gendered commodification of childhood 3 Tuesday January 31 y A Alison Pugh and the gendered commodification of childhood Facework in the economy of dignity Such conservatory form the crux of what I have termed the economy of dignity the system by which children make themselves audible and therefore present therefore mattering to their peers Toys for example come alive with local meanings Children use Goffman s facework to make dig nity B The Story of Stuff Branding C Contemporary statistics on childhood and consumerism Marketing to children 17 billion dollars change from 80 s 100 million dollars Children 14 spend 40 billion dollars annually Children 12 spend 500 billion dollars Tweens 8 13 very popular 80 of brands deploy a tween strategy 4
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