Stereotypes and career expectations in minority cultures

So I was cruising around YouTube yesterday and came across this awesome skit from Wong Fu Productions that illustrates racial stereotypes in society. The skit, "Do you love your job? - Job Expectations," follows two high school teens -- one Asian and the other African-American -- as they battle their true selves in an attempt to squeeze into their racial typecast. Obviously, -- SPOILER ALERT -- it didn't work.

Socialized Self: Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy and Cooley's looking-glass self

(Robert Merton)

Robert Merton was an American sociologist who won the 1994 National Medal of Science for his founding of the sociology of science. He spent most of his career as a professor at Columbia University, where he developed the concepts of the "reference group," and "self-fulfilling prophecy." For the purposes of this post, I will only discuss the latter.

Socialized Self: Erving Goffman's 'Dramaturgy'

(Erving Goffman)

Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist who discussed and contributed to symbolic interaction. He was considered to be the twentieth century's most influential American sociologist, and he gained this title with his research on social interaction and the social construction of self, among many others. His most well-known concept is Dramaturgy -- the illustration of human behavior through theatre.

Socialized Self: George Herbert Mead's Self, Mind and Society

(George Herbert Mead)

George Herbert Mead was a social philosopher who discussed the connection between the self, the mind, and society. He believed that society has an effect on the self and mind, and the self and the mind have an effect on society. Mead is considered to be the father of symbolic interaction.

Socialized Self: Herbert Blumer's Three Basic Premises

(Herbert Blumer)

Herbert Blumer was a sociologist who discussed social research and symbolic interaction. As a supporter of George Herbert Mead's findings, Blumer was a big believer that individuals create their own social reality through collective and individual action. Through his works on symbolic interaction, Blumer was deemed by many as the leader of this sociological school of thought during his times.

Here is Blumer's Three Basic Premises for human interaction from his book, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method:

Need to Know Approaches to Sociology

Micro-Macro Integration:

In micro-sociology, the sociologist focuses on the nature of everyday human life and its social interactions. So when they are conducting research at work, the researcher will use interpretive analysis instead of statistics or empirical observation, as the roots of this approach are symbolic interactionism and ethnography.

Examples of what micro-sociologists might look at would be stereotypical roles of women in a workplace or a race issue in a high school.

6 Must Know Sociological Concepts

Sociology is a complex social science. There are a lot of ideas in and it can get confusing. But, to make things easier, here are 6 concepts to introduce you to it.

On Everything Sociology, we've gone over many concepts. 

And since the holidays are here, I thought I'd make a (half) year in review so you can pick and choose what you want to re-read during the lonely, cold days of your break. 

So without further to do, here are the 6 must-know sociological concepts from Introduction to Sociology:

What is the Sociology of Crime and Deviance?

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The sociology of crime and deviance is the examination of what society views as criminal and deviant behaviours and why. 

When sociologists study deviance, they look at people or groups who violate social norms, such as drug addicts, murderers, child molesters, Satanists, Nazis, etc, and then observe to see why society deems these people/groups as deviants. Sociologists also try to figure out how these individuals/groups became full-fledged deviants.

As well, some sociologists also consider people with conditions such as mental illness, disabilities, obesity, etc, as deviants. But not because of the person's personal self, but rather because of how society looks at and treats them; they are not acceptable in the eyes of their fellow humans.

An illustration of socialization

Young and Dangerous

Here is a story to illustrate last week's concept of socialization.

I am an owner of a start-up and every month I have to go to the bank to deposit my earnings, which happens to be mostly cash. But this one time (maybe my fifth or sixth time going to that back), the teller, who was a middle aged white lady, was very suspicious with me and kept asking me personal questions and very specific questions about my business, and even though I cheerfully answered them, she made me feel very uncomfortable because I knew in the back of my mind that she was only hassling me because I was young, didn't dress like a businessman and Asian (this feeling is referred to as double consciousness, but we will explore this further later on).

On Cooley's and Mead's Theories of Socialization

(Charles Horton Cooley)

Socialization is the process whereby social institutions teach their members how to properly interact in a society. It also helps its members develop a sense of self (the "self" is a unique sense of identity that distinguishes people from others). 

But socialization can also be negative. A lot of times it can develop people into conforming citizens rather than free-thinkers or people with agency (a person's capacity to act independently; to have free will).