Assignment 5

1. According to the slides, we define:
1. Power as the ability to force someone to do something against their will.
2. Prestige as the amount of respect and status a person has in society
3. Privilege as the special advantages or benefits an individual or group of individuals may enjoy.
2. The three variable sociologists use to define social class is: income, occupation, and education. I would probably label the social class of my family to be the "Working Class" as both of my parents have jobs, but they do not require a college degree.
3. I am 20 years old, female, and consider myself a West Indian. Still, I do not believe that it was my race or ethnicity that blocked me from any opportunities, but that it was because of where I live. Growing up in urban Jersey City, our education systems were not always the best. I always felt that as a high school student, I didn't receive as much help and information that I thought I deserved when it came time for me to start applying to colleges. I did most of it on my own, as my parents never went to college in the US, and my guidance counselors helped very little. In the end, the most important things at my school were usually "Finding ways to get the students under control" rather than helping the majority of us figure out our options for the future. But still, I tried to keep that from affecting me.

Assignment 4

1. Gender is socially constructed because as people, men and women grow up learning many if not all of our masuline and and feminine behaviors through social interactions and experiences.
2. I remember an instance in my own life that had a relation to "doing gender". When I was youngerbI would usually spend time with my (boy) cousin. We usually always ended up playing with my kitchen sets or dolls, but we thought nothing of it because we were young. After a while, my uncle heard about it and got upset and soon after started introducing my cousin to more of what he felt was "male centered" activities. I hadn't really realized why he did this until I got older.
3. Sexual identity is when a person's ideas and attitudes lead them to forming a certain identity about themselves or when a person sees what they prefer in terms of attraction to others.
4. Social constructionists argue that sexual identity and gender are socially constructed, because the expectations that people have regarding gender are difference depending on the society and it also depends on the time period and culture.
5. As a researcher, it is probably difficult to get information regarding sexuality because many people see it as something that should be kept private and personal. It is usually a topic that people may or may not want to discuss with the public, especially if it is a complete stranger. Personally, I wouldn't mind participating in a survey such as this and I wouldn't mind answering truthfully. However, I would like it if there would be a way for any of my information to be listed as anonymous, keeping true to a need for privacy.

Assignment 3

Out of my immediate family, both my younger brother and I were born here in the United States. However, both of my parents were born in Trinidad, a pretty small country in the West Indies near the Caribbean Islands. My grandparents on both my mother's and father's sides were from Trinidad as well. It's hard to say exactly, because I have SUCH a big mix in my family. Going through it all gets pretty confusing sometimes, even for my parents. But still, in the end, my family is considered as being "West Indian".

But personally, race and ethnicity isn't generally something I grew up really thinking about, even though the area I grow up in always had issues regarding race. I'm used to people assuming I'm Hispanic, mainly because of my totally "Hispanic" last name (which Professor Gager noticed in class as well!). Another factor is my obviously crazy curly hair, which is usually the icing on the cake for most people. But it's always the funniest thing to see their reactions when I tell them that I really am not Hispanic at all! :)

What was surprising about the video was how when the little girl was asked which was the "bad" doll, she pointed to the darker one. And then when the interviewer asked for which one looked most like her, the little girl hesitated before choosing. It was shocking to see her struggle, because at first she felt that the dark skinned doll represented "bad" and then after, she saw that the doll looked most like her as opposed to the other one. It's crazy to see a child (and most of the others) come to a conclusion like this at such a young age.

Assignment 2

1. According to the functionalist theory, the definition of the "instrumental" leader is a leader of a group that discusses how to accomplish a task they had been assigned, while an "expressive" leader is the one that tried to keep up the group's spirit, either with the use of supportive words or jokes. The father was usually known as the instrumental leader, while the mother was the expressive.
2. The main demographic change that led scientists to be critical of the functionalist perspective was the fact that women were now entering the workforce a lot more than previous years. They feared that families with the sort of "breadwinner/homemaker" type of leadership was declining.
3. The main theme of the conflict theory is to focus on how individual people, whether alone or in families, can deal with issues and problems the come up in their daily lives.
4. Social exchange theory is based on ideas that economists use. Exchange theorists say that men are more "efficient" when it comes to working and earning a higher pay, and women are more efficient when in the home with children, so the exchange works better when families are organized this way.
5. Feminist theory is based on the ideas of both the exchange and symbolic interaction perspectives. 
6. Yes, in my opinion, the power of wives versus husbands in families is changing and has been changing over time. Today, most women are most likely not going to accept the "homemaker" status and stay home with the children and take care of the home. For one thing, financial issues can be big problem towards this, as only one income is hardly enough for a family to get by on today. With most women in the work force now, I would think that the theories with wives versus husbands in families have changed drastically.

Assignment 1

Hi! I'm Monique. I am a commuter from Jersey City, which, if you take the train like I do, is about a 30 minute ride away. I'm 20 years old, I love to read (mostly titles from the YA or Young Adult category). At the moment, I am not a FCST major. Though I plan on teaching, most likely early childhood education. Teaching has always been a passion of mine, ever since I was younger, so I am excited to pursue that. I am totally shy and I don't speak up much, and you might wonder why in the world I would choose something like teaching, but it's something I love and I don't want my shyness to get in the way of that!

At home, I live with both my mom and my dad, and my younger brother, who is 15. As a family, we get along pretty well. My parents have been together 22 years this past March. Sadly, they're the type of parents that you just have to roll your eyes at or leave the room because they won't stop with the lovey eyes and random hugs. It does get annoying sometimes, I have to admit! But they do have their arguments, because what married couple doesn't? But at the end of the day, like my mother says, "No one ever goes to bed angry."

My brother and I are also really close, and we spend most of our time together watching movies and TV shows on Netflix. We have tons of useless insiders and jokes that no one will ever understand. While we do not have any pets, my brother had a teddy-bear hamster named "Pepsi" that died a while ago. And just for a laugh, he had another hamster before Pepsi, but it escaped from it's cage (when no one was home) and to this day we have no clue where it went!

From the syllabus, I find both the topics "Race, Ethnicity, & Families" and "Effects of Divorce on Children" interesting. I chose the first one because my parents are both from Trinidad (an island in the West Indies near the Caribbean!) and it would be interesting to see the effects studies say a different culture or ethnicity may or may not have on a marriage. Also, I chose the second topic, because I have two close cousins whose parents went through a really nasty divorce several years ago. It bordered on what we were talking about in class, about parents staying together just for the kids, and it just ended horrible and everyone was upset. It would be interesting to study the effects of this and how it would have been different if those parents would have made divorce an option before things got really bad.

As for Wiki, I think I like it! Everything all in one spot, no messy folders to go through, and it's not confusing. I spend a lot of time online too, so I'm sure I'll get everything in no time :)