Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to recognize sociological concepts at play in your lived experience.

Keeping a field log of your social and institutional experiences for one day, you will critically discuss how your daily life is shaped and constrained by society.

This will allow you engage with many of the sociological concepts learned in class.

Writing expectations

The paper should be 4-6 typed pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, with 1" margins. Remember to use APA format to cite and reference your sources.

A presentation that offers additional assistance in completing the assignment is available.

Instructions

1) Observation

Create a field log (example below). For one day, observe and record the key interactions and institutions in your lived experience. Starting with waking up, who is the first person you talk to?

What do you do next- take family members to school, go to the gym, go to work and interact with coworkers?

Throughout the day you will take on different roles by interacting with different people and in different situations, and be in contact with different social institutions (education, government, health, etc).

Type or photograph your field log and submit it with your written Assignment.

2) Application

Try to wait one or more days before starting this step. Revisit your field log and apply sociological analysis to your observations.

Describe how our day is shaped and constrained by social norms.

Analyze how at least four sociological concepts learned in class (eg. roles, institutions, interactions, impression management, stage theory, emotional labor) apply to your field log observations.

This part of the paper should not be focused on the general social norms you described earlier, dig in with specific concepts in this from our text (refrain from using dictionaries).

For at least two of the concepts, find and incorporate an appropriate source that highlights how sociologists study this concept in everyday society (for example, emotional labor in the restaurant industry). Not sure what constitutes an appropriate source?

See our Announcement on this in the classroom- tips and a learning module are provided there. For example, we discussed gender socialization:

In an article by Crespi (2011) that studied gender socialization and gender roles within the family, results showed that a cross-gender relationship between fathers and daughters, mothers and sons has emerged as significant in determining traditional and non-traditional gender attitudes.

The research suggested that the relationship with the parent of the opposite sex could be a strong factor in reducing stereotyped attitudes regarding gender roles (Crespi, 2011). *Use a different example in your paper, the purpose here is to show your research skills rather than repeat my research skills.*

3) Reflection

Reflect on your role as a larger part of society (i.e. your motives, instincts, feelings, and/or structural constraints). Discuss ways other people affected you and the ways you affected others in the social experiences of your day.