Dengcheng Yu

Professor Lookholder
Sociology 1
12 March 2018
1. According to the twin’s study, researchers found out unconscious behaviors between
twins tends to be more similar, such as the preferences of foods or ways of
expressions which are very possibly the result of the genetic inheritance. These
behaviors that the twins naturally have without learning and appearance that is also
genetically inherited easily make others feel they are twins. However, the twins’
political and religious beliefs can be very different. In the study, when twins live in
the opposite environment, one of brothers gradually shows totally he form different
temperament and ways to think or solve problems even though they still look similar,
such as keeping mustache. One of them studies in a Catholic school and another one
grows up in Trinidad, which should be the reason of why they become different. This
study also states if twins do not live together but live with similar living conditions,
perhaps their intelligence will be developed with the similar level. Otherwise, if one
of the twins live in poorer community and another one usually connects with wealthy
neighbors, their intelligence scores are very likely different. Hence, intelligence can
be really inherited, but what environment they are living can limit their intellectual
development.

2. Self means how someone considers he/she is unique and typical as they look at others
around him/her is different from himself/herself. Charles Horton Cooley indicates
how people expect themselves to be depends on how others expect them to be, and
based on his looking glass-self theory, there are three phases to show how other’s
expectations impact each individual’s behaviors. To begin with, people imagines what
others expect them to do, and then they will decide what they want to show to others.
In the end, they will truly behave as others expected. Mead is another sociologist who
studies what self is. His ideas express the self is consisted of two separated
components which are I and me. Someone show his/her behaviors naturally and does
 not consider what other people think of him/her, which means he/she is acting the ‘I’.
If someone decides what his/her should do, he/she will consider others’ expectations,
judgements of him/her at first， which represents he/she is acting ‘me’. Moreover,
Mead mentions everyone’s behaviors should be impacted by significant others who
have close social relationship with us and usually interact with us, such as parents and
other family members. Mean also develops three stages to explain how everyone
experiences the process of socialization. Firstly, on the preparatory stage, children
come to realize to learn others’ behaviors and languages by observing and imitating
how other people interact, and the stage usually lasts until children grow up three
years old. The next stage is called play stage, children between three and five years
old start learning what they should be through trying to play various roles and think
about others’ thoughts. At last, children develop unique personalities, attitudes, and
have their own understanding to their social status and relationship on the game stage.
They can identify their own habits and the way of thinking and will not always follow
others’ way.

3. Erving Goffman points out the dramaturgical approach which means people can be
seen as an actor or actress in a drama. He identifies our behaviors are divided into
front stage and back stage. Goffman believes people show who they are to grab
others’ attentions because they think what they behave is what others expect to see.
Otherwise, people prepare and think about how to show their behaviors to others or
response to others on the back stage where is no audience. Goffman raises the
impression management which explains how people modify their behaviors to fulfill
everyone’s expectations when they interact with others. In the fact, many people
usually observe and think about what others want to see firstly and then take proper
actions, which reflects people care about others and want to establish nice impression
to others. For instance, people study in the library usually keep silent and do not
speak loudly because they know people in the library should expect them to be quiet.
Face-work represents the individual wants to save their own image when they get
failed to satisfy others’ expectations, which should be the reason why people get used
 to say sorry after they feel they take improper actions to bother others.

4. In the modern society, there are six significant social groups and institutions to make
people become socialized, which are families, schools, working places, their network
of peers, the media that they interact with others, and religion or state. Family is
important in someone’s growth since most people primarily interact with their family
members to develop self-awareness when they are young. The school which tends to
provide more academic education that is more likely to develop someone’s views of
society and more opportunities to make children interact with more people and learn
the norms or values. It will be different from family education. The peers also impact
everyone essentially, and people can form more clear awareness of gender roles and
obtain different way of thinking that is different from the last generations. There are
lots of new technologies which are changing our life and provides more rapid way to
exchange information. We can obtain lots of strange cultures and lifestyles from
modern media. Workplace offers more mature stage of socialization, and people get to
know how to cooperate with others better. Religion and what country we live can be
influenced people as well. Both government and religion provide people supports in
macro-level and broader views of life and society. Gender roles decide the boys and
girls will develop in different ways as their genders are given different expectations
by society. One of good example talks about the females usually need to be mother,
take care of children at home in history, as they are responsible to stay at home firstly
which causes they may give up working outside of home. Nevertheless, with the rise
of feminism, the gender roles can be changed. The females are gradually away from
their traditional role, and they do not have to spend all time on household and
children. The change of the females reveals what they expected in the past. Besides,
school plays an important role to enhance the perception of gender roles as children
have more opportunities to connect with more peers, and children’s behaviors will
change by understand the differences of genders. In daily life, boys may be expected
to be good at math and strong, and girls should be good at literature courses and more
likely to get bullied. Based on this stereotype, the boys and girls usually are treated
 differently is very possibly, which also can influence their own behaviors and
attitudes. Technology causes people become more socialized should be a fact, as the
information is spread rapidly, people can post their thoughts and make a lot of people
look at and obtain more information when compare to the past. People do not have to
spend time to face-to-face communication, and everyone can interact with others
anywhere anytime. Therefore, the information exchange more frequently that is
obvious and definitely speeds up the socialization.

5. The total institution will completely control someone’s life and what his/her ought to
do. One of typical example can be the military organization, and people in this kind of
institution will have a degradation ceremony. The ceremony represents a series of
inhuman things will happen when someone come into a total institution, and anything
that people got used to do in the past will be deprived. For instance, almost all the
females who join the army have to cut their hair very short and no one cares about if
they are willing to do. Besides, they have to follow their leader’s command strictly
and unconditionally, which means they will lose their unique characters and lifestyle,
and everyone must get used to live on the same schedule and wear same clothes. In
the end, they can be seen as an integrated term and play their role properly. There are
four parts to constitute a total institution. Firstly, everyone has to live in the same
place and attend the same activities in daily. Secondly, everyone attends the activities
that always conducted inside of the institution. After that, everyone must follow the
same rules and schedules that are set by their leader unconditionally. Finally,
everyone who is a part of the institution lives together, obey the same thing is all in
order to fulfill the goal of the institution.

6. Every different culture has their own method to deal with the elders should be true. In
the United States, the elders are possibly to live in nursing home and accept
specialized care. In China, the old people tends to be taken care by their children.
When people get old, they cannot avoid the biological and psychological changes
which can be troubles to these senior people. There are two theories to explain the
relationship between the elders and society which are disengagement theory and
activity theory. The disengagement theory mentions many elders seem to be far away
from the daily interactions of society, and they may choose to retire or give up
working which can make them lose the connections with the society. The reason why
they give up the past life should be they feel they cannot able to be qualified for the
previous job, so they will be hard to get touch in the past social relationship and
return to their past social status. Meanwhile, the elders only can depend on their
children’s care or the social welfare system to live, which is likely to put much
pressure to themselves as they feel they become troubles to others. The activity theory
seems to be totally opposite, which emphasizes the elders should keep working and
do anything that they are interested in. People work within their capabilities will
make them get the sense of achievement, which should be suitable for the elders as
well. They still can interact with society should be helpful to improve their sense of
self-worth and reduce psychological problems. If the companies or other non-profit
institutions who are willing to provide job opportunities to the elders can obtain
financial supports, or the government may provide helpful measures to the elders, the
elders may truly come back to their job position and stop feeling guilty.