Cupcakes and Cursing

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Sally Raskoff, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change7 Comments

new sally By Sally Raskoff

Have you noticed the plethora of both cupcakes and cursing lately? It seems there’s a new cupcake store in every shopping center and all the news media can discuss are the nasty diatribes that people are having with each other, whether in political arenas or in their neighborhoods.

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The growth of cupcake businesses have been impressive, yet one writer is predicting the end of this trend. If you’ve visited one of these stores, you know that these are no ordinary cupcakes. Red Velvet, Espresso Ganache, Cranberry Orange, Chocolate/Vanilla Swirl are just a few of the amazing creations in one of my local shops. The Food Network has a reality show, Cupcake Wars, in which cupcake bakers compete against one another. The blogosphere is even filled with cupcake bloggers at sites like http://bakeanddestroy.net/, http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com, and http://www.cupcakeactivist.com/.

On a seemingly unrelated note, the debate and reaction to health care reform legislation reached new lows in public decorum. From our elected officials aiming personal barbs at each other to those people making threatening calls to the offices of elected officials or neighbors, it seems like our society is getting rather scary. I’ve had former students contact me to discuss why the debate over health care got so rancorous and downright mean.

Seen sociologically, I’d like to suggest that the plethora of both cupcakes and cursing are related!

We are living in a time of tremendous social change. While our power structure is still intact, the people running it look a bit different. With a president who is African American, a speaker of the house who is a woman, and a few Congress-people who are gay – some of our politicians now hail from groups that have previously been underrepresented. (Whether or not those people are doing things differently from those who still hold the majority of the power positions is not a topic for this particular blog.) People are clamoring for equal rights in marriage and in some states they already have access. Our economy is in tatters and the promises of rebuilding have not yet netted any gains for most people as both joblessness and mortgages remain high.

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Sociologically, what happens in times of tremendous social change? Normlessness!

Anomie is a wonderful word for a terrible situation. With social change, the norms that typically operate to keep society functioning smoothly stop working. When social conditions are changing, there is pressure to change the norms, yet society doesn’t change rapidly enough and those new norms don’t often appear in time to reshape social expectations about what our behaviors should be.

Bringing in Marx’s critique of capitalism, we can see that our capitalist economy is having trouble generating profit since it has exhausted its sources of cheap labor and materials (world wide, mind you). As our financial system struggles to keep looking for sources of profit and we don’t work toward restructuring the economy into something that would resolve these problems, people continue to get laid off, educational systems struggle to provide classes and programs, and the news media keep telling us about these real problems and many others that are not necessarily probable threats.

We are a nation scared, afraid of everyone else out side our borders and afraid of each other. The cursing is a sign of anomie, as we no longer trust, well, anyone. Different social strata put their trust in different societal entities: some trust law enforcement, some the government. imageEven the trust levels of different areas of government have oscillated in interesting ways 

As you can see, trust in the legislative branch of government has taken a dive in the last decade!

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports increases in hate groups and extremism, something that often happens during economically troubled times.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Republicans and those on the more conservative side of the political spectrum are getting more conservative. With all of this increasing divisiveness, mistrust, and frustration, people are lashing out at each other and at their elected officials.

It is time I brought the cupcakes back in: what is one of the most affordable (to make) and comforting (to consume) items that you can think of? For many of us, it would certainly be cupcakes. The explosion of cupcakes can also be interpreted as a sign of how we are responding to the anomie that characterizes our society right now. We need comforting in cute small packages!

Cussing out a politician and eating a yummy cupcake may be some of the most visible ways that we are acting out to express our anomie, our frustrations with the social changes and situations we have around us and our lack of guidelines on how to get out of this mess.

Sociology Meets The Bachelor

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family, Social Psychology18 Comments

KS_2010a By Karen Sternheimer

A few weeks ago, I was asked to appear on 20/20 to discuss the group dynamics that might emerge while filming a reality show like The Bachelor. I’m always pleased when a sociological perspective is included in popular culture, particularly since we Americans traditionally view things from an individual perspective.

The segment’s correspondent, Chris Connelly, asked me several very interesting questions about group dynamics and why people might behave in ways that they might not in a different situation. As with any program, time constraints permitted only some of our discussion to air, so this post will expand on our conversation. The main question Connelly asked me was, What sort of group dynamics emerge when people are isolated from their regular lives, as they are on shows like The Bachelor?

http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/4ae8d36a3102598f/4ba7b7dc7b2010a7/4ae8d36a3102598f/93a95390/-cpid/a7707d0cdc500830

When people encounter a situation they are unfamiliar with, they will often try to create order. Sociologist Harold Garfinkel studied how jurors must figure out how to organize their deliberations in the absence of specific rules about how to do so. Likewise, when people enter a situation such as a reality show, where there might not be specific rules about how to interact with other participants, they might use other reality shows they have seen to guide their behavior.

People who choose to be on a show like The Bachelor are likely to be somewhat savvy about “unscripted” programming and therefore probably know what sort of reality “characters” get the most screen time. As one of the show's producers admitted, many contestants aren’t necessarily there to find true love, but to get on television. In a tough economy like this one, appearing on a reality show could put someone on the fast-track to celebrity and perhaps to a career of sorts that involves simply being themselves (like Heidi Montag and others).

And of course candidates for the show aren’t selected because they are necessarily good matches for the Bachelor/Bachelorette. They tend to be people who look good in bathing suits, have a bit of an exhibitionist streak, and who might be somewhat emotionally volatile. Conflicts will emerge when you combine these factors with free-flowing alcohol. And of course a television show without drama is not likely to stay on the air for very long.

In some ways shows like these bear passing resemblance to dynamics in cults and other total institutions, a term sociologist Erving Goffman coined to describe organizations that essentially run a person’s life, if only for a short time. When someone participates on The Bachelor, they live in a spectacular mansion and must cut off contact from the outside world (contestants report not even knowing that Barack Obama was elected president while in the house). They cannot talk about what went on during the show until after it has aired either.clip_image002

Their time is structured by producers, and they feel lucky to be chosen to spend time alone with a central figure that the other participants fawn over. To be selected by this (sometimes) charismatic figure at the end of the show signifies specialness. This dynamic is not unlike the way cult figures interact with the group’s leader. To the outside world, a cult leader might seem really creepy and strange, but in the context of a total institution, their attention might imply salvation.

In the context of The Bachelor, it is normal for the anointed one to have sexual rendezvous with multiple women, and for the women to have friendly conversations with each other in which they compare notes about those encounters. Separated from trusted others, such as friends and family, who might in normal circumstances weigh in on their romantic lives, the experience seems okay. While in our daily lives we might have many things to define our identities, such as school, our work, and our relationships with friends and families, little else defines contestants during this process but how well they fare with the bachelor/bachelorette.

Just as psychologist Philip Zimbardo found in the Stanford prison experiment, in a short period of time people will change their behavior to conform to the expectations of those granted powerful roles. Connelly asked me why people seldom want to leave, and I suspect the answer is similar to Zimbardo’s findings. No, The Bachelor is not a prison, or even a mock prison, but the context is very powerful here. Participants live in a fantasy-like setting, don’t have to go to work, and can spend their evenings in beautiful formal wear. They might travel to exotic locales and have dinner with an impossibly perfect sunset as the backdrop.

I know, so far this sounds like the opposite of Zimbardo’s experiment. But the point is that people often become somewhat passive when others have defined the situation for them. And the situation on The Bachelor is that being chosen as “the one” by the bachelor is the super ordinate goal, even if one is miserable in the process—or really doesn’t care much for the bachelor as a person. In the prison experiment, people adapted to their roles as prisoner and guard too well, and soon let go of their normal inhibitions and began acting accordingly. It is likely that people on a show like The Bachelor would soon behave in ways they might not normally too.

There are many other interesting sociological aspects to The Bachelor and similar shows, including issues pertaining to gender, the “happily ever after” fantasy of love and marriage, and the celebration of consumption. What sociological issues do you see in this and other so-called reality shows?

Donating Mansions

On By econnellIn Class and Stratification, Sally Raskoff, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

new sallyBy Sally Raskoff

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times noted that many officers in the Salvation Army are living in houses owned by the organization. The organization keeps and maintains these homes rather than sell them so that their employees, who earn very low wages (around $25,000 per year), have a place to live when they transfer them around the country. They live in these homes rent free, in part to compensate for their low pay.

This article created an outcry since the houses mentioned in the article are large, expensive, and located in affluent neighborhoods. The first printing of the article mentioned that the 87 homes and condos the Salvation Army owns are worth 4 billion dollars, although that was later corrected to $52 million.

Why the outcry? Reaction seems to circulate around the issue that this nonprofit organization should not be housing people in mansions, since it appears financially irresponsible and at odds with their reputation of “sacrifice and service”.

The image of nonprofit workers – especially those who work for charities such as the Salvation Army and may themselves be eligible for help from the organization – is not one of mansion dwellers. When one considers their very low salaries, one does not expect an address to a multimillion-dollar mansion.

One might expect nonprofit organizations to sell off donated properties and not to invest in real estate. The word “non-profit” suggests all sorts of assumptions about financial issues. Yet all it means is a specific type of incorporation that bars profit sharing – those who run the organization cannot pocket any profits that are generated.

We expect that organizations to which we donate money will not be run as for-profit corporations, that they will not try to generate profit nor will they give any employees financial benefits. These assumptions suggest a misunderstanding about how any organization survives, especially when it gets to a certain size.

Many organizations have looked to non-profits to model their ways of doing business. Assuming that non-profits are imagenot businesses is a mistake. They must operate as businesses in our economic context if they are to succeed. The Non-Profit Times looks very similar to the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers for general management and business.

We do hold non-profits to a high standard, and track and rate them based on how much of their donations and assets are devoted to their mission. Websites like Charity Navigator Charity Navigator and Charity Watch provide easy access to some of that information. 

The Salvation Army rates high in financial management by most of its evaluators. A recent post on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website challenges the outcry about its real estate holdings by pointing out that housing is needed to accommodate their employees’ frequent moves, as they are regularly assigned to relocate by the organization.

How can sociology help us understand what is happening here? Sociology asks us to look at societal phenomena and ask a series of questions, among them, who benefits?

Who is benefiting from this situation? Clearly, the employees have very nice places to live. The organization’s need to house their employees is addressed. They also benefit from having their own employees live in the homes to keep them inhabited and maintained so they don’t have to leave them empty or rent them out to outsiders. These homes are much more likely to retain their value with insiders inhabiting them! They also have solid investments that can be a buffer for those years in which donations decline.

Do donors also benefit? Their donations can be put toward the main mission without being sidetracked into housing or other administrative costs. Do the beneficiaries of the organization benefit from this arrangement? If over 80% of the income is spent towards services for them, one might say so.

Does the newspaper benefit from running the story? Definitely yes, since there was such a reaction to it. Any readers are good readers even if they are upset about the article.

Who does not benefit from this situation? The public face of the Salvation Army perhaps. Why? The public reputation for a charity (or any business) is important to sustain donations and support. If people get a sense that their money is not being used for the mission, donations and support disappear.

Why did they cooperate in this story and let the newspaper take photos of the opulent housing? Your guess is as good as mine, but perhaps they wanted to build a reputation for taking care of their employees and for the donated properties.

The images of rich housing provided for charity workers brings up expectations that those workers should live in conditions similar to that of their clients. People often feel that those who do “good work” do it for the intrinsic meaning, not for some extrinsic reward. This alone may explain much of the outcry and reaction to the story. What should be the reward for people who dedicate their lives to serving others in need?

Birthday Parties, Weddings, and Other Rituals

On By econnellIn Janis Prince Inniss, Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family11 Comments

new janis By Janis Prince Inniss

What kind of society would ritually mix together a white powdery starch made of grains, with a crystal sweetener, churned milk, and ovoid shaped female cells laid by birds, infuse the mixture with a carbon dioxide releasing chemical and then cook the resulting mixture? Why would they do this? And why would they stick a lighted wax pole into this concoction?

For the last several days, we have been celebrating my mother’s milestone birthday. Reaching 80 and looking as she does and feeling as she reports would be considered a wonderful achievement for many, but given my mother’s recent illness and hospitalizations (which I wrote about here and here), this birthday feels particularly triumphant. The last year has seen Mum’s health steadily improve without one step backwards. And for most of that year she has been able to resume the life she had before illness – walking several times a week, living independently, and seeming to have more energy than I do.

So in collaboration with my siblings, I was
delighted to get
into a planning frenzy for an event to include fifty of her closest
friends and
some of our family. Since Mum loves the colors black and white, the color scheme was easy to decide on. The white plates adorned with pastel colored roses I found completed the color palette I would use: black and white with pink, yellow, and purple flowers.

clip_image002 clip_image004 clip_image006After planning the event, buying the goods, and cooking most of the food, I was exhausted by the evening of the party. Afraid that in my exhaustion I would forget some important aspect of the evening’s proceedings, I asked a visiting relative to take over. What’s the big deal? After spending so much time and energy planning this party, I didn’t want to forget something like – say the birthday cake – or the order of some of the formalities. Why? Because just about everybody has been to a birthday party (notable exceptions would be someone raised and living as a Jehovah’s Witness) and we all know the rituals associated with birthday parties.

Ever think about the rituals we engage in when we celebrate birthdays? There is the cake. (Did you recognize the ingredients and yourself above? Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and baking powder. All baked, and then just at the right moment, we add candles and light them.) The birthday person must blow the candles out while making a secret wish.

Weddings, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays are filled with rituals as well. Some are widely known and others are particular to our families. Notice that advertisers are keenly aware of the role of rituals in our lives and that many commercials are created to highlight the commercial aspect of various ritualistic times; Christmas is an extreme example with the gift-giving aspect heralded by advertisements of anything from cars to the year’s must have toy. As I mentioned in this post, it is the gift giving ritual of Christmas that gives some retailers as much of three-quarters of their annual profit.

Rituals reflect our social context and as such may highlight issues such as gender inequality. Weddings include many rituals for us to examine gender. Have you ever thought about some of those as you attended a wedding? Who is “given away” at a Christian or American secular wedding? Usually, a father—or other close male relative or friend—“gives” the bride to the groom as was done with arranged marriages in a transfer of property. This wedding ritual may be the one most changed in the last 30 or 40 years as couples deem it too patriarchal and come up with innovative changes such as having both parents walk the couple down the aisle (and in the Jewish tradition, it has always been customary for both parents to walk both the bride or groom down the isle). At our wedding, my groom and I walked down the aisle together. Others have infused this part of the wedding ceremony with fancy dance moves as seen on The Office.

Indeed, rituals change as we do. The traditional “first dance” of newlyweds at their weddings has been very staid and to a classic love song. Recently, many couples have been opting for a choreographed number to pop music such as seen in this video:

Why do we engage in rituals? In his book, Understanding Family Process: Basics of Family Systems Theory, one of my favorite sociology professors, the late Carlfred Broderick, describes rituals as mechanisms that all societies use to ensure that families share enough common ground. Rituals refer to ways that family members share values, celebrate their common identity, and regulate behavior; they have circular dynamics: the values that lead families to take part in a ceremony are reinforced by their participation in it. Rituals also help us mark transitions: married instead of single, and coming of age, for example. Less happy transitions are also marked by ritual—funerals are filled with many rituals and some people now have divorce parties/showers to mark their new status.

As you participate in and observe rituals think about what they mean and how various symbols are used to express those meanings.

Sociology and the Census

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Statistics and Methods26 Comments

KS_2010a By Karen Sternheimer

Today my 2010 Census form came in the mail, and I excitedly filled it out right away (it took less than a minute). If you are interested in sociology, the Census Bureau’s work is incredibly important. Its director, Robert M. Groves, is a sociologist who was previously a professor at the University of Michigan. Without the census we would have far less valuable information about American society. (Click here to see the 2010 Census questions).

But we don’t just have a census for sociologists. It is mandated in the U.S. Constitution to be conducted every ten years, primarily for the purpose of figuring out how many representatives each state should have in Congress. (There are 435 seats; if an area loses population they could also lose a representative and another area could gain a representative.) The census also helps to decide how to allocate funding for projects around the country.

clip_image002A census is different from a survey; while the census seeks to count the entire population, a survey typically only involves a cross-section of a population. And while surveys drawn from probability sampling are typically reliable and can help us make generalizations about a population, ideally a census includes everyone.

Of course like any research, the census faces challenges in gathering information. Many people have lost their homes in recent years and may be homeless. Census workers try hard to include everyone—including the homeless—but they can be a difficult population to track down. Others might be so accustomed to getting junk mail that they never open their census form, while some may not want to give any information to the government at all.

By law, the census is private and your personal information cannot be shared with law enforcement, immigration, tax collectors, or anyone else. After 72 years the information becomes public, so in 2082 historians and our descendents doing genealogy research can find out more about us. If you like programs such as Faces of America or Who Do You Think You Are? you might have noticed that they use old census data to trace ancestors of the celebrities featured on the show.

The census is also vital to aid our research into core areas within sociology. We find out basic information about the size of the population, and its composition by age, gender, race and ethnicity. You might wonder, for instance, why the census asks about race and ethnicity. For sociologists doing research on racial inequality, the information the census collects is vital. We can learn about residential segregation and assess how the racial/ethnic composition of an area has changed over time. We can learn if there are relationships between race and home ownership from the census too.

clip_image004The Census Bureau also conducts a regular survey, called the American Community Survey (ACS), which asks more questions than the basic census does. From the ACS, we can learn about income distribution, educational attainment, births, marriage and divorce, employment, transportation, and how often people move from place to place, to name a few topics. It’s likely that tens of thousands of research studies have been conducted using these data. (Click here to read the actual survey)

If you have done research yourself, you might have used the Statistical Abstract to locate some basic facts about the U.S. population, which is comprised of census data. From a researcher’s perspective, one of the best parts of census data in the age of the Internet is that it is easy to access and free. While once upon a time you would have to go to the library or buy data on tapes for statistical analysis, it’s mostly available online now.

In my current research, I have used census data to look at changes in divorce rates dating back to the nineteenth century, to compare changes in college attendance and graduation rates throughout the twentieth century, and to look at how the age at first marriage changed during the twentieth century.

Without data from the census, we would know very little about American society as a whole. The census helps us to identify major social changes, patterns of inequality, as well as help us understand the composition of what makes America unique. So don’t forget to fill out your 2010 Census form—you will be making your contribution to sociological research.

Deviance 101

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Todd Schoepflin49 Comments

Todd_S_2010a
By Todd Schoepflin

When I introduce the sociological study of deviance to my students, I make sure to focus on the reactions that people encounter when they violate norms or act in unconventional ways. Think about it: if you violate a norm but there’s no reaction to that violation, is it really deviant behavior? I’m going to discuss several examples of norm violations; some involve reactions, others don’t.

My first example is a true story. A few years ago, a very outgoing student with a great sense of humor came to my social psychology class wearing a huge orange wig. The funny part is that he acted like it was no big deal, as if it were normal to attend class wearing an oversized bright-colored wig. I laughed heartily and explained to the class that his wig was a great example of deviant behavior; after all, no one else had ever come to my class with a crazy wig (and no one has since).

Looking back, though, I don’t think it’s a great example of deviant behavior, because, for whatever reason, the other students didn’t react to his behavior. They were indifferent. I actually offered the only reaction–and the way I laughed conveyed a positive reaction. And though my reaction and my comment about his wig indicated that I thought he was behaving in deviant fashion, no one else seemed to think of it that way. Basically, they didn’t care. Considering that, did an act of deviance really occur?

My next example is hypothetical. Suppose I wear sweat pants everyday to class (That’s a dream of mine, by the way. Some people dream of becoming millionaires and owning mansions. Me, I dream of wearing sweat pants 24-7-365). However, I don’t wear sweat pants for fear that my colleagues would view me as unprofessional.

But would my students care? Maybe at first. I suppose a student might say “You don’t look like a real college professor!” But I bet after just a few classes students would lose interest and find the whole enterprise unremarkable. Even my colleagues would probably get used to it. Sure, some of them might whisper “he’s strange” and my dean might suggest that I dress more professionally, but in the classroom I sincerely doubt I’d get any significant negative reaction.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s unconventional for a professor to wear sweat pants, just like it’s unconventional for a student to wear an orange wig to class. But if reactions to unconventional behavior are mild, minor, or nonexistent, there’s little at stake. In other words, without a significant negative reaction, unconventional actions don’t matter much.

When I introduced the sociological perspective of deviance to students in my introduction to sociology class this semester, one of my students gave an excellent illustration of the importance of reactions when it comes to behavior that is viewed as deviant. She talked about the negative reactions she encountered when she was pregnant. For example, one person said to her “You’re throwing your life away.” What a harsh thing to say to someone! And that’s Irena exactly my point: a hostile reaction is a strong signal that someone’s behavior is received as deviant.

As Irena talked more about her situation she pointed out that some of the disapproval she faced was based on the fact that she wasn’t married. Then, in an e-mail message, she gave me two more examples of negative reactions. One was that some of her friends reacted with an assumption that she would have to drop out of school. Another was that some of her “friends” were initially excited at the news she was pregnant, but have since stopped talking to her and essentially disappeared from her life.

Irena’s experiences show how important it is to focus on the reaction rather than the action. No one would say that being pregnant is a norm violation for all women at all times. We have to take the context into consideration when we try to determine if behavior is deviant, and we have to keep in mind that what is deviant to some people (and to some groups and cultures) is not deviant to other people (and to other groups and cultures). Would a married woman who is 25-years-old be treated as a deviant person because she is pregnant? I doubt it. Conversely, I bet it would be celebrated and received as great news.

During that same class session I used interracial relationships as an example of something that has become more acceptable over time (and hence, less deviant) but something that is still regarded by some in society as unacceptable (and therefore, is still deviant to a degree). It seems to me that interracial relationships are more acceptable in American society than ever before, but people in interracial relationships are still sometimes subjected to negative reactions (for example, see Janis Prince Inniss's blog about a justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple).

Think about this in terms of your family. If you brought your new boyfriend or girlfriend home to meet your family and they belonged to a different race, how would your parents react? And what would your grandparents say? My guess is that many of you would encounter disapproval. By the way, my student Irena told the class that some of the people in her life were more accepting of her when she was in an interracial relationship than they were when she was a pregnant, unmarried college student.

Okay, one more example. When I arrived to class that day to introduce the topic of deviance, I was excited because I love the subject. But my students seemed tired and not ready to engage in any material. So, to break the ice I intentionally told a lame joke to lighten the mood (“Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because he wasn’t peeling well.”) The silly joke served my purpose because it was a simple ice breaker.

Driving home from school that day an interesting thought occurred to me: What if I had told a dirty joke to my class? I’m not saying I wanted to tell a dirty joke or that I tell dirty jokes in my spare time. My point is that a dirty joke would have been extremely inappropriate in a classroom setting. And I think it would have been an example of deviant behavior. I say this because I assume I would have gotten a lot of disapproving reactions. Who knows, depending on the actual content of the joke, some students might have laughed. But I suspect some would have been offended and some would have left class thinking of me as “pervert” or “dirty old man.”

My examples demonstrate the critical role that reactions play when it comes to deviant behavior. You’ll notice that my examples of deviant behavior focus on negative reactions. That’s because negative reactions (like a mean stare, an insult, or an act of discrimination) are clear signals that deviant behavior has occurred. But what about positive reactions? In my example of the student who wore a wig to class, I implied that a positive reaction (my laughter) was part of the reason why his behavior wasn’t really deviant. But can you think of any examples of positive reactions to an action that is believed to be deviant? In other words, is there any deviant behavior that
generates a positive reaction? Hmmm, maybe that’s another blog topic for another time…

Rethinking Nudity and Deviance

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Sally Raskoff, Social Psychology25 Comments

new sally By Sally Raskoff

When is it appropriate to show one’s breasts to people you don’t know? When is it appropriate be invited to feel the breasts of people you don’t know? You might have thought about Mardi Gras, some other performance event, or any form of sex work.

I recently thought about this when I accompanied a friend to a medical office visit. Suffice it to say that this was a place that offered cosmetic surgeries among their services. I was fascinated by the dynamics and behaviors that occurred there and over the months following her procedure.

Getting cosmetic surgery is often considered a deviant act in our culture. You may disagree with this statement; however I came to this conclusion based on many different aspects. “Good” cosmetic surgery is done without notice; if people can’t tell you had it done, then it’s good. People who have obviously had it done, perhaps too much or done badly, face social stigma and are labeled as deviant even if they joke about it, e.g., Michael Jackson, Octo-mom Nadia Sulemon, and Joan Rivers. clip_image002

Those who have had cosmetic surgery often know how to identify others who have had it done, and thus they form an in-group. In-groups and out-groups are smaller entities than entire cultures yet are related to the concept of deviance. People who have had some form of cosmetic surgery often feel a kinship with others who have had such procedures. Once my friend let other friends know about the procedure she was to undergo, other friends stepped up and disclosed their experiences. When these people gathered in the same places, they often examined each other’s “work” and shared tales of the experience. When it comes to breast surgery, the examination of the work often includes not just looking at the outcome but actually feeling it to experience how “normal” and “real” it feels.

When I witnessed this happening and was invited to participate, I mentioned how unusual an event this is but they corrected me. They explained that this kind of sharing helps them to feel good about both the process and its results. Women who have breast reconstruction after cancer and women who have had elective breast implants or breast reductions may react to the process differently. However, whatever the reason for the surgery, the outcome is “new” breasts. For some women, being in a room with other women who have “new” breasts creates community. This “in-group orientation” reduces the stigma of having experienced such a procedure and creates social ties and positive emotions.

This sharing process can include the people who have had the work done, but also their other friends or family who know about the surgery. This works to expand the in-group to include people who might have been out-group members. Not all family or friends may be comfortable or supportive of the procedure, but including them in the inspection process creates an intimacy and reinforces the social ties between them. Though those people haven’t had the work done and aren’t easily included in the in-group, they can become members by participating in this redefining the situation as deviant into one of acceptable conformity to group standards.

At the first medical office visit, one of the women who worked there moved her blouse and showed us her results before any procedure was scheduled. At the time, we were amused by how comfortable she was doing this. I wondered at the time if she showed her breasts to every potential patient. Her act seemed deviant to us. However, after watching other employees do the same thing during subsequent visits and after watching the behavior of friends post procedure, it became apparent to us that this kind of behavior is part of in-group orientation and also helps women manage the stigma associated with having such work done.

clip_image004The plastic surgery websites that feature before and after pictures also work to redefine and manage this stigma and create not just an in-group but also affect the entire culture’s attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. These body modifications are done in part to conform to our expectations about body symmetry and beauty. (They are also done to remedy physical problems.) While this in-group will not expand into an actual subculture, as they don’t have a long roster of unique cultural markers like special foods or dress, they may have an impact upon the larger culture by challenging the deviance of this particular status. Paradoxically, having good cosmetic surgery means that people can’t tell you’ve had it done. If more people were aware that people have had it done, there might not be as much stigma associated with it.

To answer the questions that I asked at the beginning, it seems that showing one’s breasts in public is an appropriate part of inducting someone as a new member of a cosmetic surgery patient in-group. The experiences of this group have helped them reoriented their definition of deviance.

To what other groups would similar dynamics occur? For what other behaviors would such a situation explain?

Scoop of Ice-cream or Pizza? Choosing the Right Research Method

On By econnellIn Janis Prince Inniss, Statistics and Methods18 Comments

new janis By Janis Prince Inniss

In the recently published book, The Politics of Black Women’s Hair, I wrote an essay about my evolving experiences and feelings regarding the styling and care of my hair. (Read a sample from the book here.) The book features interviews and recollections of a few other women on the same topic, using what might be akin to a convenience sample. Therefore, the author does not claim that the experiences chronicled in the book are reflective of all black women—they are not generalizable to the entire population.

Do you know what a convenience sample is? A convenience sample, as the name indicates, is based on convenience. Researchers engage the respondents they can rather than trying to reach a particular, representative group of people. And of course, convenience samples may suffer some particularly dramatic biases.

For example, if I passed out surveys in a hospital, maybe my findings would be applicable only to the ill. This might be okay if I only wanted to learn about the ill—in which case I would have to think about whether the people in my convenience sample were a good representation of all sick people—but I would be unable to say anything about others. In other words, a convenience samples lack a major selling point of random samples—generalizability.

clip_image002Back to black women’s hair: How could I approach the topic of black women’s hair as sociological research? (Although your study topic might differ, the process would be the same.)

A first step would be to learn whether other scholars had already studied this topic. It is not helpful to the research community if investigator after investigator repeats the same study with no sense of what has already been done on a topic. Why is this so? Unless I intend to replicate your study and see whether I can get the same results as you did, this would be a waste of time and money.

Sociological research is designed to answer a specific set of questions, so if we already have answers to those questions in the field, we can pursue others; this is a major impetus for researchers to publish their study findings—so that we know what has already been learned. Because many of the questions that sociologists wrestle with are so complex, different researchers may chip away at various aspects of a question, and together those studies can provide a more complete understanding of an aspect of our lives. Therefore, a review of the literature is a good starting point to learn what has been done and what additional questions may remain on a topic.

clip_image004clip_image006Once I had reviewed the sociological literature on black women’s hair, assuming there was either no research already published on the topic, or the previous research did not address the questions I thought of, I would have to consider the appropriate research methodology for the type of questions I want to pose.

Do I want to learn about the experiences and attitudes of these women regarding their hair, for example? Am I interested in what most women think or feel? Or do I want an in-depth understanding of the experiences of some women? Do I want a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream or a slice of pizza? With this less than perfect analogy, I’m comparing a pizza to the survey I could do. I could find out how most black women think and/or feel about their hair and be able to report things like: “Eighty percent the women surveyed felt X Y Z.” I could get a “thin view” of this issue, and if I chose a representative sample, I could generalize the findings to all black women.

Another possibility is to conduct some in-depth interviews with women and get a “thick description” of their experiences with hair (not only how they feel for example, but I could learn what kinds of experiences may have formed their current perspective). I liken this to a scoop of ice-cream: When I take a scoop of Neapolitan ice-cream, because I don’t like it, I try to avoid the chocolate. So my scoop, although “thick,” is not truly representative of all the ice-cream in that container. A third possibility would be to use a mixed methods approach – have pizza and ice-cream—conduct some clip_image008interviews and also collect survey data.

Methodological purists on either side—quantitative and qualitative—engage in huge debates about the merits of each. However, perhaps as a result of my early experiences with sociological research I am open to both. My first forays into research were quantitative and helped me decide to become a sociologist. However, it was when I read Lillian Rubin’s awe-inspiring book, Intimate Strangers: Men and Women Together which is a brilliant example of what careful qualitative research coupled with impeccable writing can produce, that I felt I had found something to help me answer the question I have been asking since I learned to speak: Why?. These experiences have taught me that methodology must be guided by the research questions being examined.

Think of a topic you might be interested in researching; what would an “ice cream scoop” study look like? A “pizza” study?

Research Methods, Statistics, and Video Games

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Statistics and Methods30 Comments

new karen 1 By Karen Sternheimer

A recent Iowa State University report claimed that one of its faculty members has “prove(n) conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids.” A colleague forwarded a link to this report to me, knowing that I have challenged claims like these in my books Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer and It's Not the Media: The Truth About Pop Culture's Influence on Children.

When researchers make powerful statements about their findings, it is very easy to be convinced, especially if we aren’t familiar with some of the technical terms in a report, or if we don’t know how to think critically about research methods and statistics.

Let’s start by putting aside any preconceived beliefs you may have; most people have an opinion about this issue, but we are going to be using the claim to better understand how to deconstruct the meaning of reports like these. You can make up your own mind about what to believe after you become familiar with the following concepts: meta-analysis, correlation, and predictive validity.

  1. Meta-Analysis

If one study on an issue is good, lots of studies on the issue should be really good, right? That’s the premise of conducting a meta-analysis, which involves finding studies with a similar hypothesis and generating statistical data from the group of previously conducted studies.

So far, this makes the Iowa State University report seem convincing, particularly for the average reader who might not follow this research closely. But if you’re not a big journal article reader, you might not realize that at least two other meta-analyses found just the opposite results in the past few years.

Another hidden factor: Which studies were included in the meta-analysis, and which were not, and why?

Texas A&M researchers asked this question in a response to the Iowa State University researcher’s claim. They question why unpublished studies (which can include those presented at conferences or not accepted for publication) that are not peer-reviewed would be included in this meta-analysis. It is practically impossible to be sure that all or even most relevant studies could be taken into account. Cherry-picking specific studies could be the result.

Not that this doesn’t happen in peer-reviewed journals, too. One of the Texas A&M researchers published a meta-analysis study in 2007, finding that journals are more likely to publish video game studies if they claim to find a negative effect.

  1. Correlation

One of the most common statistical measures used in studies about video games and violence is the correlation coefficient. This statistic, represented by r, calculates the degree to which two variables have a linear relationship, meaning when one variable rises, the other rises (or falls) accordingly.

This measure is often calculated from surveys and looks at variables such as violent video game playing time and measures of aggression (like getting into fights, feeling angry, and so forth).

The correlation statistic is reasonably easy to interpret: The results fall between –1 and 1, where a correlation of –1 implies a perfect inverse relationship, or when one variable increases, the other decreases at exactly the same rate. A correlation of 1 means that as one variable increases, the other increases at the same rate. A correlation of 0 means no relationship. The closer your number is to 1 or –1, the stronger the relationship, and correlations closer to 0 mean that the relationship is weak.

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Both the Iowa and Texas researchers agree that overall the correlation between violent video game playing and aggression (which does not necessarily mean violent behavior) is .15, a relatively weak, positive relationship. The Texas researchers measured other relationships with violent video games, and found several more powerful relationships: poverty and crime (.25), violent video game playing and improved hand-eye coordination (.36), and a very strong inverse correlation between video game sales and youth violence in the United States (–.95).

In other words, the strongest relationship suggests that as video game sales increased sharply, youth violence decreased sharply. The weakest finding the Texas team found was the relationship between violent video game playing and serious aggressive behavior (.04).

Some people might wonder, if the strongest relationship found is the decrease in violence following an increase in video game sales, could it be that video games actually decrease violence?

Probably not; in any case, we couldn’t measure that from correlation. If you have taken a statistics class, you probably recall that correlation does not imply causation. Just as your wearing a heavy coat didn’t cause the heat to turn on in your house, correlation measures relationships but cannot explain cause and effect.

  1. Predictive Validity

Finally, we must look at any study’s finding(s) and ask whether its conclusions can apply to actual outcomes. For example, we could test the predictive validity of SATs by measuring students’ college GPA. If the SAT and college GPA produced only weak correlations, then we might wonder how good a tool the SAT really is for college admissions.

Youth violence has declined significantly, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey. Twelve- to seventeen-year-olds committed serious violent acts at a rate of 52 per thousand in 1993. In 2007, that rate had fallen to just eleven per thousand, a 79 percent decline. Video game playing has become such a common pastime for young people (and not so young people) that video game play is not a useful predictor of violence.

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Social scientists draw conclusions about phenomena after careful considerations of factors like these; those conclusions are not simply just their opinion. Sometimes, scholars come to different conclusions after reviewing the same data. After examining the results of studies looking at violence and video games, I must respectfully disagree with the conclusion that the Iowa researcher has “prove(n) conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids.”

Whatever your feelings on video games, violence, or any other social phenomena, it is vital that before we draw any conclusions we test them empirically. What other commonly held assumptions do you think people often fail to test empirically?

The Nature/Nurture Debate

On By econnellIn Sally Raskoff, Social Psychology6 Comments

 new sally By Sally Raskoff

I’m reminded today that the world is an interdisciplinary place. National Public Radio (NPR) interviewed journalist Shankar Vedantam about his book, The Hidden Brain, in which he discusses how prejudice is based on brain functioning. No social science perspective on this cultural phenomenon was included the NPR story; prejudice is framed as something we are ”hard-wired” to do, since children’s behavior mirrors their observations rather than what they are told.

As a social scientist, I am often appalled by the dearth of social science research used by the media and policy makers. In our society at large, we seem to either use no scientific perspective when trying to explain something or we rely on the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, genetics) or economics. (Why economics is the only social science used in the public realm is a topic for another blog post.) clip_image002

Vedantum’s book looks interesting, but I haven’t yet read it or checked his sources. (It’s important to do that with everything that claims to explain something – including this blog!) His Washington Post columns regularly reference sociologists and other social scientists, so his journalistic writing has a wide scientific perspective. However, the news stories about this book frame its findings as a biological reality rather than as a hypothesis informed by multiple scientific perspectives.

His discussion of brain studies and the “hidden brain associations” can help us explain how implicit associations are formed and how things like prejudice and discrimination are maintained in a culture. When people see mainly men, white, or straight people in positions of power and respect (and women, people of color, and gays and lesbians in more subordinate or deviant positions), the different social esteem that we assign to these groups are reinforced.

What those associations can explain is how prejudice and discrimination are perpetuated through subconscious or unconscious processes. They can also help us better understand how cultural norms function as social patterns reinforce psychological impressions about those patterns.

The “hidden brain associations” can explain the results of the controversial Implicit Association Test, which Vedantum mentions in his book. That so many people have biases about particular social groups, including those within those groups, is disturbing. Knowing that our subconscious does pay attention to social cues about how people in those groups are treated both in the media, in occupations, and in our daily lives, helps explain how such biases are created and persist. clip_image004

People are also puzzled when they learn that people within a group participate in perpetuating the biases against those same groups. Hidden brain associations based on what people notice happening in their societies can explain why some women have sexist attitudes and may discriminate against women, why people of color can be prejudiced against their own groups, or why gays and lesbians themselves might internalize homophobic beliefs. Since women, people of color, and gays and lesbians are not treated well by our society and since people in those groups are not expected to attain esteemed or powerful positions, one’s subconscious can come to some specific conclusions about one’s status.

What “hidden brain associations” can’t explain is how those cultural realities have come to be. Without more analysis –and a more social scientific perspective – these associations alone cannot explain why societal patterns emerge or the many variations in prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice and discrimination don’t always occur together; bigots are not always the discriminator and those who discriminate are not always prejudiced.clip_image006

Brain and genetic studies have not found definitive results that ”nature” rather than “nurture” can explain our behavior or social realities. In fact, the outcome of the Human Genome Project and similar studies typically reinforce the interaction of nature and nurture rather than the primacy of one (or the other), illustrating that biology alone is not destiny. Our behavior exists within an environmental and cultural context. Thus, only looking at the biology without also analyzing the larger societal context is, by definition, a partial perspective.

To develop a more complete perspective, we need to include social science perspectives when we analyze human phenomena. This would include not only psychological theories, which often incorporate biological realities, but also sociological theories. Sociology gives us more information on the societal foundation, the social context, and how individuals navigate through such social, biological, and environmental complexities.