How to Socialize with People from Different Cultures - Case Study Example

Sociology of the Family A culture can be learned, shared or passed on from one generation to the next and this is done through socialization. Socialization is also crucial in order to understand other cultures better. The primary stages of socialization is that which is learnt from families as a child, this being one's own culture and its etiquettes, although there in some cases children have been neglected by their family and have lived with animals- they are called feral (wild) kids. During a person's early stages, the ascribed roles are learnt which are gained biologically or by inheritance, for example gender roles. The secondary stage of socialization usually takes place outside of the home, it can be at school, with peers or at a workplace - this is when most people begin will to socialize with people from different cultures (Laslett, 303). During this stage you may gain achieved roles such as getting a good job or becoming a mother/father and the changes in trends are recognized too from the jargon that is used, to the seasonal change in fashion trends. Norms are the things we are expected to do as they are regarded as being normal, values on the other hand are the principles we follow but we tend to take for granted e.g. writing. If a person breaks the norm then they are deviant and agencies of social control such as the police take over. These basic fundamentals are recognized by most people nowadays and explain why there aren't as many cultural conflicts as there has been in the past. An example of cultural conflicts is during the early 19th century when White Americans came into contact with Native Americans - many conflicts and a few massacres had taken place simply because most of the White Americans were not willing to socialize and understand this Native culture (Kain, 955). A general perception of sociology is that it is the same as psychology. This is only correct to an extent, both the subjects are a part of social science and they look into the behavior of people (Bar-Yosef, 69). However, the difference is that psychology is the study of the mind and its mental states, whereas sociology looks at people on a broader scale, as it looks at the study of the structure and development of human societies. Today families are confronted with many problems. One issue is the imbalance in household and childcare labor done by men and women (Haralambous, 5). Another problem facing families today is the sharp rising in the number of elderly people. Changes to society may help fix some of these issues. Although society has made tremendous improvement in gender equality outside the home, little change has taken place within the home, Skolnick explains. He further says, “The family remains the one institution still based on separate and distinct roles for men and women”. This means women are expected to take care of the home and the children and men are expected to “bring home the bacon”. Unlike traditional marriage, In order for households to survive, in today’s society, both man and women have to work. In this case, as a result of this cultural lag, women are given the short end of the stick. Now, women aren’t only expected to take care of the children and the home, which Arlie Hochchild calls the “second shift”, but they must work fulltime outside the home as well. Skolnick points out those families with gender issues tend divorce mainly for these reasons. Also, Skolnick mentions that marriages that are less traditional and more equal, where both partners share the second shift labor tend to be happier. I think one society redesign that may help resolve this issue of unbalance of household and childcare chores can start with the work place. I know this idea isn’t a new idea but I don’t think it’s taken seriously. There should be an increase in the number of workplaces that are family friendly. The government needs to create ways men and women can work and still be able to maintain their household and child care chores without nearly reaching destruction. For instance, employers should give employers the option to work fours days a week instead of five. They can use this business day to take their children to the doctors for example. It can also allow them to attend their children school functions. Another suggestion is to provide employers with child care on their premises. Parents won’t have to invest in nanny cameras and constantly worry about the care their child is receiving. Jobs can also offer car service for employers to get to and from work. I think this will ease the stress of making it home on public transportation which is usually hot, uncomfortable, dangerous, overcrowded and often delayed. They’ll be more relaxed and prepared to tackle their house duties. Another solution would be to offers father maternity leave. Another solution would be more family friendly communities. According to Sweet, Swisher, and Moen, a friendly family is describe to have social capacity; “communities that extend care and control, as well as elements of physical and institutional, infrastructure that enhance a community’s fill potential to service its members”. Social capacity also consists of different crucial elements which includes, “the density and intensity of interconnections between children, parents and other adults within the community, such as teaches coaches and mentors”. Second involves “the advice, small favors, and so forth that residents can draw upon for support in times of need. This can include picking your neighbors kids up from schools when they can’t make it in time to do so. Also, providing childcare for others for a small fee or even for free. And lastly is the degree to which residents keep their eyes on the street and watch out for each other children”. Supportive and family friendly communities can also play important role in the success of married couples (Social Health Atlas, 31). Another problem, I think, facing families today is the rising of life expectancy. This will result in more elderly parents moving in with their children and grandchildren, creating more multigenerational house households. In my group’s house of the future design, we discussed the new situation to be beneficial to the household because grandparents can alleviate the childcare stress many dual earner families deal with. However, that may only be temporary. Eventually couples are faced with the double burden of supporting and caring for their elderly parents as well as their children. Caring for an elderly person alone can very physically and emotionally exhausting. One friend of my mother’s has suddenly become caregiver to her 66 year old mother and father. Although her father is competent, her mother was diagnosed with dementia and cataracts just a few months ago. She said her mother’s insurance only covers eight hours of care a day so when she gets home she covers the rest as well for her kids. She says she loves her mother a lot but the transition is difficult. She has to make her mother and father takes their medication, if the mother has an accident, which she often does, she has to clean and change her. Her father suffers from depression because he’s saddened by his wife’s condition. As result he forgets to take his diabetes medication, which she often always have to make sure he does. Then she has to start preparing dinner and check her children’s homework. Sometimes she has to help them with it. After dinner she has to get her bathed and ready for bed. Later she gets her mother comfortable in bed and turns to her favorite television program. After she get her and her husband clothes ready for work the next and cleans the house. Lastly she bathes and lies down to watch the 10pm news and to do it all over again the next day. “Caring for my mom and children and holding down a full time job is a staggering task. I just feel very sad”. To solve these issues, I think the government should pay for programs, for all seniors, that pick up seniors, competent and incompetent, and take them to local community centers that offer, counseling and group counseling because many seniors suffer from depression. Some factors of their depression include getting older and feeling useless, being treated as a child, and loss of their partner, friends and family. The community center should also offer exercise classes, swimming, arts and craft, cards, and meals and snacks. All seniors in need for 24 hour care should receive it for free. This way their needs are being met and they will be able to stay in their own homes, which they often prefer, instead of nursing homes or with family. All seniors should also be given free medication, unlimited doctor visits and car service. This will help relieve the stress from the house and financial strain. In my groups house of the future we invented an automatic system that delegated house hold chores to the family. Its purpose is to help equally divide the labor so that no one person is burdened with all the work. One limitation of this device is that members of the family may rebel against it or just simply choose to not to abide by it. We also decided to have a family lounge and a play ground in the back yard for parents who are subscribing to the new trend of just letting the kids be kids. Parents claim they are becoming burnt out from trying to get their children from different practices and rehearsals. I believe this “new trend” is only popular because of the recession. I’m not saying it’s not over whelming but as long as parents can afford it they will continue to do whatever’s possible, included running around like a chicken with their head cut off from lesson to lesson, to ensure their children cultural capital. As you can see the changes made to the design of a house are no match for the changes made to society. Changes in society are far more effective in resolving many issues for today’s families. Although many people choose to view themselves as unique and one of a kind, sociologists work against that idea to show connections between groups of people. My family has achieved status, which is a social position attained by person through their own efforts, in my town and I have used that to get certain jobs. Achieved status is just one example of how we can all be classified into a certain sociological group. By examining my family I discovered that it was an environment where all members interacted and this portrayed a small group. My mother's side of the family is mostly Irish, and shows cultural relativism in so far as the use relatives' actions to solidify their own decisions. My relatives depict the typical image of an Irish family. Every St. Patrick's Day is a big event in my house, almost more important than Christmas, it seems. By the time the boiled dinner is placed on the table, most of the relatives have had their fair share of beer and are squawking like a bunch of chickens. I find this ritual interesting as it greatly displays diffusion from a little known Irish saint to a world recognized event. My Father's side of the family brings a completely different background to the table, as they are from Italy. When this side of the family gathers, they show their willingness to abide by Italian social norms even though they have all been living in America for many years. Some of these norms include: preparing large meals, brewing their own wine, and tending to large gardens. Although, my parents are divorced and my father remarried, my sister, who's fifteen, and I still manage to adopt an equal amount of traits from both groups. A good way to examine what traits a person displays is to observe their everyday patterns and attitudes, in their personality. When further looking at the behaviors me and my sister acquire from our parents, it can be traced farther back to their parents and so on and so forth. I believe it is in this way that traditions are carried on and therefore shows that it is also the way many behaviors continually exist in different generations. My sister is a mess. Every personal aspect of her life is disorganized, and this happens to be one of the traits we both display. That being the only one I observe that we share; she also shows many other unique characteristics that probably not to unique and most likely were done by my mother as well. She always complies with higher authorities, while I find it harder to display this kind of obedience. Also, she shows the sociological norms for her age such as listening to boy bands, talking on the phone a lot, and spending ridiculous amounts of time in the bathroom. In this light, I feel that she accurately portrays her social role, the way people of a certain social status are expected to act. I live with my mother, and therefore I am allowed a certain amount of freedom in exploring her social status. My mother has an interesting religious belief system, as she doesn't see it necessary to go to church on any other day than Christmas, but is still a devout Catholic. She greatly adopted her belief system from her mother who is still very active in the church although she is almost 70. I see that being as far as her mother's influence carries, the rest of her is influenced by her father and that's displayed by her concern about her status. She's approximately 45 and also shows what would be expected of a woman of that age. She's extremely exocentric towards people that she sees dressed in what she considers ugly clothes, and feels that what she has is better and it makes her feel better about herself. My mom's an emotional person and many of them flow into her everyday actions. This is another example of the diffusion of Irish tendencies into the new generations. The Italian side of the family has had a great impact on my father as he seems to display only Italian qualities. The most obvious way to discern an Italian from any other race is to observe the symbols that they use and the excessive hand gestures. He has developed as an Italian his entire life, in that he has constantly been around his cousins and relatives that are Italian, and now reflects many of their principles. Also, the status of his traditional authority in our family has always respected and he has been respected as the father even though my parents are split. Going to school, working hard and being honest are the most important values to my father. This slice of his collective conceptions of what is good and desirable has guided him through his life, and he continues to display these characteristics in hopes that my sister and I will adopt them. He finds these values so important because he credits his vertical mobility entirely to them. Growing up he lived in Somerville and by working hard moved from that social to position to higher one and moved to Andover. I have adopted an equal amount of behaviors from both of my parents and therefore we adopted a system of bilateral descent. Although we live with my mother we don't hold any prejudices to either side of the family and respect all our relatives equally. In my early years I was a very different person than I am now and this change was mainly triggered by the divorce of my parents. When that occurred, I was deviant in every arena of our family and did not follow the standards of conduct laid out by my parents. After awhile, I realized that this was negative for all parties and changed my actions to fit what my parents expected this in a way is an example of impression management. Now I find myself making an income and attending school to follow in the footsteps of my father and experience vertical mobility. As far as my social development, I find myself portraying the typical college student. I like to go out on the weekends and party, I've a hard time managing my time and I'm working to support myself. These are my current manifest functions and I attempt to carry them out every day, regardless of what diversions may arise. My stepmother is a really nice lady that entered my life when I was 15 or 16 and has always been there for support. It's interesting to see how she acts around me and my sister because it seemed at first as if she felt alienated, or disassociated from our family. For other people who are expecting to have kids they probably develop a certain anticipatory socialization, and are prepared to experience the trials and tribulations of having kids. My family is a coalition geared toward the common goals of happiness and economic success. Interestingly enough, my parents do not encourage economic success in place of happiness though, which is pretty typical, I believe, of and egalitarian family. This is a huge accomplishment, especially in a divorce, where one parent usually "buys out" the kids until they are the sole parent in charge. Sociology is the study of society. Sociology is as broad and intricate as society itself (Giddens, 2). Sociology was originally developed to help understand the major social changes which were happening at the time of industrialization. Sociology gives us tools to be able to carry out comparisons of different societies and track changes in lifestyles and life chances within those societies. We have seen that there is no one body of thought as to the methodology behind studying social phenomena and that there is even debate about whether the subject can be considered a science (although generally it is accepted that sociology is a science because it uses systematic methods, but that it can’t be modeled on the natural sciences). However, as Sociology involves the study of human behavior and societies, it is little surprise that there would be divergence on what to study and differences in opinion as to how to approach these subjects (Morgan, 453). Certainly it could be said that to carry out any forms of research and study, you have to think freely and forget any taken for granted assumption and preconceived ideas about individuals or groups and their actions. Sociology can be a very powerful subject by drawing attention to particular issues facing society (Kain, 952). This is certainly true for the studies carried out on individuals and groups from different ethnic minorities and for women. The uses of Sociology are many and varied; as a tool for self knowledge, to create more awareness of different people and social groups, as a vehicle for social reform in the sense of research, or use by social pressure groups and for governmental use (Mills, 4). Whichever sides of the fence you sit on sociology offers insight into the workings of society and help us realize that all of us as individuals have roles to play in creating society. Works Cited Bar-Yosef, Rivka W. (2004). Family Sociology in the Light of Social Change and Biotechnical Innovations. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences, p69-82 Giddens, A (2003). Sociology. Blackwell: Oxford Haralambous, M (2001). Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, Collins Educational: London Kain, Edward L. (2003). A Social History of American Family Sociology , 1865-1940. Social Forces, p952-953 Laslett, Barbara, (2003). Feminism, Families, and Family Sociology. Sociological Forum, p303 Mills, C (2000), The Sociological Imagination; Harmondsworth: Penguin Morgan, Leslie A., (1998). Sociology of the Family. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, p453-454 Social Health Atlas Series (2000). Family. Volume 1Fact sheet number 7: Australia, page 30-33 Read More