This assignment is on the movie Gattaca which will be viewed in class. Review the attached questions and answer them according to the directions on the assignment. There are also links to helpful documents embedded in the questions. I've attached here a sample paper with the question prompts from the movie The Matrix as an example of what I am looking for. Matrix ar.pdf  Be creative in your answers. This is a critical thinking exercise and is designed to get you to see beyond what is in front of you and to show you that sociological concepts are relevant to the real world. So each answer is graded only to itself not to an arbitrary "right" or "wrong" ideal, except where the question asks for a definition of a concept.  For example, question two would I really ask the question if the answer is really two? Think beyond what is right there and remember that Gattaca is a company not society itself.  The assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. on the date listed on the course schedule and is worth 50 points. You should turn your paper in through this assignment tab. You may turn it in late up to one week for half credit. No assignments will be accepted more than one week late. To make up any missed points you can do any of the extra credit that is available in this course. Sociology of Everyday Life Lecture 5: Emotions in Everyday Life Everyday Experiences of Emotions Experience as physical and often see as “natural and universal”. Yet emotions are a key aspect of social life and emotional displays are influenced by norms and produced in interactions with others. Q: What are the different emotions? Q: How do we feel them? Q: In what ways are emotions taken-for-granted? Q: How do we make (seemingly familiar) emotions strange? Sociology of Emotions A sociological approach to the study of emotions Defining features: micro/macro; avoid biological reductionism Different from competing fields Sociologists who study emotions investigate: (1) what emotions are and where they come from (2) the relationship and difference between feeling an emotion and displaying an emotion, as well as the tactical and polemical use of emotions (3) how we often “work” to ensure that we are feeling what we think we should be feeling, and what this teaches us about the nature of human consciousness (4) how we learn which emotions are viewed as appropriate to feel or display at different times and places and in front of different audiences (5) emotional contagion, or how shared emotions can lead to social change. Hochschild and Emotion Work Emotion Work: the management of one’s own feelings in an effort to maintain the well being of a relationship. Also involves the orientation of self to others to fit with accepted norms of emotional expression. Types of Emotion Work: Evoking emotion and Suppressing emotion Techniques involved in Emotion Work: Cognitive, Bodily, Emotion Emotion Labour: The same as emotional work but rather emotions are regulated by workers be ...

1. This assignment is on the movie Gattaca which will be viewed
in class. Review the attached questions and answer them
according to the directions on the assignment. There are also
links to helpful documents embedded in the questions. I've
attached here a sample paper with the question prompts from the
movie The Matrix as an example of what I am looking
for. Matrix ar.pdf
Be creative in your answers. This is a critical thinking exercise
and is designed to get you to see beyond what is in front of you
and to show you that sociological concepts are relevant to the
real world. So each answer is graded only to itself not to an
arbitrary "right" or "wrong" ideal, except where the question
asks for a definition of a concept. For example, question two
would I really ask the question if the answer is really two?
Think beyond what is right there and remember that Gattaca is a
company not society itself.
The assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. on the date listed on the
course schedule and is worth 50 points. You should turn your
paper in through this assignment tab. You may turn it in late up
to one week for half credit. No assignments will be accepted
more than one week late. To make up any missed points you can
do any of the extra credit that is available in this course.
Sociology of Everyday Life
Lecture 5: Emotions in Everyday Life
Everyday Experiences of Emotions
Experience as physical and often see as “natural and universal”.

2. Yet emotions are a key aspect of social life and emotional
displays are influenced by norms and produced in interactions
with others.
Q: What are the different emotions?
Q: How do we feel them?
Q: In what ways are emotions taken-for-granted?
Q: How do we make (seemingly familiar) emotions strange?
Sociology of Emotions
A sociological approach to the study of emotions
Defining features: micro/macro; avoid biological reductionism
Different from competing fields
Sociologists who study emotions investigate:
(1) what emotions are and where they come from
(2) the relationship and difference between feeling an emotion
and displaying an emotion, as well as the tactical and polemical
use of emotions
(3) how we often “work” to ensure that we are feeling what we
think we should be feeling, and what this teaches us about the
nature of human consciousness
(4) how we learn which emotions are viewed as appropriate to
feel or display at different times and places and in front of
different audiences
(5) emotional contagion, or how shared emotions can lead to
social change.
Hochschild and Emotion Work
Emotion Work: the management of one’s own feelings in an
effort to maintain the well being of a relationship. Also
involves the orientation of self to others to fit with accepted
norms of emotional expression.
Types of Emotion Work: Evoking emotion and Suppressing

3. emotion
Techniques involved in Emotion Work: Cognitive, Bodily,
Emotion
Emotion Labour: The same as emotional work but rather
emotions are regulated by workers because of expectations to
display certain emotions as part of their job.
Feeling Rules: they shape the appropriate emotions for a given
role or specific situation. Our emotions are not always private
and specific emotions may demanded of us on certain occasions.
Idea: “fake it till you make it” . The reactions of others tells us
if we have the correct emotions for a given role or situation.
Q: What are the feeling rules for being a mourner at a funeral?
Q: What are some gendered feeling rules?
Q: What about feeling rules with particular occupational roles?
(eg. Military personnel, flight attendants, bill collector,
professor)
Emotional labour can lead to estrangement from self;
commercialization of our feelings.
Goffman
Goffman believed that meaning is constructed through
interaction. His approach, dramaturgy, compares social
interaction to the theater, where individuals take on roles and
act them out to present a favorable impression to their “
audience. ”
Goffman sees social life as a sort of game, where we work to
control the impressions others have of us, a process he called
impression management.
Interactions: put on a show as individuals or in teams; give
performances by enacting parts/routines; making use of setting,
props, costumes; moving back and forth between front and back
stages.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qe5TI__ZDUhttps://www.

4. youtube.com/watch?v=X30GC-Da67Q
Embarrassment
It is a social emotion
Understandings of Embarrassment (pg. 40)
Goffman, Garfinkel
(Pg. 40-1) Situations of embarrassment (inconsistent identity,
mistaken identity, unsupported identities).
(Pg. 41) Typology: individual behaviours, interactive behaviors,
audience provocations, bystander behaviors.
(Pg. 42) Dealing with embarrassment: escape, account for it,
humour; theatrical team mates help us out.
Q: How is blushing an example of Cooley’s “looking glass
self”?
Audio Clip: https://beta.prx.org/stories/39117
Shyness
It is a social emotion
The shy “I” and the shy “Me”
“emerges from (social) interaction when a person anticipates
giving an incompetent performance that will lead to criticism,
embarrassment and rejection (Scott, 44).”
Dramaturgical strategies for dealing with shyness: passing,
disguising, using side involvements of involvement shields.
Q: Explain shyness as deviance.
Wade Article
– TV commercials and Emotions
Stjepan Meštrović describes contemporary Western societies as

5. post-emotional. What does he mean by that?
Describe the role of the media in terms of feeding us a “daily
diet of phoniness”.
What really concerns Meštrović about a post-emotional society?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdnFvPamz54
Q: After watching this commerical, are you performing
emotions as Meštrović suggests? Is your emotional reaction
scripted?
The Sociology of Everyday Life
Lecture 4: Topics in the Sociology of Everyday Life
Identities: The Social Construction of Gender and Race
Identities
How are identities constructed?
Dalton Conley on “the paradox of gender”
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBoKJrygPVQ&list=PL1175
43344E3BE8DB
Dalton Conley on “the social construction of race”
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qaWp8_z81w&list=PLyzZ
DPiiUMOrGBurktpyQGRPBtxksLz6P&index=8
The Social Construction of Gender
Sex vs Gender
- What are the categories of sex?

6. Sex considered a biological reality (i.e. physiology, hormones,
genitalia, DNA). Categories of sex = male/female (dominant
binary); intersexed, third gender. Examples.
-What are the social categories of gender?
masculine/feminine, a social/cultural construct – meaning not a
static, natural concept.
What about sexual identity / sexual orientation?
- Debate about origin, dominant categories of
heterosexuality/homosexuality/bisexuality; sexuality viewed as
a continuum.
What are challenges to the binaries of male/female;
masculine/feminine; and hetero/homosexuality/and bisexuality?
What about theory – structural functionalism, conflict, and
symbolic interactionism on gender?
Resource: http://othersociologist.com/sociology-of-gender/
The Social Construction of Gender
Goffman, dramaturgical metaphor “performing gender”
“Doing Gender” concept (West & Zimmerman 1987): Gender is
accomplished in interaction with others.
-“Accomplished” by providing cues that are consistent with
normative expectations for masculinity and femininity
–Contextual –Norm violations are “policed”
-Gender culturally understood as an “oppositional dichotomy”
-Doing gender means –Creating differences between boys &
girls and women & men that are not natural
–Using the socially constructed differences to reinforce the
notion that gender (rather than sex) is “natural” or essentially
derived. Multiple ways of doing gender even for the same sex.
Judith Butler, gender as performative
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc

7. The Social Construction of Gender
Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber
Gender is a construct: elements of sameness and difference. It
functions as a major element of identity, a shared status with
others. But differences reinforce power imbalance, oppression,
and systems of inequality and violence.
Gender hierarchies, R.W. Connell and hegemonic masculinities
and emphasized femininities.
Lorber: Gender bending: it reinforces gender
Q: Can you think of a breaching experiment to illustrate the
socially constructed nature of gender ideals?
Gender and Language
Raskoff article in Sternheimer
Language conveys meanings: power, values, norms
Power: masculine-rooted words have powerful meaning eg.
seminal
use of female pronouns and ownership, i.e. women often adopt
the husband’s name. eg. ‘Mr.’ vs “Mrs.” and “Ms.”
Traditionally feminine terms are more likely to change to
negative meanings than their masculine counterparts. Eg.
The Masculine is the neutral eg. Mankind
Pg. 207, “Talk about it” # 4 and “Write about it,” #1.
“Metrosexuality”
What is metrosexuality? Describe it, i.e. components.

8. Examples in popular culture/media?
How does metrosexuality challenge gender norms?
Barber article, Everyday Sociology blog
See: http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2009/03/the-
metrosexual-men-and-beauty.html
Pg. 207, “Write about it” # 2 and 3.
The Social Construction of Race
Categories of Race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnfKgffCZ7U
Race : A social construct that artificially divides people based
on characteristics such as physical appearance (especially skin
color), ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation and history, and
the social/economic/political needs of the society doing the
defining of race at any given time.
Ethnicity: A subset of Racial categories. A social construct that
divides people into even smaller groups based on characteristics
such as shared sense of group membership, behavioural
patterns, language, political and economic interests, and
ancestral geographic base.
Race as a Social Construction: Race is not a natural, fixed, or
biological but rather is a social and legal construct. Race has
not been constructed neutrally, but instead coercively as an
ideological tool.
-Physical anthropology research shows that there is just as much
diversity within ‘racial groups’ as there is between ‘racial
groups’ –
-But racial difference continues to play a huge role in social life
insofar as who has power (or access to resources)
-for Omi and Winant, the concept of “racial formation” refers to
“the socio-historical process by which racial categories are
created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.” Racial
categories have been created by white Europeans and North
Americans and used to justify colonialism, slavery, genocide,

9. murder, and theft of cultures. Racial categories artificially
emphasize relatively small eternal physical differences among
people and open up space for the creation of false notions of
mental, emotional, and intellectual differences as well.
Racial Formation
Examples of racial formation: one-drop rule, Native Canadians
As everyday experience (quote on pg. 215)
Pg. 241 “Write about it” #5
Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory: examines the relationship between race,
racism and power in varying contexts including economics,
history, interactions (i.e. identifies; emotions); Inherent
activism to transform racial hierarchies and challenge dominant
ideologies.
Tenets of theory:
-The Permanence & Pervasiveness of Racism
-Whiteness as Property/Privilege
-Race as a Social Construction
-Intersectionality
Interactionist Perspective focuses on the social construction of
racial and ethnic differences and the subordination of minority
groups, through racial language and labels.
Social Constructionists working in the field of race study:
Racialized socialization; social interaction containing messages
and practices about the nature of racialized groups, i.e. Personal
and group identity; Inter-group and individual relationships;
race and racism in language and symbols.

10. Race and Language
Language conveys meanings: power, values, norms
Language for Racial groups
-Finding respectful language, self-identified labels vs language
used by oppressor. Examples.
Examples of racism in the English Language
Q: Other examples?
Racial and Cultural Appropriation
Raskoff online article
How does Raskoff explain “appropriation”?
Explore the differences between “passing as Black” and
“passing as White”? Reflect on ideas of performance and
Goffman here.
Rachel Dolezal Case
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B24Bbsf3U4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7146sy0AZdE
Critics of Dolezal claim that she is engaging in racial
appropriation. However, as evident in the clip, Dolezal
identifies as “transracial”. What are your thoughts on this?
- As well, comparisons have been made between transracial and
transgender identities. What are your thoughts?
The Sociology of Everyday Life
Lecture 3: Methodologies of Everyday Life

11. Research Methods in Sociology
The purpose of sociology is to answer questions about social
life and the social world. In order to do this, sociologists
develop theories, which is a general explanation of how or why
social life follows the pattern it does. Sociologists try to ensure
that their theories are based on sound evidence. Sociologists
have a variety of different methods that they use to gather
information about society.
Research Methods are approaches to inquiry used to describe,
explore, and explain social realities.
Used to collect numerical information or information that can
be converted into numerical data; i.e. statistical analyses
utilizing independent and dependent variables,
- Positivist research model, objective/detached; early
sociologists and functionalist approach (i.e. study society like
you would approach
Qualitative Me
Used to collect information that is not readily convertible into
numerical data; ‘versthen’ and interpretivist model.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Types of Data – Primary
Primary Data: collected ‘first hand’ and typically done within
groups or society to test a hypothesis for one’s own research
purposes.
Methods for Gathering Primary Data include surveys and
questionnaires, field work (including interviews and participant

12. observation; ethnography).
Advantages: Applicable, usable; accurate and reliable (can
answer research Q’s directly); current.
Disadvantages: Time-consuming; involved; accessible; issues of
accessibility; ethical issues
Types of Data – Secondary:
Secondary data is collected and created by others for their
purposes. The data is used by sociologists as it is available,
accessible, cost-effective, and covers large numbers (i.e. sample
size).
Sources of Secondary Data include official statistics conducted
by governments, think tanks, businesses, not-for-profits;
existing documents such as letters, diaries, photos, novels and
books, offical documents (i.e. government, policy), media –
newspapers, tv, online content, and the research of others
including other sociologists.
Methods of Secondary Data include quantitative statistical
analyses, document/content analysis.
Advantages: Cost-effective, accessible, readily available, can
provide background and help to clarify or refine research
problem (necessary for a literature review), and in so doing,
alert the researcher to any potential difficulties.
Disadvantages: can be out-dated (i.e. census data); potentially
unreliable (if source is in question or questionable); fit or
applicability (the data might not answer your exact research
Q’s); lack of availability (no specific data available to answer
your research Q’s).
Research Process

13. Define the problem
Review the literature
Forumlate a hypothesis
Select a Research Design
Report the Findings
Methods: Carry out the research
Analysis: Interpret the Results
Discussion and Conclusions

14. Research Methods in the Sociology of Everyday Life
How do we ‘do’ the sociology of everyday life?
The field of “making the familiar strange” lends itself to
specific methodologies.
- Roots in The Chicago School of Sociology (1917-1942 and
beyond); apathy towards positivist methods of the funtionalists;
desire to understand/explain the social problems of urban
Chicago.
Saw field research and observational methods as key to
understanding the city.
Robert Park quote
Ethnography
“is a methodological approach that is often used by
interpretivists. It aims to develop an ‘insider’s’ perspective. It
may involve a combination of methods, such as interviews,
participant observation and documentary analysis (Scott, 2009:
208).
Anthropology: Social Anthropology and Malinowski
Ethnography as a methodological approach, in order to fully

15. understand another culture, the researcher has to be become a
participant (live among) to understand the daily lives of the
group/culture.
Ethics and Politics of moral relativism vs cultural relativism,
ethnocentrism.
Ethnography in Detail
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIzz3DlEWQ
Key terms: immersion, field research, symbolic interactionist
focus on the meaning-making of social actors, ‘insider-status’ to
acquire insider information, doing sociology from the ground
up, reflexivity in research role, social actors in their natural
settings-authentic social relations in context.
Research methods in ethnography: interviews (formal and
informal); participant observation (varying degrees = Complete
participant to Participant-as-Observer to Observer-as-
Participant to Complete Observer, continuum of
subjectivity/objectivity and involvement/detachment);
documentary and content analysis.
Data sources in ethnography: interview transcripts, field notes,
and visual and virtual data.
Data analysis: highlight coding
Challenges of Ethnography
Examples of Ethnography
Venkatesh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRq1AhFAN-4
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2014/05/26/reading-list-
ethnography/

16. Tutorial
Wright article, pg. 23 # 3
Q: Apply the theoretical terms from the varying schools of
Symbolic Interactionist thought on sitting… reflect on this
question but instead of just hypothesizing why people sit where
they do, utilize the concepts from last week as we did with the
social aspects of driving.
Best article, pg. 23 # 3
Q: What are the main points that Best makes about “scary
statistics”?
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BllJsfm7FuE
What does this tell us about social research?
The Sociology of Everyday
Lecture 2: Theorizing about Everyday Life
Let’s begin with the basics…
What is sociology?
-Sociology can be broadly defined as the study of human social
life, a tool towards understanding the social world.
-Think about ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions: How has society
shaped you; what institutions have formed you and how have
they done so/continue to do so; why do we do what we do
(through the lens of the sociological perspective)?
What is the sociological perspective?
-a perspective on human behaviour and its connection to society
as a whole. It invites us to look for the connections between the
behaviour of individual people and the structures of the society
in which they live.

17. -in so doing, we can collect data, make observations, establish
patterns/connections that can help us both understand and
confront problems associated with society.
- Connect to sociological imagination
What’s a theory?
-comprises a set of interrelated concepts, definitions and
propositions
-presents a systemic view of phenomena by specifying relations
among variables
aims to explain and predict these phenomena
Watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psJk0dW2fPc
What is social theory?
Sociological theories:
-explain ‘how and why’, connect the public and private, macro
and micro.
-provide us with a fuller understanding of human social
behaviour(s)
-allow us to make predictions about future behaviour and events
- assist us in making suggestions for interventions or social
change
Branches of Sociological Theory
SOCIOLOGY

18. Macro (Structural Theories)
Structural Functionalism
(Consensus)
(Positivist)
Conflict Theory
Micro (Interpretivist Theories)
Symbolic Interactionism
Standpoint
Theory
Dramaturgy
Ethnomethodology
Phenomenology
Marxism
Critical Race Theories

19. Feminism
Dominant Sociological FrameworksTheoryStructural
FunctionalismConflict TheorySymbolic InteractionismView of
SocietyObjective, positivist, stable, cohesiveObjective,
hierarchical, fragmentedSubjective, focus on the interpretation
(social meaning) given to behaviour, and on the way such

20. interpretation helps to construct the social world, the identities
of people, and, ultimately how they behave; concerned with the
way in which meaning is constructed.Relationship of Individual
to SocietyIndividuals occupy fixed social rolesIndividuals
subordinated to societyIndividual and society are
interdependentView of InequalityInevitable, functional for
societyResult of struggle over scarce resourcesInequality
demonstrated through meaning of status symbolsBasis of Social
OrderConsensus among pubic on common valuesPower,
coercionCollective meaning systems, society created through
social interactionSource of Social ChangeSocial disorganization
and adjustment to achieve equilibrium, change is
gradualStruggle, competitionEver-changing web of
interpersonal relationships and changing meaning of
thingsCriticismsA conservative view of society that underplays
power differences among and between groupsUnderstates the
degree of cohesion and stability in societyHas a weak analysis
of inequality and tends to ignore material differences between
groups in society, overstates that subjective basis of society
The Emergence of ‘Everyday life’
The concept first appears in social thought in the 1920s
- a socially-levelling aspect to the concept
- Weber, the “disenchantment of the world”
Early philosophical uses
Lukacs, Simmel (English translation) and Heidegger
Sociological uses
- Growing dissatisfaction with structural functionalism
Interpretivist Sociology
Early work in Symbolic Interactionism

21. Emerged in opposition/response to Positivism
Weber: distinction between action and behaviour, role of
sociology is interpret social action (i.e. that which has meanings
and motivations)
Tool of verstehen
Further developed by Winch – relativism in research
Q: How does this differ from the methods of structural
functionalists?
Q: Describe ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, can you
think of some examples?
Simmel: individuals interact in regular, patterned ways; process
of “sociation”
Symbolic Interactionism
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
‘I’ vs ‘me’
Main ideas: The social self is composed of an active “I” that is
independent of particular situations and a receptive “Me” that is
situated and responsive. The shape of “Me” is composed of the
messages we receive by using others as mirrors of the self.
Herbert Blumer (1900–1987), Mead's student, built upon his
work and popularized the theory.
-coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and identified its
Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they
The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the
These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an
interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the
things he/she encounters (Blumer 1969).
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) “The looking glass self”

22. Identity consists of three elements:
How actors imagine they appear
How actors belief others judge their appearance
How actors develop feelings of shame or pride, feelings that
become an inner guide to behaviour. The social self was the
cause of social behaviour. Concept of the “looking glass self”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU0BQUa11ek
Phenomenology
Alfred Schutz (1899-1959) German social philosopher who left
Nazi Germany for the U.S. He taught at New School for Social
research in NY 1952 – 1959.
-Developed phenomenology by integrating social philosophy
with Weber’s verstehen.
-Focus on the “life-world” and intersubjectivity. We both create
our life-world and are constrained by it; a dialectical process.
-the study of how social actors interpret social phenomena, i.e.
our knowledge of the social world is created through
‘intersubjective agreement’. We then create a sort of template,
use our “recipe knowledge” with the “key ingredients” or
“typifications” of a situation.
-it is a form of “social constructionism”, i.e. our social reality
is a socially constructed system of ideas which has accumulated
over time and is taken for granted by individuals. So it appears
as ‘natural’ and we don’t question it.
Phenomenology
Berger and Luckmann: The Social Construction of Reality
(1966), is one of the most important phenomenological works.
It looks at the “processes by which any body of ‘knowledge’
comes to be socially accepted as ‘reality’. Berger studied under
Schutz.

23. -Everyday reality is a socially constructed system.
-our understanding, significance and meaning are created not
within the individual, but in coordination with other human
beings.
– Human beings rationalize their experiences by creating a
model of the social world and how it works.
– Language is the essential system to help us establish that
reality. What we believe is real is shaped by our social
interactions and our life experiences with other people.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4E0jBHS1N8
W.I Thomas, “If a person perceives a situation as real, it is real
in its consequences.” As such, our behavior depends not on the
objective reality of a situation but on our subjective
interpretation of reality. The consequences and results of
behavior make it real. Eg. A self-fulfilling prophecy
Video on Social Constructionism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVVWmZAStn8
Ethnomethodology
The study of the commonsense knowledge people use to
understand situations. Sociologist Harold Garfinkel (1967)
initiated this approach and coined the term: ethno for “people”
and methodology for “a system of methods.”
He was critical of mainstream sociology for not recognizing the
ongoing ways in which people create reality and produce their
own world.
Ethnomethodologists are interested in disturbing the normal
situations of interaction to uncover taken-for- granted rules.
Takes place in casual, non-institutionalized settings such as the
home.
Concepts of indexicality and reflexivity
Methods usually include open-ended or in-depth interviews,
participant observation, videotaping, documentary, and
ethnomethodological experiments, often called breaching

24. experiments.
Ethnomethodology
Breaching Experiments
-A breaching experiment is a controlled social situation in
which individuals involved intentionally break social rules and
violate basic norms and patterns of behaviour.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeGk-NPXu7c
Group Work: In small groups, design your own breaching
experiment.
Q: What are the norms being broken; how are they being
violated; how do you expect the unsuspecting people in the
experiment will react; what does your experiment tell you about
the power of social norms and rules?
Dramaturgy
Erving Goffman (1922-1982), a major scholarly contributor to
social thought in sociology. Best Known Works: Presentation
of Self in Everyday Life (1959), Asylums (1961), Stigma
(1963), Interaction Ritual (1967), Gender Advertisements
(1976).
Dramaturgical theory makes use of concepts that parallel those
of stage performances: roles, props, scenes, etc. People project
images of themselves on the social stage to be seen in particular
ways and to achieve particular ends.
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life focuses on
“impression management” The script that people follow to
control how others see them. The motivation for script
adherence is avoidance of shame or embarrassment.
Front stage vs. back stage illustrates how public behaviour is a
performance.
Concepts of “involvement shields”, “in-face”, “facework

25. strategies”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z0XS-QLDWM
Goffman and Stigma
Stigma is defined as a sign of disgrace or discredit, which sets a
person apart from others (Bryne, 2000). Goffman (1963) defined
stigma as the process by which the reaction of others spoils
repetition which is socially discrediting in a particular way; it
causes an individual to be mentally classified by others in an
undesirable, rejected or stereotyped rather than in an accepted
normal one.
Quote, pg. 134 in Scott.
- Think about discrediting vs. discreditable types of stigma and
provide some examples.
Dramaturgy
Arlie Russell Hochschild (1940- ) The Managed Heart:
Commercialization of Human Feeling (1983) –First sociological
study of emotion; The Second Shift: Working Parents and the
Revolution at Home (1989); The Time Bind: When Work
Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work (1997).
Emotional Labour “..the management of feeling to create a
publicly observable facial and bodily display; emotional labor is
sold for a wage and therefore has exchange value. I use the
synonymous terms emotion work or emotional management to
refer to these same acts done in a private context where they
have use value.” (Hochschild, 1983)
Characteristics of Emotional Labour include:
worker has face-to-face or voice-to- voice contact with the
public
as part of the job, worker required to produce an emotional state

26. in another person
employer has the power to exercise a degree of control over the
emotional activities of employees.
Emotional Dissonance is when people who do emotional labour
suffer from the strain of pretending not to feel what they are
really feeling. To cope with this, people try to change what
they feel or to change what they pretend to feel.
Importance of Hochschild’s Work: Other theories neglect or
downplay the role of emotion and as such, Hochschild adds this
dimension to symbolic interactionist theory. Feminist
orientation as much of emotional work is done by women. In
our culture, emotion is considered irrational and linked to
women, her work places emotion as an object of rational study
and demystifies the so-called ‘feminine’ quality of emotion.
Standpoint Theory
Positionality describes how we are socially positioned in
relation to each other. –
-One’s social location shaped by differences- -race, class,
gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and physical
abilities i.e. I’m a woman, of Mexican descent, upper class, and
deaf i.e. I’m a White Canadian male who is in a committed
relationship with another man, educated, from working class,
and non-religious
Standpoint is a place from which to view and make sense of the
world. i.e. Your positionality gives you a particular standpoint.
Furthermore we have different realities depending on the
position from which to view it.
-Interestingly, people with less power in society often have a
fuller and more comprehensive view of the world i.e with
insights into both the dominant and marginalized view.
Standpoint Theory refers to how we see, experience, and
understand the world quite differently based on our different

27. standpoints and positionalities.
-Knowledge about ourselves and others is always situated and
partial.
-knowledge is always and inevitably connected to power.
Therefore, oppositional standpoints can be formed to challenge
and contest the status quo.
Feminist Standpoint Theory
Dorothy Smith, “The Everyday World as Problematic” (1987) –
founded the feminist standpoint theory which looked at the
social world from the perspective of women in their everyday
worlds and the ways in which women socially construct their
worlds. A Feminist Standpoint is essential to examining the
systemic oppressions in a society that standpoint feminists
claims devalues women’s knowledge.
Standpoint feminism makes the case that women have a unique
perspective given the gendered power imbalance, i.e. hold
different knowledge than men. As a subordinated group, women
can see and understand the world in ways that are different and
challenging to the existing male-biased conventional wisdom.
Given the gendered division of labour, women are charged with
maintaining everyday life. To overlook that fact or to downplay
it, is to deny women’s reality.
New Sociologies of Everyday Life
Overcome the shortcomings of traditional Symbolic
Interactionism
Recall: “Has a weak analysis of inequality and tends to ignore
material differences between groups in society, overstates that
subjective basis of society.”
Lefebvre & de Certeau argue for a critical analysis of everyday
life in terms of its ritual practices, mechanisms of control and

28. opportunities for resistance.
Tutorial Portion:
Small Group Discussion Part I
Pg. 80 in Sternheimer, Questions #1 and 2
Small Group Discussion Part II: Symbolic Interactionism on the
Road
“Driving is both an individual and social process (Sterheimer,
2011)”
Describe some individual aspects to driving (i.e. think about
preferences and individual reasons for driving).
Describe some of the social processes (i.e. think about reasons
for one’s “choices” related to driving).
Reflect on the idea of creating a sense of self through driving
and critically examining driving through varying interpretivist
frameworks. Relate some of the course concepts of today to
driving (i.e. Mead’s ‘I’ and ‘me’; Goffman’s dramaturgical
metaphor; Cooley’s the looking –glass self, Schutz’s recipe
knowledge and typifications; phenomenological concept of
reified social facts; Garfinkel’s indexicality; Garfinkel’s
breaching experiments; standpoint theory; stigma).
How To Write Field Notes:
*(500 words, a hard copy to Prof G and a copy for your journal)
Ethnographers engage in participant observation in order to gain
insight into
cultural practices and phenomena. These insights develop over

29. time and
through repeated analysis of many aspects of our fieldsites. To
facilitate this
process, ethnographers must learn how to take useful and
reliable notes
regarding the details of life in their research contexts. These
fieldnotes will
constitute a major part of the data on which later conclusions
will be based.
Fieldnotes should be written as soon as possible after leaving
the fieldsite,
immediately if possible. Even though we may not think so
when we are
participating and observing, we are all very likely to forget
important details
unless we write them down very quickly. Since this may be
very time-consuming,
students should plan to leave a block of time for writing just
after leaving the
research context.
Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein (1997) have developed a list of
what should be
included in all fieldnotes:
1. Date, time, and place of observation
2. Specific facts, numbers, details of what happens at the site
3. Sensory impressions: sights, sounds, textures, smells, taste
4. Personal responses to the fact of recording fieldnotes
5. Specific words, phrases, summaries of conversations, and
insider language
6. Questions about people or behaviors at the site for future
investigation
7. Page numbers to help keep observations in order
There are 4 major parts of fieldnotes, which should be kept
distinct from one

30. another in some way when we are writing them:
1. Jottings are the brief words or phrases written down while at
the fieldsite or in
a situation about which more complete notes will be written
later. Usually
recorded in a small notebook, jottings are intended to help us
remember things
we want to include when we write the full-fledged notes. While
not all research
situations are appropriate for writing jottings all the time, they
do help a great deal
when sitting down to write afterwards.
2. Description of everything we can remember about the
occasion you are writing
about - a meal, a ritual, a meeting, a sequence of events, etc.
While it is useful to
focus primarily on things you did or observed which relate to
the guiding
question, some amount of general information is also helpful.
This information
might help in writing a general description of the site later, but
it may also help to
link related phenomena to one another or to point our useful
research directions
later.
3. Analysis of what you learned in the setting regarding your
guiding question and
other related points. This is how you will make links between
the details
described in section 2 above and the larger things you are

31. learning about how
culture works in this context. What themes can you begin to
identify regarding
your guiding question? What questions do you have to help
focus your
observation on subsequent visits? Can you begin to draw
preliminary
connections or potential conclusions based on what you
learned?
4. Reflection on what you learned of a personal nature. What
was it like for you
to be doing this research? What felt comfortable for you about
being in this site
and what felt uncomfortable? In what ways did you connect
with informants, and
in what ways didn't you? While this is extremely important
information, be
especially careful to separate it from analysis.
Methods of writing fieldnotes can be very personal, and we are
all likely to
develop ways of including and separating the above four parts
which work for us
but might not work for others. However, to give an idea of how
some others have
done it, included here are excerpted examples of actual
fieldnotes written by
students.
Example #1: an ethnography of waitresses in an all-night diner.
Notice how the
writer, Reah Johnson, keeps description separate from analysis
by italicizing the
analysis of this specific incident. Further analysis of the entire
sequence of

32. events (only a portion of which are included here) are kept
separate from
description and analysis by adding an extra section at the end.
"Two men came into the restaurant with the intent of trying to
sell things to the
customers. They each have plastic sacks filled with random
objects that they are
showing to the customers in the bar area. Bernie sees them
from where she is
sitting with Jay. She stands up and asks one of them, 'Are you
buy'n somethin'
baby?' The man gives Bernice a mean look and she tells them
they both can
leave, adding, 'I done you a favor.' The man Bernie spoke
directly to turns to his
friend and says something negative while making a gesture
towards Bernie.
'Don't take it personal,' she tells him. 'Well I did,' he yells
back. As the two men
walk out of the diner, Bernie warns them not to get her upset.
After they are
gone she lights a cigarette and says out loud, 'I ain't gonna be
get'n hurt by this
dumb shit.' Jay has been sitting still and has said nothing
throughout this entire
encounter. I was amazed at how Bernie handles the two men
and she did so
entirely by herself, without the help of any male employee in
the diner. Her
language accomplished two things. Firstly, she avoided taking
the role of an
uncompassionate member of her establishment by claiming, ' I
done you a favor.'
In this respect it might also be argued she was protecting her
reputation.

33. Secondly, her language managed to serve as self-protection
when she said 'I
ain't gonna be get'n hurt by this dumb shit.' Bernie, like Debbie
also revealed in
her interview, doesn't let herself get hurt by others."
Further analysis: "A lot took place in regards to protection. ...
I have heard
many of the graveyard shift waitresses at St. George's comment
on how the
cooks are always there to protect them, but in this case it seems
they were there
solely to take the credit for protecting the waitresses. Bernie is,
however, a very
unique waitress in the way she powerfully expresses herself.
Perhaps the events
of this evening unfolded the way they did because of Bernie's
strong and
unyielding character."
Example # 2: an ethnography of an adult English as a Second
Language class
by Hallie Mittleman. Hallie, too, chooses to italicize analysis.
"In order to encourage the other students to speak, Karen (the
teacher) asks
them about their favorite American movies, or alternatively
their favorite
American tv shows. ... Borach (new class tonight, Turkish)
says that he feels
that American movies are very important in portraying
American relationships
and politics for the world. But Alison, motioning to Joanna
when she speaks,

34. points out that the difference between TV and real life is
significant. She speaks
of the glamour and wealth portrayed on Dynasty and describes
how this is
definitely not real life and Joanna nods her head in agreement.
Borach attempts
to illustrate this point by describing a movie he watched about
Vietnam. He says
that watching this movie was key in his understanding of
American history. He
then speaks to Memet, who is Turkish, in Turkish and says (to
the group that)
only one or two Turkish movies are produced and released
internationally every
year. Joanna is asked about Polish movies and their
international release, and
together Joanna and Alison say, 'of course, Roman Polansky'."
"Discussion
of material culture is often, as in this case, labeled 'American.'
These goods
enforce a 'here vs. there' dichotomy, because if something is
labeled as
'American' there must be a contrast to what is not American.
Although there
could be multiple constructions of what is 'not American'
through constantly
asking students to define the American product in terms of
'what x is like in your
country', categories of what culture can be are defined in terms
of American
cultural categories. Additionally, a notion of difference is
always implied if
something is labeled 'American'; because there is something
(product z)
American, there must therefore be a corresponding, but
necessarily different

35. product z in 'your' country. 'Your country' is becoming a
category possessing
something analogous but different."
References
Chiseri-Strater, Elizabeth and Bonnie Stone Sunstein 1997
FieldWorking:
Reading and Writing Research. Pp. 73. Blair Press: Upper
Saddle River, NJ.
Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw 1995
Writing
Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Sanjek, Roger, ed. 1990 Fieldnotes: The Makings of
Anthropology. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press.
THE SOCIOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Observation Assignment
This assignment is worth 30% of your final grade.
Due: March at the beginning of class.
Objectives: The objective of this assignment is to hone research
skills, make observations of social worlds and specifically
social interactions, and to use your sociological imagination
through applying critical analyses with key concepts/theories

36. from the course to everyday life situations.
This assignment gives you the opportunity “to do” sociology.
Description: This assignment has three parts.
First, you will conduct two sessions of observation at public
sites. You may choose two different sites or conduct fieldwork
at the same site at two different times. You should plan to
spend a minimum of one hour at each site but two hours is
recommend.
Second, you will take detailed field notes (either
handwritten or typed on a laptop) of your site sessions. You
will be handing these notes in so please ensure they are legible!
Third, you will write a report on your research findings.
Instructions:
Select a Site: You will be conducting fieldwork in public
settings to which you have open access. The sites include:
transit station, shopping mall, grocery store,
cafeteria/restaurant/coffee shop, and library. You may make
observations of social interactions in the same setting (i.e. on
different dates and say at different times for comparative
purposes) or you may make observations at different sites (i.e. a
cafeteria and library on the same campus) or similar settings in
different locations (i.e. two different transit stations). Be
purposeful when it comes to site selection.
Participant Observation: You are a participant observer at these
sites. Specifically, you are a complete observer along the
continuum of participant observation. This means that while
you are in plain sight in a public setting, the public being
studied is unaware of your observation/research. The
observation however, is unobtrusive and unknown to
participants.

37. Having said that, ethical guidelines are still very much
important here.
Taking Field Notes: While conducting your observations, you
should take detailed field notes or descriptions of the site,
setting, behaviours, and social interactions.
Analysis & Report:
This report is not a formal paper, it is a write-up that will have
the following sections -
An introduction that provides all of the background to this
observation exercise.
1. Describe the setting (the physical layout, the social actors) in
which you conducted your observations. Your description
should be succinct yet detailed enough to provide a full picture
of the setting. Be sure to mention when and for how long you
carried out your observations.
2. Explain why you chose this setting. If you had a general idea
of what you were looking for (or a specific hypothesis) you
should include this in this section.
3. Discuss any problems/challenges which you encountered in
doing your observation (i.e., anything that made it difficult for
you to collect information).
Presentation of Findings
i) Discuss your findings on social interaction.
Think about the following questions as you analyze your
findings:
· What was the nature of the social interaction? What patterns
did you observe (for example, verbal, non-verbal
communication, use of space, etc.)?
· What were some different types of interaction (e.g.,
acknowledgment of strangers)?

38. · What "rules" or "implicit social theories" seemed to exist
among participants?
· What information (e.g., social categories [sex, age, race,
class], setting) seemed to be important in determining the
behaviour of the participants you observed?
· Can you develop categories or "types" of interaction?
· What did you believe were the most important aspects of the
interactions which you observed?
Utilize sociological concepts (e.g., from the course materials) to
explain what you observed. BE SURE TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR
ANALYSIS WITH EXAMPLES FROM YOUR
OBSERVATIONS.
Conclusions
i) Summarize your main points. What were your most important
findings? Explain.
ii) Can you generalize from your observations to other settings
or to social behaviour in general (for example, what ideas from
an analysis of behaviour in a supermarket might be applicable
to behaviour in other settings?)? What have you learned about
human social behaviour? Has your research given you any new
insights into the social forces which shape your own
behaviour(s)?
iii) What suggestions could you make for future research (what
ideas could you suggest for a follow-up project)?
Reflections on the Research Role
i) Reflect on the role of complete observer and ‘doing’
fieldwork/’doing sociology’.
ii) Does being out in the field deepen your understanding of the
sociological perspective/imagination? Explain.
*There is no outside research required for this paper beyond the
additional readings found under “Observation Assignment”
* The report should be 8-10 pages (not including your

39. bibliography or field notes).
* The report should use headings and sub-headings.
Evaluation: This assignment will be graded upon the quality of
the presentation (structure, organization of thought, legibility
and comprehensiveness of field notes; spelling & grammar) as
well as upon the quality of the analysis (ability to utilize course
theories and concepts in meaningful and insightful ways).
Grading as follows:
Field notes ___ 10
Written Report _____ 7 (quality of presentation)
_____ 20 (presentation and analysis of findings)
_____ 18 (conclusions)
_____ 5 (reflections on the research process)
Total ____ 60 pts
**NOTE: Please use my office hours to ask questions of this
assignment and to check in with me to ensure that you are on
the right track.
THE
SOCIOLOGY
OF
EVERYDAY
LIFE
Observation
Assignment
This
assignment
is
worth
30%
of

40. your
final
grade.
Due:
March
at
the
beginning
of
class.
Objectives:
The
objective
of
this
assignment
is
to
hone
research
skills,
make
observations
of
social
worlds
and
specifically
social
interactions,
and
to
use
your
sociological
imagination

41. through
applying
critical
analyses
with
key
concepts/theories
from
the
course
to
everyday
life
situations.
This
assignment
gives
you
the
opportunity
“
to
do
”
sociology.
Description
:
This
assignment
has
three
parts.
First,
you
will
conduct

42. two
sessions
of
observation
at
public
sites.
You
may
choose
two
different
sites
or
conduct
fieldwork
at
the
same
site
at
two
different
times.
You
should
plan
to
spend
a
minimum
of
one
hour
at
each

43. site
but
two
hours
is
recommend.
Second,
you
will
take
detailed
field
notes
(either
handwritten
or
typed
on
a
laptop)
of
your
site
sessions.
You
will
be
handing
these
notes
in
so
please
ensure
they
are

44. legible!
Third,
you
will
write
a
report
on
your
research
findings.
Instructions
:
Select
a
Site
:
You
will
be
conducting
fieldwork
in
public
settings
to
which
you
have
open
access.
The
sites
include:
transit
station,

45. shopping
mall,
grocery
store,
cafeteria/restaurant/coffee
shop,
and
library.
You
may
make
observations
of
social
interactions
in
the
same
setting
(i.e.
on
different
dates
and
say
at
different
times
for
comparative
purposes)
or
you
may
make
observations

46. at
different
sites
(i.e.
a
cafeteria
and
library
on
the
same
campus)
or
similar
settings
in
different
locations
(i.e.
two
different
transit
stations).
Be
purposeful
when
it
comes
to
site
selection.
Participant
Observation
:
You
are

47. a
participant
observer
at
these
sites.
Specifically,
you
are
a
complete
observer
along
the
continuum
of
participant
observation.
This
means
that
while
you
are
in
plain
sight
in
a
public
setting,
the
public
being
studied
is

48. unaware
of
your
observation/research.
The
observation
however,
is
unobtrusive
and
unknown
to
participants.
Having
said
that,
ethical
guidelines
are
still
very
much
important
here.
Taking
Field
Notes
:
While
conducting
your
observations,
you
should
take
detailed

49. field
notes
or
descriptions
of
the
site,
setting,
behaviours,
and
social
interactions.
Analysis
&
Report
:
This
report
is
not
a
formal
paper,
it
is
a
write-up
that
will
have
the
following
sections
-
An
introduction

50. that
provides
all
of
the
background
to
this
observation
exercise.
1.
Describe
the
setting
(the
physical
layout,
the
social
actors)
in
which
you
conducted
your
observations.
Your
description
should
be
succinct
yet
detailed
enough
to
provide

51. a
full
picture
of
the
setting.
Be
sure
to
mention
when
and
for
how
long
you
carried
out
your
observations.
2.
Explain
why
you
chose
this
setting.
If
you
had
a
general
idea
of
what
you

52. were
looking
for
(or
a
specific
hypothesis)
you
should
include
this
in
this
section.
3.
Discuss
any
problems/challenges
which
you
encountered
in
doing
your
observation
(i.e.,
anything
that
made
it
difficult
for
you
to
collect
information).

53. Presentation
of
Findings
i)
Discuss
your
findings
on
social
interaction.
Gattaca Movie Assignment
Be sure to answer all parts of the question. Most questions can
be answered from your text, but some concepts you will need to
use the Internet to find more information about them, or read
additional materials I have provided for you. The more detailed
the answer the more points you will receive. Each question is
worth 10 points and will be subjectively graded based on how
well I think you answered the question, how creative your
answer is, and how few typographical errors you present.
You may use any sources to help you answer the questions,
including but not limited to your textbook and the Internet. But
remember DO NOT PLAGARIZE. If you plagiarize another
person’s essay answer or copy Internet sources without properly
citing the material you will receive a “0” for this assignment
and I will report it to the college for disciplinary action.
Remember that punctuation and grammar matter. Please either
use this form and place your responses after each question, or
use a different Word document but clearly identify where each
question response begins and ends. You will be penalized if I
cannot tell which question you are answering.
Read all of the questions before you answer them. Some
questions are similar to each other, but there are items in the

54. film that work better for each one. Each answer should be about
one page, not including copying the question over. For any
concepts that are mentioned, be sure to offer a definition of the
concept before you provide examples. Most of the answers are
subjective
1) What is the social construction of reality? The Thomas
Theorem? (chapter 4) How might it be illustrated in the film?
Provide specific examples.
2) Define social class? How is social class determined? How is
social class used in the film? How many social classes can you
identify in the film? (Ask yourself if I would really ask the
question if the answer is really two!) How are the classes
distinguished from each other? Be specific in your answers.
3) Define labeling theory (from chapter 7). Provide examples of
how labels are used in the film and their effects on people. Be
specific with your examples.
4) Define the concepts prejudice and discrimination (from
chapter 11) and describe how these concepts are used in this
movie. How does the use in the film compare to the
conventional or traditional way they are used? What differences
are there? What similarities? Be specific in your answers using
examples from the film.
5) Define the Horatio Algers myth. How is that myth
represented or destroyed in the film? Make sure you really
understand what is required of the myth. This is one answer that
has a right and a wrong answer. Be specific in your answers.