Assignment 3

My last name, Hanaka, is not Japanese.  Multiple people asked me about my last name and very few would guess I am actually Polish.  Usually, Polish last names end with “ski” but not mine.  Both of my parents are both Polish and come from a small village named Szczebrzeszyn.  Because of this, I am Caucasian.  My race and ethnicity are not that important to me.  I have met many Polish people who say they are proud to be Polish because of people like Marie Curie and Fredric Chopin. I don’t feel like I should be proud of something I didn’t do.  At the same time, race is not important to me as well.  

The doll video left me a disappointed in our society.  No child should feel like the girls in the video do.  If we were all the same, the world would be boring. When the girls were asked to describe a perfect female, they said she was white, with long blonde hair and blue eyes.  In all honesty, if we had a world filled with Barbies, I think I would rather move to Mars.  Or Pluto.  It is really sad that young girls feel that they are not considered pretty because of their ethnicity or race.  One thing the video teaches us is that we need to teach children that everybody is beautiful.

Assignment 2

1. According to functionalist theory, what was the definition of the "instrumental leader" and what was the definition of an "expressive leader." What family roles were connected to each of these leader definitions?

According to the functionalist theory, “instrumental leader” is one person that emerges from a group and leads the group discussion about how to accomplish the task that was assigned.  According to the same theory, “expressive leader” is a person who keeps the groups spirit with supportive jokes and remarks. Persons and Bales felt like the father was the “instrumental leader” because he financially supported the family while the mother was the “expressive leader” because she supported the family emotionally.

2. What main demographic change during the 1960s and 1970s led theorists to be critical of the functionalist perspective?

During the 1960s and 1970s married women joined the workforce and began providing their families with financial support.

3. In contrast to functionalist theorists, in your own words, what is the main theme of conflict theory?

Functionalist theorists focus on cooperation within a group.  The conflict theory focuses on how one person can overpower another person.

4. Social exchange theory is based on ideas from what discipline (not sociology). What do exchange theorists say about husbands bargaining power versus that of wives?

Social exchange theory is based on idea that people are able to exchange goods or services if they benefit from it somehow.  The exchange theorists state that when a wife is not working, her husband has all the power over the household.  When the wife begins working, the husband’s power over the household decreases and wife’s power over the household increases.

5. Gender/Feminist theory is based on what main idea?

The gender/feminist theory is based on the idea that in our society man are being favored over women.

6. Thinking about the functionalist, conflict, exchange and feminist/gender perspectives or theories: do you think the power of wives versus husbands in families is changing and why? CLEARLY identify a specific demographic, economic, or cultural change(s) described in lecture 3 to support your argument.

Lately, the power of wives versus husbands in families is changing.  This is happening because man and women do not have the same positions in their families as they did not that long ago. Before 1950s, women stayed home and took care of the kids while man worked and provided financial support for their families.  Now, both women and man are present in the workforce.

Assignment 1

Hello!

My name is Marta & I am a sophomore.  I am a psychology major but I am planning on declaring a second major in family and child studies.  I am not sure what I want to do in the future; however, I know I would like to work with kids and teenagers. I am planning on going to graduate school right after I finish MSU and hopefully I will have time and money to continue my education.  Though I enjoy going to school, I am not the type of person that would want to focus my entire life on my career. By age 25 I see myself being married & by age 30 I would like to have children. Marrying rich & traveling the world would be nice but my boyfriend, just like me, is a broke college student so I don’t think that will work out.

I think I am a boring person but some people find it interesting that I moved here from Poland almost 9 years ago.  I am fluent in Polish which can be useful from time to time. Sometimes, my family and I travel to Poland to visit my grandma but we don’t do it too often because it is so expensive. I currently live with my family & I commute from Lodi, NJ.  Some people might rather dorm at MSU but I don’t mind commuting because living at my house is actually fun.  I live with my entire family: my parents who are going to celebrate their 23^rd wedding anniversary this year, my little sister who is still in high school, and my older brother who is an accounting student at MSU. Oh, and we have a lazy cat that just sleeps all day.  As a family we like to go to church together, watch movies, play video games & go out to eat.

I think the two topics I am going to find really interesting are cohabitation and social classes and families. I learned little about them in one of my psychology classes and they were really interesting.

At first I was a little confused about the Wikis website because I didn’t realize I was able to edit it as well. But after few minutes I realized Wikis is much easier than Blackboard. I think more professors should use Wiki because Blackboard is not working most of the time.

-Marta H.