Temperament of Margaret Mead - Book Report/Review Example

Temperament of Margaret Mead Answers (1) Conclusions of Margaret Mead concerning temperament: Observing that temperament did not appear to be determined by biological factors, Margaret Mead made a study of the degree to which gender-based temperament was influenced by social and cultural conditioning. Her famous study, first published in 1935, examined the social lives of three primitive groups in New Guinea. Both genders of the Arapesh were of peaceful temperament. On the other hand, the and cannibalistic Mundugumor men and women were equally aggressive and warlike. Finally, the Tchambuli were different in the sense that men and women, like our contemporary society, were different from each other. However, it was the women who were dominant, assertive, and shrewd, whereas the men were submissive, emotional, and were seen as delicate and fond of adorning themselves – the complete opposite of contemporary society. In effect, Mead’s findings pointed to our concepts of “masculine” and “feminine” as defined by socio-cultural upbringing rather than any basic sexual differences. (2) A social study must ask three questions. Firstly, it must ask what is society’s structure, components, and the relationships among them. This sets the framework and context by which individuals and groups may be viewed. Secondly, it must ask how society is situated in the history of human development, what it evolved from and into what it is evolving, in the context of the human story. This provides an understanding of change as the progression of growth and advancement of humankind. Thirdly, it must ask what the various sorts of men and women are that comprise the society at this period, their motivations and the contexts in which they respond and by which they are shaped. Under the third type of question, the study should also ask what new characteristics of men and women are emerging that appear to be likely to succeed the present men and women who prevail in society. (3) Value refers to the culture’s concept or regard of the relative desirability of things. Value in sociology is broader and far transcends the term’s meaning in common usage, which usually has to do with the price a thing is assigned, or the worth held personally by an individual. Values may be positive (kindness, cleanliness), or negative (criminality, cruelty). By social norms, on the other hand, are meant the behavioural expectations within a society or culture. Norms are a manifestation of values, and they are comprised of the rules and regulations by which groups of people live. They are the group’s standards of behaviour. For instance, comparing the adult and adolescent subcultures in the United States, they would differ in values concerning work. Adolescents generally regard work (such as schoolwork) as either boring or tedious, and as part of their norms, would usually regard studious youths as “nerds” or “dorks”. Given the alternative, adolescents would consider it cool to party rather than to stay home and study. In contrast, adults value work as a sign of responsibility. Promotions are positively regarded, and a high position at work enhances a person’s social status. But a common value held by both adolescents and adults is that of material wealth. Possession of modern devices such as ipods, plasma TV sets, and luxury cars are well regarded by both. (4) The cultural values held by the school system differ from the values of the Ute tribe in that the values held by the former uphold individualism, while those held by the latter are communal. Their concepts of success would thus differ, as the conventional school system views success as personal excellence among one’s peers, while that of the Native American tribe is that of a sense of commitment and personal satisfaction derived from the communal effort. The conventional school system thus fosters structure and competitiveness, in direct conflict with the culture of the Ibe tribe which values fluidity and cooperation. The school system will thus tend to fail students from the Ibe tribe because of their values, not what they have learned. (5) My current group memberships include my colleagues at my job, whether part time or full time, my peers in the profession, my college buddies, my community civic group, and a group of persons I only interact with in the internet who have the same interests as myself (namely, gaming and cos-plays). When I was at elementary, I was with my brothers and sisters mostly, classmates, the Boy Scouts, the neighbourhood kids with whom I played, and a taekwondo club my Dad enrolled me in which met every Saturday. As I grew older, my memberships changed because my needs and activities changed. Also, I am able to choose my own groups. My father no longer determined which clubs I should join; I preferred the internet club to martial arts. Furthermore, my groups were mostly determined by the activities I was required to do when I was young; school was a mandatory activity, so I had to interact with my school mates. Now, however, I choose those whom I associate with, and the activities I prefer to do. (6) According to Levinson, and individual’s life is governed by an underlying pattern at a given point in time, which is shaped by his social and physical environment. Adult development begins when the individual leaves adolescence and starts to make choices for himself. He exercises his choices, first in moderate decisions, gradually progressing to long-term decisions concerning love, occupation, values and lifestyle. Upon reaching midlife, he has established his niche and defined his life’s structure, which he may at this point come to question and redefine. During middle to late adulthood the individual may set out a new life structure and commit to new tasks. On the other hand, Irene Frieze pioneered in research dealing with adult development among women. She conceptualized a system of gender and age schemas that dealt with gender role attitudes and self-perceptions on gender related traits. Esther Sales, on the other hand, participated in several collaborative research studies, one of which determined that non-parental significant adults play an important role in the development of children and adolescents. (7) The most important influence on a person’s personality and social behaviour is the set of circumstances that influence his early, formative years, particularly the influence of people whom he lives with, who interact with him. Subconsciously, he imbibes the values of those people who live with him on a daily basis, because he is compelled to react to them in ways he feels will benefit himself. If his parents are quick to punish, he will seek to comply with the desired act, whether right or wrong. If his parents are compassionate and take the time to explain things to him, then he will learn fairness and reasoning in judgment. In the case study, the author mentions that fairy tale characters provide the model by which children measure their behaviour. That may be true, but this is tempered by what they actually see and feel around them. If there is gross disparity between what a child experiences around him with what is told him in a story, then his thinking will have to reconcile the two, but children are instinctively aware of what is real and what is make believe. His nature will determine whether he will reconcile the conflict for the better (the moral of the fairy tale may be assimilated) or for the worse (that the fairy tale is only a story after all). (8) Feral children, or children reared in extreme social isolation, often are seriously retarded even after their return to society, and will continue to have almost total inability to process language sufficiently to speak. In the case of Victor, the “wild boy of Aveyron,” Jean-Marc-Itard’s work with the boy yielded great improvement in socialization and cognitive ability. According to J David Smith of the University of California, feral children exhibit behaviour consistent with our understanding of “nature-vs-nurture” – that neither completely determines personality, but that it is always a combination or interaction of both. Thus the cultural environment provides the context in which social and psychological development takes place, but it is not a requisite for either to develop. The feral child will develop in the context he had grown up in. Development takes place, though not optimally, even in a deprived cultural environment. (9) The National Academy of Sciences, according to the case study, has determined that teenagers who work more than 20 hours a week tend to spend too little time with their families. Likewise, their grades suffer, and they have a higher level of alcohol use. Legislating limits for teen-agers’ work time may deter some employers from requiring their teen-age employees to work long hours, but teen-agers who really need the money – say to send themselves to school or to support a family with an absentee father – will find a way to go around the law. They may resort to taking two part-time jobs, each below the maximum limit allowed by law, but combined would transgress the limit. Congress cannot legislate the avoidance of a means to meet a dire need, and expect it to be fastidiously complied with. The victim is himself the offender, thus the motivation to comply with such a law would be defeated by the need to earn a living. For the government to effectively address the problem, it should come up with a program by which needy youths and families could find financial support so that school-age children do not need to work. In this manner, educational achievement will most likely be effectively attained. (10) People who like their work say positive things about it, such as that their jobs are challenging, well-paying, that their boss is fair or that he is appreciative, that their co-workers are OK, that the hours are just right, and that their job is close to where they live. People who do not like their jobs say that they are stressed at their jobs, that the pay is too low, that it’s a far commute, that the job is boring or tiring, or the boss is too strict or unfair, that their co-workers are petty or jealous or that they gossip too much, of that everybody don’t work as hard but get paid just as much, or that it’s been a long time since they were given a raise. The list shows that the characteristics of an enjoyable job are as the article said for the year 2000 – that the job poses a challenge to one’s skills and talents, that the job earns them the recognition and respect of their peers and the appreciation of their superior, and that they feel sufficiently in control of their work. (11) There are three types of social mobility: (a) inter-generational and intra-generational mobility; (b) structural and exchange mobility; and (c) upward and downward mobility. Intra-generational social mobility refers to changes in social status within one’s lifetime, while inter-generational social mobility refers to the changes in social status that occur across generations, such as from the parents’ to the children’s generation. Inter-generational mobility include many famous actors, obviously in the upper social strata, mention that their parents were teachers or construction workers, while intra-generational mobility would be those famous actors or businessmen who were once busboys or waitresses, and who worked their way to the top. Structural mobility refers to forced vertical mobility due to a change in stratification hierarchy, such as the rise of IT professions in an economy that needs them. Exchange mobility is that which is not structural, “exchange” meaning “trade-off,” which occurs when a person has to step up to fill a position, such as an office promotion. Upward social mobility results in a person receiving a higher position, while downward mobility results in a lower position. The preceding examples show upward mobility; naturally, their opposites would mean downward mobility. (12) The rural poor are the forgotten sector of American society. Rural poor are beset by a lack of basic social and health services, due to the closure of hospitals and lack of health and medical professionals. Jobs are scarce in rural areas, due to the decline of traditionally rural occupations such as farming, mining and timer. Manufacturing establishments have chosen to relocate to other, more attractive, sites abroad, and no new facilities have risen to supplement the jobs that were abolished. The disproportions of racial and gender inequalities in the urban poor are magnified among the rural poor. The condition that exacerbates the problems of the rural poor is that they are invisible to the consciousness of the nation. The headline-grabbing events that pertain to the urban poor such as crime and drugs do not work to publicize the rural poor. (13) On the first day of the experiment, the blue-eyed students were treated as inferior to the brown-eyed students. By the end of the day, the brown-eyed students were alert and happy, while the blue-eyed children were miserable and discouraged. The remarkable reaction from the brown-eyed children, however, was that they treated their blue-eyed classmates as truly inferior and themselves superior. On the second day of the experiments the roles were reversed. This time, the brown-eyed children were dejected and miserable, while the blue-eyed children were happy and alert. This was contrary to the teacher’s expectations that the brown-eyed children knew it was only a one-day experiment. What the teacher did not expect, however, was that this time around the “superior” blue-eyed children did not act unpleasantly to the brown-eyed children, and did not treat the brown-eyed children as inferior to them. This experiment points to the tendency that dominant groups and minority groups respond commensurately to the positive and negative stimuli their social environment provides them, and treat each other also correpondingly. There is a difference, though, when former minority groups become dominant, because of a display what could be termed their compassion for those who are now minority groups, because they had been in that situation once and understand their plight. (14) Women’s role in reproduction is to bear children for nine months and nourish them from her own body. Men, on the other hand, are the “sowers” who biologically participate in the act of reproduction for only a few minutes. Socially, they are tasked with the hunting and the harvesting, the provision of sustenance for the woman and children. Immediately, the genders are rendered unequal, because the woman is dependent upon the man to provide her the basics of life – food, clothing, and shelter – because she, in her pregnant state, could not hunt or harvest. On the other hand, the man is, as far as the physical aspect at least, always free to do as he wishes, since his role in procreation does not encumber his physical abilities. (15) The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provided that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (Section 1, ERA). It was first introduced in Congress in 1923, and to every Congressional session convened until 1970, but found itself confined to committee deliberation. In 1946, the Amendment was defeated in the Senate 38 to 35. It was strongly opposed by the labor unions that did not want to compete with women, and by Eleonor Roosevelt who felt that women needed government protection that men did not. However, in 1972 Congress and then the Senate approved the ERA, which was then passed to the state legislatures for ratification with a seven-year deadline. It failed to gain ratification before its 1982 deadline, however, and in 2007 new resolutions were introduced along the lines of the ERA. The implication of all this is that there appears to be in American society a strong opposition, by both men (the unions) and women (Eleonor Roosevelt) to consider men and women “equal” – because in many ways, they are not equal (in the sense of indistinguishable from each other). Legislating equality will not promote equality nor solve inequality. Only a profound change in social attitude and regard will fully address the inequitable treatment between the sexes. (16) More persons – in 2000, one-third of all men and one-quarter of all women – over the age of 15 have never married, rendering the decline in marriage a threat to the social institution. Single-parent and childless-couple households which are described by studies as non-family households, are on the rise. More older people live alone or without other generations present, mainly due to enhance post-retirement benefits that provide older people financial self-sustenance. Fertility levels are downtrending, with more women electing to have fewer children, spacing them farther apart, and ending their fertility earlier. However, there is a rise in births outside of marriage, with more single women electing to have children despite being unmarried. (17) The prediction that the American family will eventually collapse most likely is based on the declining trend in persons who elect marriage – or rather, the increasing number of people who have never married. Furthermore, there is a rise in the number of “non-family” households. Family, in this sense, is defined as being comprised of a father, a mother, and children. Thus, where a household is comprised of a single parent and children, or a couple without children, then these belong to the “non-family households” category. Those who predict that the American family will eventually collapse are most likely correct, going by the traditional definition of the family’s composition. However, if the concept of family is redefined – that is, that a family may be comprised of a single parent and children, or of a childless couple, then the prediction would prove false. In either case, the connotation intended by the prediction – to signal the requiem of the basic unit of American society – is far from justified. New social structures are arising that may be viewed as variants of the traditional family. Furthermore, the replenishment rate of the American population is still intact, though barely, unlike those of Canada and several European countries which are below the two-children-per-couple replenishment ratio. (18) Industrialization replaced the traditional agricultural livelihoods that were family-centric. Instead of tilling the land or tending the farm, which required the cooperation of father, mother and children, industrialization had the father, mother or both reporting to the factories where the rest of the family has no participation. The means of production and sustenance were shifted from family-reinforcing to family-excluding. The situation of factories and eventually offices and shops encouraged the relocation of families from their own agricultural plots to populous towns and cities, the family home was replaced with rented apartments and tenements, and soon husbands (or wives) who spent more time with his co-workers had stronger motivations to seek divorce. Family members were off on different activities, and had less time for interaction. (19) Among the oldest segments in the American population, divorce rates are relatively low. Among the younger segments, the divorce rate is trending higher, but quantifying it is difficult because several are currently married who will still divorce. The Census Bureau predicts divorce rates for males is 53%, and for females, 52%. David Popenoe (2007) is of the position that education – or lack of it – plays a role, together with the income levels, in the higher divorce rate, with 16.5% of college educated women being divorced within ten years, compared to some 46% for high school dropouts. Also, much of the decline in the divorce rate has been accounted for by the college educated, but for those who had less than a high school education, the divorce rate had continued to rise. Among the races, divorce rates in the year 2000 show little difference, at 11.7% among African American women from 3% in 1950, and 10.2% among white women from 2% in 1950. Divorce rates among the men are similar in 2000, with 9.5% for black men compared to 2% in 1950, compared to 8.3% for white men from 2.1% in 1950. From the figures, it appears that the material factors are the age of the population segment, the educational level which they had attained, and their income level. (20) Industrialization has transferred the situs of production, and thus of earning a livelihood, from the family-centered farm to the urban centers. Where families used to work together for their subsistence, the compartmentalization of individual activities has drawn the family farther apart from when they cooperated as a productive unit. Urbanization furthered this fragmentation, by exchanging the semi-isolated family home (farther apart from its neighbors) to a tiny rented city dwelling in a congested street. Immigrant assimilation, while culturally enriching, have brought to contrast difference among racial groups. In the tough competition of the streets these fostered gangs, which tended to replace the family as the main influence in the children’s behaviour. These three elements provided challenges to the family’s solidity. (21) There are several theories of city life. Three of them shall be mentioned here. The first theory is that of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which viewed the preindustrial, traditional societies as generic, tribal and barbaric. They saw the development of the city as a transition from barbarism to civilization. The city life was imbued with political and economic freedom, and productive specialization. City life also brought to fore the emphasis of economics and the problems of inequality and conflict. The second theory is that of Ferdinand Tonnies, which identified two contrasting types of human life, denoted as Gemeinschaft (community), characterized by rural life, essential unity of purpose, and unity through kinship. The other model, Gessellschaft, is described as the large city, or city life as a mechanical aggregate characterized by disunity, rampant individualism and selfishness. Finally, there is the theory of Emile Durkheim, who developed the model of contrasting social order types. First is the mechanical solidarity, which refers to social bonds based on likeness and mainly dependent upon the similarities and likenesses possessed by individuals in society; and organic solidarity, a social order based on social differences, complex division of labor, greater freedom of choice, impersonality, alienation, disagreement and conflict. (22) Urban ecology models seek to cast the social world in the context of biological processes and concepts. One urban ecology model is that of Robert Ezra Park, who originally coined the concept of urban ecology. He modelled the city after a social organism with distinct parts bound together by internal processes, instead of chaos and disorder. It argued that natural laws can be adapted to society. Another model is known as the concentric zone model, proposed by Ernest Burgess. The ecological concepts of invasion, domination, and succession parallel the stages of change that occur as groups relocate due to competitive pressures. Unrestrained biotic competition makes social order impossible, thus culture overlays and limits territorial competition. (23) Baron Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf was a sociologist who sought to better explain the theory of social change that was pioneered by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the mid-1800s. He designed a new model to accommodate the realities of the more complex economic system that emerged after the industrial revolution and World Wars I and II. He distinguished social classes on the basis of the individual’s ability to exercise authority. This is in contrast to Marx and Engels’ position that classified people on the basis of their ownership of the means of production. Dahrendorf classified those who exerted authority as the “command class” and those who obey them as the “obey class”. There is also the “classless group” who neither exercise authority nor obey commands ( http://www.pineforge.com/newman4study/resources/dahrendorf1.htm). Baron Dahrendorf wrote in his book Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) argued that Karl Marx defined class too narrowly and in a historically-specific context. Instead of describing the fundamental differences of class in terms of property, Dahrendorf claimed that power was at the roof of differences in class. Thus, society could be split up into “order takers” and “order givers”. (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/ topics/Ralf_Dahrendorf). (24) Glasnost and policy changes in the Soviet Union signalled the start of more liberal policies in the Communist bloc. For many years, satellite countries Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany were compelled to abide by Soviet directives, although racially and culturally they always viewed themselves as separate and distinct from Russia, where Moscow rule was centered. The more open policies of Gorbachev allowed for free discourse, which eventually led to break-away of the satellite countries. A sociologist may consider the democratic reforms in Eastern Europe a multinational social movement, because it was a simultaneous distancing of each country in the Communist bloc from the center of Soviet rule. USSR was never a single nation, but a conglomeration of several nations. (25) Virtual communities have the quality of anonymity. This in itself is both advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that people who do not see each other tend to suspend their usual prejudices concerning race, gender, age, disability, or other physical attributes that normally color the way traditional communities regard each other. In this manner, people on virtual communities tend to exchange ideas more freely, and to appreciate each other more without the biases. The anonymity also encouraged otherwise inhibited or shy individuals, thus allowing them to better make friends and interact with one another. Overall, the main advantage of virtual communities is that it enables closer communication over farther distances. Among the disadvantages of this form of social contact compared to traditional communities is the possibility of fraud or deceit, because persons who interact with one another do not see each other. The lack of body language, facial expression, and other clues to verbal speech is also missing, thereby limiting effective communication and sometimes sparking quarrels or misunderstanding. Also, because of the lack of inhibitions when interacting online, there is a tendency to say rude and hurtful things that would normally not be mentioned in face-to-face conversation. (26) Modernization has both positive and negative effects. Positive effects are that a modernized culture is able to deal with and compete in the wider global arena. Modernizing cultures gain the capability to progress faster by availing of avenues to interact in and with global markets. Modernization brings the advantages of better medical care, more convenient means of communication and transportation, and better living conditions. There are disadvantages, though, such as the relinquishing of cultural elements long held as tradition by the community. This could result in the giving up of unique cultural identities that would otherwise have enriched other cultures as well. The assimilation that comes with modernization negatively affects communities whose social make-up may contradict the more aggressive and competitive modern culture. (27) The pure capitalist economic model abides by the free market forces and abhors regulation and intervention by the government or other institutions. In a purely capitalist economy, the interaction between buyers and sellers is entirely unrestricted and transactions are based on the law of supply and demand. Free market activity assumes perfect information made available to all market participants, and perfect knowledge exists so as to enable buyers and sellers to make well-informed decisions all the time. The absence of this perfect knowledge in real life, though, is what creates the excesses in the capitalist model. On the other hand, the perfect socialist economy is characterized by the phrase, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” The socialist model requires central planning and full government control over the entire economy. The state cares for the welfare of all citizens, thus nobody will go hungry or be poor compared to other citizens of the state. The state owns all property, therefore no individual may accumulate wealth or property in his own name. However, perfect equality, like perfect information, is impossible. When people render service according to their ability but are rewarded on the basis of need, those who are needier than others but contribute less to the productivity of the economy gains an unfair advantage over those who contribute more. This is a demotivator for further production. It also runs against human nature, which instinctively seeks for personal betterment. While pure capitalism tends toward excesses, pure socialism tends towards inefficiencies that are unsustainable in an economy. (28) Answer is same as answer no. 20 above. (29) This sociology course has immensely helped me in my understanding of my role and place in contemporary American society. The American social milieu is multifaceted, dynamic, and at times confusing. At times it appears to lack the structures and guidelines that more traditional societies are characterized by. The constant redefinition of social roles and norms appear to create the impression of instability tending towards possible future collapse. But a study of the dynamic relationships at play helps me understand that social change is social development, and development is necessary for a nation to grow and adapt. For instance, understanding the forces and pressures that mold family life in America enables me to relate more compassionately towards people whom my parents or grandparents may have judged more harshly. Likewise, gaining an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of interacting with virtual communities allows me to adjust my mindset and mental attitude when I go online, and conquer my biases when dealing with traditional communities. Sociology liberates our minds by enlightening it on what comprises the science of human interaction. This is indeed a great benefit that we derive from this course. Read More