sociology everywhere!

All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I went to the movies last night. I went with my best friend and we saw The Rite. This movie is about an exorcism in Rome, Italy. The movie was supposed to be based on a "real" story.The movie was pretty entertaining overall.There were elderly and younger viewers, I was really interested to know what they thought of the movie, because there has been a variety of movies about exorcism so it's easy to pick out the good and bad ones. In the movie theater everyone was quiet and respectful except this two boys that were super obnoxious. When we walked out of the movie theater the couple behind us was talking about how they really believed in exorcisms, while I on the other hand don't really think they are real. This all magically brought me back to this week's lesson in Sociology!
 For one I thought of all the group/crowd terminology we had been talking about. I believe that at the movie theater all the viewers were a conventional crowd, because we all had a specific purpose which was to watch the movie. Our theory of crowd behavior are I think both emergent norm theory and convergence theory. This is because everyone was quiet and respectful when the movie came up. I was really curious to know what the word for those who act nothing like what the "norm" is, for example the two boys that acted nothing like one is supposed to act in a theater.They were a bit loud and obnoxious. Also I think we could fit in the convergence theory, because we formed a crowd in a sense,because we all have similar liking(the movie;The Rite; exorcism etc.)I also really thought about panic vs. mass hysteria. This is because I don't really know if they are real or not, so it makes me thing how many people have built up anxiety over this.Overall Friday night involved a lot  of sociology. 

I'm a Survivor ! 2-18-11

All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was watching Survivor Redemption Island. I recently started watching Survivor,but I’m oh so very hooked.The new season’s episode was really good.I have only seen one full season,and that was the season before this one, where “Fabio”  was the champion. This season is the season to watch, because once the player’s are voted out of the tribe, they have a chance to come back into the game.In the season premiere  they divided the tribes as usual, but they added yet another twist by bringing past villains Rob and Russell . I didn’t see the seasons they were on, but from what I got they were very good and manipulative while playing the game.When Zapatera (Russell’s tribe) and  Ometepe ( Rob’s tripe) went on their first challenge, Zapatera came with a win. When Ometepe went back to camp they were forming alliances and what not.Most people wanted Rob out from the start, but that later changed at tribal counsel. At tribal counsel Philip revealed everything Francesca and Kristina had told him. At the end of the night Francesca was voted out to redemption island.I wasn’t expecting this as all. However Kristina and Francesca made themselves targets at the counsel because they were being sneaky and you could tell their stories didn’t add up. 

 

I got the idea to do this blog on Survivor because we did watch a Survivor episode in class, and I wanted to apply it while watching the show on my own time. 

Evaluation on Ometepe

PRIMARY GROUP : Rob and all the younger players ( Natalie, Andrea, Ashley, Matt) they all felt exclusive towards each other. The “younger” players made Rob the leader in their own little clique and they all saw each other as the primary group.They teamed up and got Francesca sent to the island.

SECONDARY GROUP: Kristina, Francesca, and Philip they all had a special purpose  together to get Rob out and that clearly was less permanent because Philip totally changed his mid and went against them on the tribal counsel.

KINSHIP GROUP: There was no extended family on the show because they are all strangers,and they didn’t talk about their family. 

TERRITORIAL GROUP: The whole tribe identified themselves as Ometepe members because they all live on that side of the camp, and when they helped each out in camp making shelter.

INTEREST GROUP: All of the members they all had an interest to win the title of soul survivor and win the million dollars. Also Kristina and Francesca’s  interest of kicking out Rob. Rob’s interest of kicking out one of them (Kristina or Francesca) 

PRESSURE GROUP: Kristina and Francesca’s pressuring Philip to vote with them.

REFERENCE GROUP: Francesca comparing who would be better to vote off Rob or Natalie. Also comparing Rob and Russell as in who could be better to have in a tribe. 

IN-GROUP: Rob,Natalie,Andrea,Matt,Ashley-they all got their way making them enduring. 

OUT-GROUP: -Kristina, Francesca and Philip because they only had each other. They were targeted and seen with hostility. 

AGGREGATE: Viewers - we all were watching the show at the same time etc. 

Let it snow! 2-4-11's post

  All of a sudden I found myself thinking sociologically when I was shoveling the snow from my house.This week we had TWOOOO snow days which is great, except for the snow part. My neighborhood was covered with a lot of snow. I had to shovel the snow with my cousin and we did it a lot faster than the man next door.This made me think of the puzzle exercise we did in Sociology, why is it that my group had the most people,yet we were second to last to finish?It puzzled me no pun intended.My cousin and I had one strategy and that was to divide the work in half, other than that we did everything on our own. That was similar to the strategy my group had while putting the puzzle together mhm, but they didn’t work in the same way! 

We learned about the role theory is : a perspective in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting out of socially defined categories (e.g., mother, manager, teacher).I think that since my cousin and I wanted to finish really fast, because it was cold we took on this “role”  in a sense our behavior changed and we did our work faster. However we were interacting with each other and had communications. With my group I think we all  took many “roles” of boss we all wanted to get as much as we could done by ourself , and then we lacked the coming together until the end. Like society we needed everything to function to work together. Since we had many disadvantages by not having the edges and the image of the puzzle we all took a variety of rolls and clashed, but at the end we were able to finish and hopefully society does too.

Assignment 1 : Chicago.

  All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was in lunch earlier this week. I was remembering a time over the summer when I went to Chicago. When I was there I saw many homeless people everywhere. When I go to Chicago and see people asking for money, or donations I can’t help but feel empathy. I try to put myself in their shoes and see things from their point of view. It is hard for me to do this because I myself haven’t been homeless, so I can only imagine what it’s like. It also made me think of  how strong of a person they are ,is being homeless a consequence of their actions? What I mean by this is Did they do something to get themselves there? I don’t really think most of them did anything “bad” for them to be homeless, but it really makes me think what their life was like before being homeless....or where they always homeless? All of this intrigued me, because I saw the way people passing by would look at them. Some would help, others would ignore . Society for the most part sees the homeless at the bottom of the chain,so seeing everyone’s reaction only supported this idea. 

  Just as I finished writing the first paragraph it amazed me how I automatically referred to the homeless as “them” ,“they” which are grouping words. Although this exact words fit to get my point across it defines them as a group, where as they perhaps all see themselves differently. Anyhow this week we learned about sociologist and in that short experience I can connect to a few of their ideas. When I was putting myself in a homeless person’s place I was using Max Weber’s idea, he actually came up with “seeing from other people’s point of view” . For the Facebook project I researched Herbert Spencer and he would have said that the homeless deserve to be homeless, because they keep society moving. Like the human body society keeps us moving, so the homeless keep the rest moving, because in a sense that is their place. Although I believe the opposite I don’t think the poor should be poor , however I do see his point in some way. We can’t all be rich because then who’s going to keep working. This may be a far off expansion of his idea but it’s somewhat reasonable. Also with people giving money to the homeless Spencer wouldn’t have liked that at all.He didn’t like the interfering of the government.The last sociologist that I can connect this too is Karl Marx. He believed in changing the world , rather than to study it. He wanted no social classes and even predicted that class conflicts would be gone. This is the opposite of what I saw in Chicago. Most people that I saw walked by had a sent of being better, in  the social hierarchy. It would be nice if everyone was seen as equal but society/humanity has a long way there.

Who is Dali?

 My name's Daliadne, but I go by Dali. I would define myself as a very
spontaneous girl. I'm very outgoing, but shy at the same time. I’ve grown up with a great family; they’ve been my backbone ever since I was able to walk. I’m really talkative, and hate to be bored. The biggest influences in my life are my mom and dad. My mom taught me what was wrong and right. She brought me to life which is reason enough for her to have the biggest influence on my life. She is always there for me and I consider her my best friend. I can tell her anything and she always listens and gives me THE BEST advice. My dad on the other hand has taught me how to be tough. He’s the best dad any daughter can ask for, because he always encourages me to succeed. My goal in life is very simple; to be happy. I want to go to college and graduate with a psychology major. Hopefully be married and have a nice little family.