Assignment 4

I believe that children act the way they want. Initially, they are not influenced by anything. They play with what they want, act the way they want and just be kids. I know that as a kid, I used to love playing with swords, cars, ninja turtles, power rangers, all kinds of action figures, because they were fun. I hated wearing dresses in elementary school and always played sports on the playground with the boys. I didn't care because I had fun. I did have a ton of barbies and loved my stuffed animals, but they clearly weren't as fun as my brothers toys. I would play dress up and such went I went over friends houses but then I would wander into their brothers rooms when I got bored and busted out the fun toys. They hated me for that. Later on though I fell out of this phase like most children do. I do feel that children's behavior IS fostered by society, and families, and media which is ashame. Parents certainly persuade their children to act, play, and dress certain ways. I remember when my little cousin was a small child, he wanted to play with barbies and paint and was really into art, and his dad wasnt a fan of this, so he would take his barbies away and gave him army men...which he just pretended were barbies anyways and wouldnt use them to fight but would drive them around and make them friends. Now that he is a few years older, he has grown out of that phase but still enjoys drawing and art projects. Parents try and make their children act the way they want even if it means they are unhappy sometimes and I think that is wrong. In school, children are pushed toward gender related toys and areas of the classroom. Blocks and cars are suggested for the boys and dress-up, art, and the kitchen are suggested for the girls. If you stray from this, society thinks there is a problem. Also with the whole color thing. Blue is for boys and Pink is for girls because they say it is, not because they child likes it. My favorite color as a kid was green. Then i switched to purple because it was more girly and all my friends liked pink and yellow or other "girly" colors, but then i realized that green was the color for me and its once again my favorite color. I think its so boring when you ask children their favorite colors and boys say blue and girls say pink. What happened to red and orange and purple and all the other colors in the crayon box? They get left out because children feel that blue and pink are the colors for boys and girls.

Assignment 2A

1. The definition of the “instrumental leader” is a person who leads the group and is focused on accomplishing the goals at task. An “expressive leader” is a person who is in charge of keeping the group together through emotional support. Families in the 1950's, the instrumental leader was the husband because he worked to financially support the family, while the mother was considered the expressive leader because she provided emotional support to her husband and children.

2. Theorists became very critical of the functional perspective because women began to join the work force during the 1960s and 1970s and the breadwinner-homemaker family started to lose its dominance.

3. The main theme of conflict theory is power. Conflict theory is all about who has the power and how that person comes to obtain that power. Its about how groups of people take a higher power over others.

4. Exchange theorists say that husbands have a stronger bargaining power verses that of their wives when they are the only ones making the money in the families, because the wives have less options of income. In contrast, when wives enter the workforce to earn their own money, the husband’s bargaining power becomes weaker.

5. Feminist theory is based on the idea that gender was culturally created to describe the social and cultural differences between men and women. The Feminist theory distinguishes men and women in society.

6. A. I would want to study in the micro level because I would be dealing with social life with individuals in a small group setting. Focus on the family’s reaction to their environment and why they would act a certain way.
B. To collect data I would use interviews. In the interviews I would focus on the group to collect data. I feel that it is better to work and get close to these families.
C. I would have about 15-20 people in my study.

Assignment 2

The differences between women today and women 40yrs ago is that women today are more motivated on their educations and career goals. Obtaining college degrees and sustaining jobs is becoming more prevalent then getting married early and staying at home to start a family. The age of marriage and having kids in being pushed further back. It used to be that women after high school got married and had children. Now its more like after they go to college and have jobs that they tend to settle down and start families. Women are becoming more and more independent and living on their own or with roommates too. The norm today is for women to go to college and start a career of their own before they get married. Two incomes is becoming more and more common on one household today, rather then just one. Women work more now then they did in the past.

My plan is to finish college and become a preschool/kindergarten teacher. Possibly getting my masters once I have my job. Then I would like to get married and start having children, 4 to be exact. I can only hope that this plan works out.

I don't know that much about Sex & the City. I do enjoy the show and loved the movie, but I cant think of too much info right now off the top of my head.

Assignment 1

Heeey, my name is Dania. I'm 21yrs old and am "technically" a senior but MSU considers me a junior. I transferred here last year from Brookdale Community College where I got my A.A. I am majoring in FCST P-3. I want to teach preschool/kindergarten because I love little kids. I worked in a preschool/learning center for the past 8 months and worked back in forth between the toddler room which was 10mos-2yrs and the toddler II room which was 2-3yr olds. I loved working with the kids because they were so adorable and funny. I am from Leonardo which is in Middletown. I live on campus but when I go back home occasionally on weekends I live with my parents and my "little" brother who is currently 6'7" and still growing. He is a junior in high school.

I am Irish and Italian, mainly Irish though. I love the color green. Love it. I love music and I always have it on. 24/7. My favorite holiday is Halloween. I love peanut butter ice cream and driving. I have an obsession with buying coats and sunglasses. My dad was a huge athlete so therefore I have played sports for the majority of my life. I started with soccer in kindergarten, then switched to softball in first grade and continued that til 6th grade, and I also played basketball in 3rd grade til 10th grade. In high school I was on the bowling team because I didn't realize that everyone made the basketball team. I also joined the golf team because I really enjoyed wearing argyle socks. I am a very funny and sarcastic person. The MOST random unusually things tend to happen to me all the time. I could write a book. I LOVE my friends and do anything to see them whenever I can. I'm always up to do fun new things...for example, last week we went sliding down this huge hill on cardboard boxes...it was not to successful. I like planning trips with my friends and going new places. I tend to name alot of my things. For instance, my car's name is Stanley Cooper and my cellphones name is Chaz.

I don't know what the funniest thing to happen to me has been. There have been too many. One thing could be when me and my friend were singing and dancing in the car and were at a red light and the windows were open and we got the man next to us's attention and were singing and dancing for him and it turned out to be my uncle. I sped away right after that. Another could be when me and my friends went ice skating and I went to make a 360 spin and I ended up taking out about 12-15 people as I fell. That was slightly embarrassing.

On the syllabus I am interested to learn about The Role of Gender in Families because I never understand why I have to do certain chores around the house and my brother never gets asked to do them. My feelings about Wiki's are that of currently neural because I have never used one before. They seem easy enough to me though. I thought the video was funny too.