1) Nature vs Nurture: think about what you have chosen to wear today, what your future professions or plans are, what type of sports/activities you enjoy; how much of this is determined by "Nature" and how much "Nurture", and if/how do they balance each other?

I wear what I usually wear, shorts and a sweatshirt. My future goals for my profession is to ultimately become some sort of general surgeon, which doesn't seem to fit the shorts and a sweatshirt outfit. Although I buy some of my clothes from more "skater" stores, I have never skateboarded for more than 30 minutes nor do I intend to. I feel like my activities are definitely determined by nurture rather than nature because my mother never even let a skateboard near our house as I was growing up. I like most children, did not listen, and chose to try skateboarding at friends houses. My attire, however and my choice of profession I believe are a mixture of Nature and Nurture because of the way I was raised and my life experiences might have pushed me towards my goal of being a surgeon.

2) Why is adolescent social status power so important and consuming to most adolescents?

 Because as adolescents, our social power is the only power we have. We don't have the rights most adults have, we don't really have much economic power because we are limited to our parents, and we are not very self supporting because we still live at home. Because of this, we choose to turn to our only source of power, which is social status power.

3) How is the socialization process for children different today than in most previous generations? What concerns are raised by this change? How valid do you think these concerns are?

These days, children are becoming much more social online. Because the internet has evolved so much, many have become dependent on online interactions rather than person to person. This has fully changed the socialization process for everyone because it changes how we learn to interact with other people. Rather than working on public speaking skills, we are taught how to type in grade school. This has limited some children to have very limited social skills with other people, causing social interactions to be much more difficult which some people suggest might be slowing down the socialization process for children. These concerns are pretty valid considering the evidence is clear that more and more people are learning to depend on online communication.

4) Identify some examples of gender differences in socialization. What impact do you think these have had in your life or in the lives of others you know?
In class we talked about toys and their marketing strategies and the effects they have on children and gender differences. We spoke about how and why society has come to determine whether some toys are meant for girls or boys. This has become so deeply rooted in society that it is constantly being reinforced by the media, and our peers. For the most part, it has impacted everyone's life, because they are made to believe that certain characteristics are meant for certain genders, and therefore will continue to exhibit these characteristics that they believe are the correct ones for themselves, which will continue the cycle of gender differences.

1). An example of water in my life is the hate of waiting in lines. As an american, and most likely most of the world, I hate lines. Everyone does, but who are we to think we deserve to skip the line over someone else? Even this weekend, my friends and I went to see "Good Hair" and we cut the line at the box office. Sure, we got our tickets sooner, but why did we feel we needed to skip the line? Its an example of water, the feeling of entitlement to not waiting, that you are more deserving than someone else.

2). Another example of navigating water would be trying to survive High School

3). A value I embrace is the value of external conformity and material comfort. I express the value of conformity because in order to navigate the water of high school, everyone hass to conform in some way. In order to achieve this, I choose to wear more popular clothing, rather than be alternative. Although I may not be a Hollister Billboard, I'm not exactly an example of someone who follows their own drum. The second value I embrace is material comfort. This is the value that having "stuff" is going to comfort or allow success. In my opinion, having "stuff" is one of the biggest american values because of the american dream and american value system.

About two weeks ago, when everyone walked into class, Mr. Smith began treating us like children. One of us said she felt sick and he promptly offered her some candy in a childlike voice. What was going on here was infantilization. Another example of this in my life is my psychology class. Whenever students ask questions, our teacher responds with a high rTvoice similar to that of someone who is speaking to a child. In my opinion, this is an extremely distespectful way of talking to high school seniors, especially because we all behave in an age appropriate manner in her class. Infantilization is occuring everyday, even in the strangest enviorments. Unfortunately, its become a part of the american culture.

 So yesterday in class we talked about the differences between stereotypes and generalizations. I have to admit I didn't have any idea what the difference was at first, but when we began to discuss it, it started to make sense. Generalizations are more like a filing system, while stereotypes are like a rating system, the filing system is based off facts while the rating system is based off feelings and ideas. I thought it was funny to realize just how much I stereotype in my daily life, and I really need to stop doing it. I feel like high school is the time when people most often stereotype because they feel they need to. I wonder if there are any people who don't stereotype? Personally I think its impossible. P.S. If this is split into like 10 posts I'm sorry

So I'm pretty behind on my blogging but better late than never! On Friday we did an activity where 16 people each took a separate role on a boat. Then they were informed that although there were 16 of them on the boat, there was only room for 7 of them. That left them with the difficult decision of which 9 people would be kicked off. At first it went quickly, 6 of the 7 decided to get off the boat on their own free will. But when there was one left to kick off, no body wanted to be the one who was kicked off the boat. That's when everyone started thinking through what qualified someone to be able to stay on the boat. It was interesting seeing what they based their value on the boat on. I'm kinda glad I didn't have to be on the boat, I'm not sure what I would have done.