Karen Honeys Theory - Assignment Example

Sociology Theories Apply Karen Honey’s theory to explain the college behavior Horney’s theory according to Yep, Gust, Karen Lovaas and John (2003) indicates that the friend has neurosis which she defines as “a psychic disturbance which is brought about by fears and defenses against these fears and which leads to compromises to find solutions for conflicting tendencies.” The girl has fear of becoming fat and this is the reason she purges all the food she consumes as well as goes on a diet which basically demands her to eat next to nothing.

This neurosis behavior is however a problem of the culture as Horney indicates in her theory. Western culture defines real beauty in terms of an individual being skinny and this is what the friend aims at in order to be termed as beautiful by her boyfriend by the time they are meeting. She has to make herself suffer and starve in order to fit into a small size dress (size 5) and show off how “beautiful she has become.” When addressing her problem and trying to heal her of her neurosis, the cultural background aspect should be addressed first as this is where her neurosis problem stems from and which leads to those feelings and attitude. 2. Apply Goffman’s theory to explain the example that has been given in 1 Goffman states that people live their lives as if they are performing on a stage.

Their interactions with others is therefore based on trying to create impressions to the other people they are interacting with. This is the case with the friend whose killer diet and trying to fit into a smaller size dress in a sort span of time is all because of impressing her boyfriend as well as her friends in the process. Goffman further states that there is also the front and back performance behavior. The front stage performances are those actions and behavior visible to others while in the back stage performance, there are no audiences.

The same is the case with the friend who purchases a lot of unhealthy food to eat and thereafter purge it all before the roommates come and when they do, she takes only diet coke which is in accordance to her strict diet. 3. If your friend or family member tells a racist or sexist joke that you find offensive, how could you use the Rosenberg Model to communicate with that person? Rosenberg tells of using nonviolence form of communication in order to avoid judging people wrongly or hurting them physically and psychologically all which eventually leads to conflict.

There are four forms of communication which Rosenberg suggests to be used and which can be applied in the situation mentioned above to communicate with the person making offensive jokes. These are observation, feelings, needs and requests. Making evaluations based on specific observations and not generalization is a way to avoid criticizing. Racist or sexist jokes are based on generalization of people’s characteristics and personalities but it only applies to a few people and not all. The friend should put themselves in the shoes of such people and allow experiencing their feelings and if unpleasant, then they will cease the offensive behavior.

The issue of racism will trigger negative reactions at all time and even requests to say such offensive words cannot be granted hence should be ceased to avoid conflict. This is the way to avoid conflicts that may be permanent and destroy relationships. Work Cited Yep, Gust, Karen Lovaas and John Elia. Queer Theory and Communication: From Disciplining Queers to Queering the Discipline(s). New York: Harrington Park Press, 2003.