journal entry#3

 

 What linkages can you see across these journal entries?; How do these entries demonstrate shifts in your thinking throughout the term?; How would you revise these entries today? 

JournalCompilation

Name: Tarnveer Kaur

Course: SOC-230

Date: Dec.07, 2020

Instructor: Katherine Watson

Sociological Social Psychology: People as Symbol Makers

The week’s study was dealing with sociological social psychology, which deals with people as symbol makers. Human perceptions involved the creations and recreations of symbols and images by humans, and it is a continuous process. For example, one of the unfamiliar contents that I learned from this course is about Bill Reid. It was a story about a bear mother, and it is a story well known by a lot of people on the northwest coast. Several versions of this story are given. This story’s available content relates to a woman by the name of berry picker who did not respect bears, and for this reason, she was kidnapped and was forced to marry a son of a grizzly bear who was a chief. She gave birth to twins who had mixed features, i.e., some for human beings, while others were of a bear. Generally, the story’s moral relates to the importance of respecting and honoring animals, more specifically the bears. It as well gives emphases about the travel and transformation between the human and non-human world. This story has been told for generations. The symbols used to represent the mother are in some cases of the human face, and in other cases, it is shown with a bare look. In other images that the mother has demonstrated suckling the clubs, the club is shown with a bare face and the other one with a human face. 

In other stories, this Grizzly Bear is considered the most powerful of all crests. It is, in most cases, associated with hears. Large claws are used as headdresses and necklaces to symbolize the power and strength of healing. On the other hand, these powers were evil powers, and religions and the government rejected them. Decades will pass before these healings are accepted and respected by the societies. The continuation of the study sensation is described as either doily sense such as smell, taste and sight, biological capabilities, or a process of interpretation of stimuli. Perception in feeling relates to converting impulses into patterns and symbols that are meaningful. Sensation categories stimulation experiences depending on their similarity levels, for example, Borges classification of animals, which groups them into different categories, i.e., those that are trained, fabulous ones, embalmed ones those that belong to different emperor stray dogs among many others.

According to the study, symbols provide mechanisms by which culture is created and acquire, i.e., ways of thinking and feelings of particular groups of people. Idio-culture is a system where knowledge, believes, and sentiments that serve as referencing frameworks based on different group member’s interactions. Cultural symbols that are shared between other groups help in interactions among these group members. The culture is guided by different factors, such as material culture, non-material culture, and social norms. Civilization is said to have other features such as it is learned, shared, transmitted, is cumulative, and culture is human.

From experience in this study, most stories that are given, i.e., that of the bear other, are just stories. But the stories have great relevance and relation. For example, people should respect animals and nature because they have to do so. Someone who has gone through this study should understand that humans create culture depending on their lifestyles; hence it can be changed anytime, although standards are respected first. Some with this understanding can reflect and improve awareness about culture, beliefs, and reality. All people have to respect others regardless of believes or symbols they use to reflect their lifestyle.

Sociological Emotions

The reading for this week was on sociological emotions. The study dealt with the way individuals cope up with the emotional labor on the front-stage and backstage. However, a restaurant study indicates how the servers have to deal with the emotional labors on front-stages and establish a solidarity unity to deal with the emotions backstage when they intermingle out of clients’ earshot. Moreover, this has various consequences, as the servers can classify their customers based on racism, racial hierarchies, and social-class.

Strength and Weaknesses of the Content

However, content is reflected on, has various strengths and weaknesses that arise due to how they deal with emotional labor backstage. The following are the strengths of the content; the presence of communities of coping is significant to servers in a restaurant as they help establish solidarity and prevent burnouts. Moreover, servers and individuals from high-stress environments can emotionally benefit from the strong ties they show with each other. On the other hand, these practices have been found to have some weaknesses: the backstage relations are intended to relieve stress, but instead, they reproduce racial hierarchies and social classes both within and beyond the restaurant walls. Furthermore, innocent clients who have seemingly done nothing wrong are poorly spoken about, made fun of, and given incorrect orders.

Reactions to the Content

When the servers relieve their stress, they should not establish social classes and racial hierarchies, which they even take beyond the restaurant but instead find ways to forgive their clients. Furthermore, the management staff should be in the front line to curb the servers from discriminating against the customers based on racism and classism instead of being the source of comments.

Feelings about Experience in the Course and With the Content

Based on the course experience, servers can handle clients under all situations as the feeling rule governs them. Their emotional display determines the amount of money they are going to make from their customers. However, the content explains otherwise, severs face emotional labor on the front-stage, which they have to deal with, that is to hide it, but later on when they are out of earshot of clients, they discuss with their co-workers to relieve the stress. Moreover, it is clear from the content that the servers discriminate against their customers even though they hide it from the front-stage.

Lesson Learned and Demonstrating an Improved Awareness and Self-Development

One of the lessons that I have learned from the content is that servers in a restaurant are typically humans, just like any other. They are faced with emotional labor resulting from their clients and management levels. Additionally, emotional labor can lead to detrimental consequences, as in the servers who discriminate against their customers. Based on the learning situation, I can demonstrate improved self-development and awareness because I have learned how individuals have been emotionally hurt and the potential consequences of emotional labor.

Conclusions in A General and Specific Sense

In a general perspective, emotional labor affects many people who work in high-stress environments; these individuals are burned out with their work. Consequently, these may result in job turnover. On the other hand, in a specific sense, servers are emotionally affected, thus experiencing emotional labors, which results in customer’s discrimination and even judging the innocent clients wrongly.

Socialization:

Socialization is the act of conversing and interacting with people to develop an identity, and this is mostly expedited by social actors such as language and norms (Watson, n.d). Socialization plays a more significant part of our cultures. That’s why it’s easier to interact with people from different regions, people who speak different languages, and strangers to us. The term socialization is derived from the term social, which is illustrated by our cultures. That’s why there is a close link between culture and socialization. The purpose of learning about socialization is to understand our environment, including how we interact, view people, define situations, and evolve. The content is of help immensely in the world we live in, where we have to define ourselves based on different aspects such as culture, gender, and class.

The learning from the course has acquainted me with enough knowledge to understand the environment. The feeling has been fascinating getting to learn new ideas that are applicable in our lives and understanding how we are connected to the world. Regardless of socialization being helpful, it still doesn’t answer the questions of feminism, gender inequality, and racial discrimination. These factors that affect peoples’ lives and the content in the journal still don’t illustrate why even it is easy to live in a world where gender differentiates the tasks we are supposed to conduct. There always remain the questions of who we are and why we are the way we are. The course is built with enough content to help us understand our real self, while the content under the journal brings us close to our cultures, which are vital in helping us understand socialization from a broader perspective.

I have learned how socialization and culture are linked together and why it’s easy to shares different cultures yet converse. Socialization is based on learning since one is a kid until he/she is fully grown to make decisions. Also, while making these decisions, people will judge you because of the behaviors and traits portrayed. This is all that socialization is about; defining our daily lives and how we conduct ourselves. Additionally, when socialization is linked with gender, it’s easier to understand the social codes of gender, including why boys and girls behave in different ways. From another perspective, I would state that how we conduct ourselves is based on social self, and that’s what makes a person unique. Similarly, it’s how people define our actions and interpret our thinking.

The course has equipped me with knowledge based on my social life and how I interact with it. For instance, I have gained awareness of biological and social environment factors that contribute to socialization. Everyone, including caregivers, plays a vital role in the process of socialization. With this kind of knowledge, it’s easier to interpret situations and tell a person’s character traits based on their behaviors or how they display themselves. I have developed certain traits that are essential in discoursing and interacting with individuals from different cultures. For instance, from the learning discussions, I understood how gender relations influence my thinking and how I feel. Knowledge from this learning has brought me so close to my culture, and I have understood it differently.

Socialization has a high and significant impact on our lives, given that the world consists of diverse cultures and people from different nationalities. Masculinity and femininity are cultural codes that define gender, and that’s why we have girls and boys doing different tasks at home or re to situations differently. Gestures are also part of communication since they express the social self. Knowledge gained from these experiences signify and illustrate why interactions are essential. To add on, culture and socialization are inseparable. 

Journal Compilation

Name: Tarnveer Kaur

Course: SOC
–
230

Date: Dec.07
, 2020

Instructor: Katherine Watson

Journal Compilation
Name: Tarnveer Kaur
Course: SOC-230
Date: Dec.07, 2020
Instructor: Katherine Watson