Category: Spring 2018

SOC131: How Do We Do It (Behind The Scenes)

Abstract

For our last show of our first academic year, we’re giving you a behind the scenes look into The Social Breakdown. We talk about the podcast’s origins, our recording and editing set up, how we prepare for each episode, and most importantly, what are our styles and approaches to impression management? Is there a difference between our front stage and back stage “self” when we are hosting!? (Spoiler alert: OF COURSE THERE IS!)

Two quick notes before we go for summer break: 1) THANK YOU for all the amazing support, emails, and listening. We’re touched and honored and happy and… the list goes on. 2) We are on summer break until August, but will be releasing random episodes every now and then. Also, you can always reach us on FB, Twitter, and through our website (www.thesocialbreakdown.com). So, don’t be shy! And have a fantastic summer!

Keywords

summer, public sociology, podcast

Sources

  1. Read Books
  2. Ask Questions
  3. Keep Writing
  4. Keep Thinking
  5. Talk to us
  6. Be free, have fun, be safe

 

SOC130: Obedience, Whaddup?

Abstract

Like all living things, humans are creatures of habit, routine, and– most importantly– learned and patterned behavior. So this week, the Social Breakdown team has the interesting task of teasing out difference between the socialized and patterned behaviors of conformity and obedience. We use Stanley Milgram’s shock experiment to understand how obedience plays into social roles, status, and hierarchies. Also, how do culture and institutions affect this social phenomena? Join us for the conversation!

Keywords 

obedience, social psychology, socialization

Sources 

  • Obedience: Complying with an order, request, or law, OR submission to another’s authority.
  • How is obedience different from conformity?
    • 1) Obedience involves an order; conformity involves a request.
    • 2) Obedience involves following the order of someone with a higher status; conformity usually involves going along with people of equal status.
    • 3) Obedience relies on social power; conformity relies on the need to be socially accepted.
  • If you want to read more about Erving Goffman’s discussion on how obedience and conformity are used in institutions, like the military, you can read his book, Asylums (1961)
    • 44 min long documentary on the Obedience Experiment with Stanley Milgram narrating
  • A collection of Milgram’s (2010) studies and essays, Individual in a Social World
  • Quick, digestible run through on Milgram’s Obedience Experiment:

SOC129-PhD’s Guide to Writing

DISCLAIMER: 

Penn is very sorry that she messed up her recording for this episode. The quality is lower than usual, but we hope you can listen pass it and focus on the great content. This won’t happen again, Penn swears.

Abstract 

Here we are with another episode in our PhD’s guide series. This time we are discussing how to write, and how to do it well! Of course we cannot discuss all there need to know about writing, nor are we experts, but we do have some good tips and tricks for you to follow. Join us in our conversation on the DO’s and DON’Ts when it comes to writing, and perhaps we can help you a bit on your journey from mediocrity to a writing greatness!

Keywords

phd guide, writing

Sources

  1. Our writing bible, Howard Becker’s (2007) “Writing for Social Scientists”
  2. Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules for Writers
  3. Joan Bolker, another sociology bible, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day
  4. The FREE citation software: Zotero!
  5. 11 Rules of Grammar
  6. Short American Sociological Association citation guide

Breakaway Episode 3: Self-Esteem and Race

Abstract

Self-esteem is a major concept in Social Psychology and it is majorly interesting! That’s why Ellen and Omar got together to discuss it this week. With the help of writing from academics Morris Rosenberg and Leonard Pearlin, they talk about how race affects self-esteem, and why Asian-Americans routinely report the lowest self-esteem among all races. They also ask, is sociology’s current way of measuring self-esteem the best one? Tune in to hear the convo!

Also don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on your podcasting platform. Thank you!

Keywords

self-esteem, social psychology, race, mental health

Sources

  • A foundational reading from Rosenberg and Pearlin (1978) on self-esteem that we mentioned is, “Social Class and Self-Esteem Among Children and Adults”. It touches on how both race and class can affect self-esteem and how it does.
  • Also, Morris Rosenberg’s (who wrote a TON) book Conceiving the Self is helpful in understanding the roots of self-esteem and the self.
  • If you wanna get a primer on how certain aspects of your life (like smoking, delinquency, happiness, early sexual experiences) can affect your self-esteem Baumeister et al.’s (2003) “Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?” from the Psychological Science in the Public Interest journal is a good place to start.
  • Article cited when talking about which races report higher and lower self-esteem: Bachman et al. (2011) “Adolescent Self-Esteem: Differences by Race/ethnicity, Gender and Age”
    • “Large-scale representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States show high self-esteem scores for all groups. African-American students score highest, Whites score slightly higher than Hispanics, and Asian Americans score lowest.”
    • This supports other more recent findings that “African Americans seem to consistently report higher levels of self-esteem than Whites, whereas Asian Americans report the lowest levels.” Despite African Americans experiencing more and harsher stigmas and discrimination than other races.
    • Leonard Pearlin, the pioneer of the Social Stress Process Model, argues that a disadvantaged social status (e.g., low-income or negatively valued racial group) will be associated with lower levels of self-esteem, higher levels of distress, and more likely to be exposed and vulnerable to stressful life circumstances.
    • Michael Hughes and David Demo in 1989 in their article titled, “Self-Perceptions of Black Americans: Self-Esteem and Personal Efficacy” found that “black self-esteem is insulated from systems of racial inequality, while personal efficacy is not, and suggest that this explains why black Americans have relatively high self-esteem but low personal efficacy. The belief that racial discrimination, rather than personal failure, accounts for low achievement among blacks is irrelevant to personal self-esteem and personal efficacy”
  • If you wanna find anymore sources on self-esteem, just shoot us an email or Facebook/Twitter message us and we can point you in the direction of some great stuff!

SOC128 – The Dark Web (Part 2): The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Abstract

We’re back to the deep and dark web! This week we’re looking at the positive (and innocuous) aspects of the dark web. While it may be a place for illicit trade, the dark web is also a space for free speech and anonymity, and people are taking advantage of this by creating anonymous social networking sites and speaking out (and whistleblowing) on important issues. Tune in to hear us discuss the power and moral implications of being able to be anonymous online!

Keywords 

technology, the dark web, society

Sources 

  1. Refresher on what the Surface, Dark, and Deep web is from TechWorm.
  2. New York Times’ own report on being available on the Tor network
  3. Robert Gehl’s article on Culture Digitally, “Legitimizing the Dark Web: The New York Times’ Tor Hidden Service” from Nov. 17, 2017
  4. Robert Gehl’s (2014) article titled “Power/freedom on the Dark Web: A Digital Ethnography of the Dark Web Social Network”
  5. The Hacker Manifesto
  6. Guardian article, “The Key Moments from Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony to Congress”
  7. 7. Article on social implications of Japanese population w/ graph, “Defusing Japan’s Demographic Time Bomb”

 

SOC127: The Dark Web (Part 1): The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Abstract

The surface web, deep web, and dark web! What are they? What’s the difference? And what are the social implications of having these different areas of the internet? Since these are such hefty questions, we’ve split this topic into two episodes! In this episode, we’re going to explore the seedy, nefarious side of the dark web: the Silk Road, murder-for-hire, and illicit trafficking. Tune in to learn more about the internet and its many layers!

Transcript

Find the transcript for this episode here! And thank you thank you thank you to Elena Milusheva for transcribing this episode!

Keywords

dark web, internet, technology

Sources

  1. “A Beginner’s Guide to Tor: How to Navigate Through the Underground Internet” from Digital Trends

  2. “Legitimizing the Dark Web: The New York Times’ Tor Hidden Service”  (By Robert Gehl)

  3. Difference between the Clear/Surface, Deep, and Dark web (By Douglas Karr)

  4. “Playpen: The Story of the FBI’s Unprecedented and Illegal Hacking Operation” (By Mark Rumold)

  5. “Federal Authorities Take Down Backpage.com Being a Haven for Online Prostitution” (By Joseph Tanfani)

  6. Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize for his album, ‘DAMN’
  7. Kanye West’s twitter account (in case you want to read his exchange with John Legend)
  8. Kanye’s song, “Lift Yourself” (the news story).… poopity scoopity! Here’s the song if you want to listen

Below are some good infographics and screenshots of the Dark Web

SOC126-Medicalizing Behavior: Common or “Abnormal”?

Abstract

Since 2000, which marked the national Human Genome Project (HGP), society has seen a shift in the process of medicalization–and we are here to talk about it! What is “normal” versus “abnormal” child behavior? How has society continued to explain human behavior in biological, genetic or medical terms? How does the pharmaceutical industry influence this process? Join us for the conversation on this week’s episode!

Keywords

medicalization, deviance, genetics

Sources

  1. Terminology brief and short article on the medicalization of deviance
  2. The Medicalization of Deviance: From Badness to Sickness. Prominent sociologist, Joseph Schneider. (Handbook of Sociology of Deviance 2015)
  3. The Problem with Race-Based Medicine--TED Talk with legal and medical scholar Dorothy Roberts
  4. The Medicalization of Society (Full Book pdf) by Peter Conrad
  5. ADHD Fictitious Epidemic (2 minute video)
  6. ADHD as a difference in cognition, not disorder–TED Talk Student Competition Winner
  7. Lecture on medicalization from Peter Conrad
  8. National Human Genome Research Institute

SOC125: Conformity, Whaddup?

Abstract
This week we’re dipping our toes into the field of Social Psychology by exploring the concept of conformity. What is it? What do we risk if we don’t conform? And what are some social structures that influence us into conforming? Tune in to hear our conversation and remember to check out our website (www.thesocialbreakdown.com) for more sources and articles on this topic!

Keywords

conformity, social psychology, micro-sociology

Sources

  1. Elliot Aronson’s The Social Animal
  2. Soloman Asch’s 1950’s Conformity Experiment and here’s some good video footage!
  3. Deutsch and Gerard (1955) article, “A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment”
  4. A more recent article from Stanley Milgrim on “Nationality and Conformity” in the Scientific American
  5. A great example of social conformity in action from the TV show, “Brain Games”

Breakaway Episode 2-The Middle Finger

Abstract

This week, Ellen and Penn get together to discuss one of their favorite gestures in a breakaway episode: The middle finger! Using work by Jack Katz, they explore why we flip the bird, what a “well-flipped” finger looks like, and the history behind flicking people off. It’s phallic, offensive, and Ellen thinks it’s funny to do in family photos.

Did you know you can reach the sources we cite in each episode at www.thesocialbreakdown.com? Yup, check it out!

Keywords

culture, emotion, flicking, flipping, jack, katz, middle finger, profanity, sociology, swearing

Sources

  1. Jack Katz, “How Emotions Work” (his section on the well-flipped finger is in Chapter 1)
    1. https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/papers/goffman/20150303131604904.pdf
  2. BBC article, “When Did the Middle Finger Become Offensive?”
    1. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16916263
  3. New York Times article on why we should curse, “The Case for Cursing”
    1. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/smarter-living/the-case-for-cursing.html
  4. Article by Richard Stephens, “Swearing Is Actually a Sign of More Intelligence – Not Less – Say Scientists”
    1. https://www.sciencealert.com/swearing-is-a-sign-of-more-intelligence-not-less-say-scientists

SOC124-Life is but a Stage: Goffman and Dramaturgy

Abstract

“Life is a performance!” Have you ever heard that phrase? Well it’s super dramaturgical! Today we explore the work of Erving Goffman, a micro-sociologists who pioneered the notion that we have front stage and back stage performances (aka dramaturgy). Join us as we discuss what a performance is, the many roles we play, and what happens when your performance is perceived as fraudulent.

Transcript

You can find the transcript for this episode here. BIG UPS to Elena Milusheva for helping us transcribe this episode!

Keywords

dramaturgy, goffman, micro sociology

Sources

  1. Erving Goffman biography
  2. “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” by Erving Goffman
  3. Cool video intro into Goffman and Dramaturgy from BBC

Other books by Goffman

  1. Asylums
  2. Stigma
  3. Interaction Ritual
  4. Forms of Talk
  5. Erving Goffman’s daughter Alice Goffman’s book “On the Run”