Human Behavior
in
Social Environment
Calendar
Human Behavior and the Social Environment
J. P. Ferry
ferry@tenebrae.org
Chestnut Hill College
Summer I , 2009
April 28, 2009
Introductions, syllabus, project assignments
Topic: Conduct, Context, Consequences - Theories of society and associating, and people's behavior. Environments - natural, social, cultural. What is social about environment; how does socializing create an environment; does activity need a context/milieu/ in order for it to become behavior or conduct.
History of American prefessionalization of social work and services.
Location: Classroom -Text Readings - Chapters 1, 2 - History and Explanations and social work practice; biological foundations of conduct and sociability.
Field Assignment : Observations at a mall, or shopping center. observe milieu, social and physical architecture, common activities of people, and the distinct activities of people; note co-ordinated activities, rule-ordered activity (as much as possible look for observable facts that might support your interpretive claims). While your are there develop ideas about the specific roles you are observing (that would be possible to infer from your observations). Make observations of status and status markers, signs of groups/group inclusion work, exclusion work; language/slang/dialect/jargon codes, dress and dress codes, body languages; persuasive/coercive/enforced activity, verboten/discouraged/negatively reinforced activity. Make notes on gender, family, race/ethnicity, religion, culture, class. Report observations in student folder of discussion board.
Writing Assignment: 500 words - Write up the observations you made at the mall. Publish/Post online.
Internet Discussion - What are the sociocultural elements of a shopping mall- patterns and puposes of associating;, belief/values; traditions; architectural, spatial, legal, historical aspects- that comprise it, make it a specific social environment?
May 5, 2009
Topic: CULTURE - culture and behavior. The antiquity of human forms of associating with one another (pair-bonding, food sharing, excluding/including via symbol and ritual). Ancient men and women. Relationship of natural environment and social environment for human beings. The meaningful construction of behavior; the consequences of human conduct
Location: classroomText Readings - Chapters 3 on individual development
Field Assignment - Observations at two different "feeding" environments (could be restaurant, fast food joint, soup kitchen, vendor/truck food stop, Reading Terminal, Food Distribution Center, public school lunching operations, your in-law's for sunday dinner, church breakfast, college cafeteria, etc, etc). Observe roles, statuses, "grammar" of the situation (manner, etiquette, whatever counts as courtesy e.g. standing in line, eating out of the same bowl, cash exchange, various kinds of 'tips'). Notice architecture, who controls what, the nature of the transaction between feeders and eaters; notice spime (social/meaningful structure of time and spaces). READ "Asking for a Drink" before going out to field.
Writing Assignment - write up your observations same as last week Compare and contrast the social elements of the two different "nutrient acquisition" sites.
Internet Discussion - Getting nutrients is a universal need of human beings - if you're going to live, you're going to need food and water. How this is accomplished is a highly socialized process.What do you notice about modern food-getting, that is different than you 1)experienced in your childhood, or 2) is different than among people living in a non-industrialized environment, or 3) is different between people who are urban workers, and people who are urban children in school, or between men and women, or betwen African-Americans and Liberian-Americans?
May 12, 2009
Topic: Gender - Determinant or Possibility for Meaningful Conduct. Gender as an external set of rules, gender as a performance, gender as a cultural/social environment. Gender as a contingent way of becoming.
Location: ClassroomReadings in text - Chapter 4 on Identity
Field Assignment - Observations of men and women at a bowling alley. Go to a bowling alley. Observe all the people present, note the roles, statuses and the behaviors associated with those roles and statuses. Note the proxemics and kinesics of the place - the architectonic milieu, the 'appropriate' behaviors. Observe any behavioral distinctions between the boys/men and the girls/women. Ask yourself the question - is the social environment of the bowling alley the same for men as it is for the women? Ask yourself the questions - how are men 'using' this environment differently than the women. Do not blind yourself by seeing only the bowlers in the bowling alley. Notice that people slip into and out of roles. Notice that status is dependent on defining the group within which it is an element .Imagine yourself to be a Martian - how would you be able to tell men from women? Or, would you be able to differentiate boys/men from girls/women?
Writing Assignment - write up your observations same as last week Start off by stating how you were able to identify men, and how you were able to identify women - then your observations, then (based on your observations, not your prejudice) How is the behavior of creatures we identify as men different than women in the context of a place designed for knocking bottles over with a big heavy ball.
Internet Discussion - Respond to question: Is there any social necessity for men (I'm not saying "males" on purpose) in modern society? Is there anything in modern society that requires engendered roles and statuses?
May 19, 2009
Mid-term exam
May 26, 2009
Topic: Personality and Self - Psychologists', Sociologists' and Anthropologists' theories about the person, the individual, the self, the actor, the one who behaves (and misbehaves).
Topic: Behavior within families and small social groups
Location: ClassroomText Readings - Chapters 9 through 15 - life cycle correlations
Field Assignment - Visit and observe three thresholds - those places where the 'social environment' changes to another 'social environment'. This week I want each student to observe a minimum of three (maximum, 5) entrances, reception centers, admission departments, lobbies, ticket gates, vestibules, foyers, doorways - any space that is on the border, the frontier between two socially distinct places. Visit the entrance of a welfare office, visit the entrance of a law office, visit the entrance of a courtroom, a hospital, an ER, a high rise office building, a police station etc.Try to find places where it is possible for you to observe social interaction occurring at the threshold. Spend 15 or 20 minutes at each place, observing the rituals of welcomes, restraints, admission, turn-aways. Observe from both sides of the threshold if possible; note well your own position (where you 'belong' in this local scheme of things), note how the transition is made, note how people are 'treated' both the 'controllers' of the spaces and the 'visitors' to the place.
Writing Assignment - write up your observations same as last week Be careful to define three things about each observation - the social environment of the "outside", the threshold, and the social environment of the inside.
Internet Discussion - How is conduct (human behavior) and social environment related. Are they two different dimensions of, or ways of thinking about, the same matter? Is one possible without the other?
June2, 2009
Topic: Performances of People within Organizations, Institutions, Informational Systems, Economies and Nations. Trauma and Hurt - the experience of individuals; and Buffering and Buffeting - the functioning of groups/society.
Text Readings - Chapters 5, 7, 8, 16 and 17
Field assignment: Go back to the mall or shopping center that you went to on your first field assignment. Do the same thing that you did the first time. But now-what do you observe that you didn't see the first time?
Writing Assignment - write up your observations. For this assignment report on your return to mall, but also reflect on the various field experiences that you have had over the past few weeks. Note whether or not, and how your capacity to 'see' social relationships - roles, statuses, powers - being expressed, affirmed, challenged, developed in the dynamic environments in which they occur.
Internet Discussion - What have you learned. How can you see things now, differently than you did 8 weeks ago. In what ways can this way of assessing the social/cultural/political milieu in which people act be of use to you in your work
June 9, 2009
"One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" Watch "One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest" Teacher will screen this movie in class today. If unable to stay for screening, rent a copy at Blockbusters, buy some popcorn and watch it this week at home. Take notes - I want you to observe what Erving Goffman called 'the definition of the situation' - the negotiation that goes on between people who are looking for each other's consent about the 'social environment' in which they are both embedded/embedding. This movie is partly about power, social power - the ability to define what is real, and the power to make that definition consequential - symbols have real, (and in the movie's case, tragic) consequences.
Writing Assignment - write up your observations of the movie.Post on the netField Assignment -no field assignment this week. Write up and post your final report.
June16, 2009
Final Exam