234 Fall2010-10B
Sociology 234...
Social Psychology and Everyday
Life: An Interactionist Approach
Fall (September) 2010
Robert Prus PAS 2055
[email protected]
(519) 888-4567 x32105
Office Hours: Tuesday: 2:30-4:00.
TA: Richard Belcher
[email protected]
Class meets September 14- November 30, 2010
in PAS 1229 Tuesday 12:30-2:20pm
NOTE: Because we will be using our course outline
as a study guide, please bring this syllabus to class
with you each week.
Focusing on the study of human knowing and acting,
this course considers the ways that people make sense
of the situations in which they find themselves and do
things in the here and now of community life. Taking
a symbolic interactionist approach to the study of
human group life, this course examines the processes
by which social life is constructed.
Attending to human lived experience as realms of
activity in the making, and relying primarily on
participant observation and interviews, symbolic
interaction
differs
both
theoretically
and
methodologically from quantitative approaches to the
study of human behaviour.1
Rather than view society as an amorphous entity
standing "out there," interactionism is concerned with
the dynamic, situated, and humanly engaged aspects
of group life. Society is seen as a "subcultural
mosaic" or as consisting of networks upon networks
of people acting and interacting with one another in
various life-worlds.
1
Note: While this course provides a fundamental base for the
study of human lived experience that may be applied to any
social life-world, it offers only limited opportunity to engage in
ethnographic or field research. People interested in pursuing
field research on a more sustained basis may consider Sociology
410 -- Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research (which
could be taken on a sequential or a concurrent basis).
From this viewpoint, society is constituted
through activity as people "do things" in conjunction
with others, be this on the streets and highways, in
churches or prisons, at school or home, in sports
arenas or art galleries, in hospitals, factories, bars,
malls, or wherever else people happen to be.
Our task is to examine the ways in which people
construct or accomplish group life; to see how people
engage the world about them. Accordingly, we try to
learn about the ways that people define things,
approach situations, implement behaviour, and
coordinate activities with others.
The objective, in part, is to provide students with
an orientational frame, a conceptual "tool kit," and an
introduction to a body of literature that would allow
them to examine the ways in which people engage
any realm of endeavour in which they might find
themselves. The related objective is to encourage
extended familiarity and fluency with this approach
to the study of community life.
Seven premises form the theoretical base of the
course. These are: (1) the human world is
symbolically
understood,
constructed
and
experienced; (2) the "world" can have multiple
meanings to people, (3) people develop capacities for
taking themselves into account in developing lines of
action; (4) human group life is organized around the
doing or accomplishing of activity; (5) people are
able to influence (and resist) others, (6) people
develop and attend to particularistic bonds or
associations with others, and (7) group life has an
emergent quality. Thus, we view group life as
intersubjective, (multi)perspectival, reflective, actionoriented, negotiable, relational, and processual.
Since these premises represent the building blocks for
the entire course, students should develop a thorough,
working familiarity with these notions [see SI&ER
15-18].
Acknowledging the ongoing construction or
accomplishment of human activity, this course is
concerned with analyzing group life from the
perspectives of the people involved. It considers the
ways in which people interpret situations, the role that
other people play in the process, the relationships that
people develop with others, and the processes by
which interaction takes place.
This theoretical (pragmatist) viewpoint can be
traced back to the classical Greek era (especially as
articulated by Aristotle), but on a more contemporary
plane the pragmatist / interactionist approach is
2
developed in the works of Wilhelm Dilthey, John
Dewey, Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert
Mead, Herbert Blumer, Alfred Schutz and Erving
Goffman. These scholars address the inseparability of
"mind, self, and society."
Examining human life in process terms, the
emphasis is on the ways in which people actively
shape or construct the social worlds they experience
in conjunction with others. Building on the human
capacities for language and meaningful activity, this
course stresses the intersubjective and enacted
essences of human lived experience.
In contrast to some other perspectives in the social
sciences, symbolic interactionism is concerned
primarily with the sort of interpretive understandings
that researchers achieve from close, first hand
observations, interviews, and participation in settings.
While striving toward the development of (generic)
concepts applicable across group settings, a central
objective is that of grounding theory (Glaser and
Strauss) in the day-to-day experiences of those
around us.
As well as providing exposure to (i) the central
concepts of symbolic interaction, and (ii) some
literature which illustrates applications and
assessments of this perspective, attention is also given
to (iii) the problematics of doing qualitative (field,
ethnographic) research. Because of its emphasis on
the linkage of social theory and human activity, this
course also represents a strong conceptual base for
some other sociology courses that students may take,
such as deviance (223), knowing and acting (409),
and qualitative research (410).
Caution: While many of the things we will be
considering will likely correspond with your own
lived experiences, do not assume that you
automatically know the theoretical or research
materials that undergird the study of everyday life. In
fact, you may find that studying the familiar requires
more attention to your assumptions than studying
something that at the outset seems more unusual.
Please come to class and take careful, extensive
notes. Otherwise you are apt to miss a great deal of
pertinent conceptual and substantive material without
realizing that this has happened, until too late.
In addition to introducing some materials not
available in your readings, we will use class lectures
to address basic themes and concepts; to indicate,
explain, and emphasize course themes in a more
fundamental manner.
While the lectures will provide a base for the
course, it will still be necessary for you to read and
synthesize materials on your own. Do not leave
reading (and learning) your material until the last few
days or you will find yourself overwhelmed. The
material in this course is cumulative; what you learn
earlier will help you later on.
*** If you find that you are having difficulties with
some aspect of the course, please contact me sooner
rather than later.
COURSE TEXTS
Prus, Robert
1996 Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic
Research. Albany, NY: SUNY. (= SI&ER)
Soc 234
Studying Group Life -- Fall 2010 (readings
package). This is a collection of readings designed to
supplement the course. Available at the bookstore.
While we will be covering this course in a particular
sequence, the material is holistic (extensively
interconnected). So read ahead in any of the texts you
may have at hand – it will likely be helpful in both
the short and longer run.
Assignments / Grade Allocations
*Test 1: October 12 --- Worth 20%
*GSP Project
* November 2. GSP Statement of Intent [ 5% Bonus]
***Paper Due November 16. Worth 40%. **See
paper instructions on pages 7-8 of the syllabus
*Final test (cumulative) worth 40%. Scheduled by
the Registrar's office.
The World of Human Lived Experience
As the following materials suggest, this course is
directed toward the understanding of human group
life as it is accomplished on a day to day or a "here
and now" basis. We want to see how living, thinking,
acting, and interacting entities (people) make sense of
and develop their activities in any variety of settings.
The overall objective is that of arriving at a better
understanding of the ways in which people
accomplish human group life. Thus, concepts, such
as perspectives, identities, negotiations, recruitment
3
and role-taking, become "magic carpets" of sorts
allowing us to appreciate the richness and diversity of
human lived experience across a variety of contexts.
As you examine the course material, try to apply
these notions to your own experiences, using all
instances of your own experience as a primary base
for assessing and learning more about these concepts.
The following is a working itinerary - some
variation from this schedule may be inevitable....
Please be prepared to adjust accordingly
******* Develop a thorough, working familiarity
with the first part of the course. The conceptual
material introduced here is relevant throughout. It
will enable you to better frame (envision,
comprehend, synthesize, and retain) the material in
the later sections.
Sept. 14 (week #1)
Engaging the Humanly Known World
# Ch 1 (SI&ER): Studying Human Lived Experience
(SI&ER = Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic
Research)
Premises (assumptions)
The Positivist-Interpretivist (also Pragmatist) Divide2
# Historical flows of Western Social Thought
(Handout)
Sept 21 (week #2)
Defining Reality -The Nature of "Whatness"
Historical Foundations – back to the Greeks
# Pragmatist Roots in Classical Greek Social Thought
[circa 700-300 BCE] (in-class materials only)3
2
People wishing more depth on either the interpretivistpositivist divide or the interpretivist-postmodernist divide (not a
focal point in this class) may like to examine chapters 7 and 8 of
SI&ER. For the purposes of any tests for this course, though,
chapters 7 and 8 are considered optional.
For more material on symbolic interaction and its relevance
to the study of everyday life, see: Herbert Blumer, Symbolic
Interactionism; Anselm Strauss, Continual Permutations of
Action; and Robert Prus, Subcultural Mosaics and
Intersubjective Realities.
3
Some Enduring Greek Concepts
On Defining Reality / attending to ―whatness‖
On the Same and Different
On the One and the Many
On Abstractions and Particulars
On Comparisons (similarities, differences, knowing)
# Ch 2 (SI&ER): Interpretive Roots: Experience as
Intersubjective Reality
The Hermeneutic / Interpretivist Tradition
(Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel, Max Weber,
Wilhelm Wundt)
American Pragmatism / Early Interactionism
(Charles Horton Cooley / George Herbert Mead)
# Donald Evans.... "Socialization into Deafness"
(234 package)
Sept 28 (week #3)
# Ch 2 (SI&ER...Cont'd
(Charles Horton Cooley / George Herbert Mead)
Symbolic Interaction
# Ch 3 (SI&ER): Contemporary Variants of the
Interpretive Tradition
*Chicago-Style interactionism (Herbert Blumer) *
***Know Chicago-Style interactionism well
Other Variants of the Interpretive Approach
Iowa Interaction (Manford Kuhn)
*Dramaturgical Sociology (Erving Goffman)
*Labeling Theory (Ed Lemert, Howard Becker)
Phenomenological Sociology (Alfred Schutz)
On Essences, Concepts, and Categories
Some Greek Terms of Reference
logos (speech, thought), pragma (objects, things), praxis
(doing, acting), phronesis (deliberation), symbolon
(symbol, signifier), peitho (persuasion). rhetoreia
(rhetoric, oratory, influence work), psyche (life-energy,
mind), sophia (wisdom), episteme (knowledge), ontos (on
being, whatness), polis (city-state / community), historeia
(inquiry), ethika (morality, moral order, virtue, character)
Some Consequential Greek Scholars
*Heraclitus (c535-475BCE) "Everything is in flux...
(continually changing, in process)
*Protagoras (c490-420BCE) "Man is the measure...
(relativism of knowing)
*Herodotus (c485-425BCE) The Histories
*Thucydides (460-400BCE) History of the Peloponnesian
War
*Gorgias (c485-380BCE) "On rhetoric...(persuasion)
***Plato (c420-348BCE) "On Knowing... ―Dialectic
reflection (Comparative analysis)... Mind/body dualism.
Republic, Laws...
***Aristotle (c384-322BCE) "The humanly known and
engaged world... Unity of mind-body-activity / Knowing
in instances / comparison (analytic induction).
Nicomachean Ethics, Rhetoric...
4
*Reality Construction Theory
(Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann)
Ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel)
Structuration Theory (Anthony Giddens)
New
(Constructionist)
Sociology
of
Science (Thomas Kuhn)
#Lori Holyfield... ―Manufacturing Adventure: The
Buying and Selling of Emotions‖ (234 Package)
October 5 (week #4)
Ethnographic Ventures
# Early Greek Ethnohistorians (in class materials
only)
Herodotus (c485-425BCE) Histories
Thucydides (c460-400BCE)... Peloponnesian War
Xenophon (c430-340BCE) Anabasis
# Ch 4 (SI&ER): The Ethnographic Research
Tradition
Historical and Anthropological Dimensions of
Ethnographic Research
Ethnography as a Sociological Venture
Community of Scholars
Student Ethnographies
Chicago in transition
Everett Hughes
Herbert Blumer
# Robert Prus… ―Writing History for Eternity:
Lucian‘s
Contributions
to
Pragmatist
Scholarship and Ethnographic Research‖ (234
package)
# Ch 6 SI&ER: 186-197 Emotionality and the
Ethnographer Self
October 12…
Worth 20% of the Final Grade... Will cover the
reading (and class) materials to about here.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend any test for this
course, for any reason, you must let me know
immediately and provide appropriate documentation.
There is NO make-up test for anyone missing this
midterm test. Anyone who is exempted from writing
the midterm will be required to write a 60% final.
Both the midterm and the final tests will be of an
essay variety. They are intended to test for basic and
in depth familiarity with course materials. Students
are advised to be familiar with both the reading and
the lecture materials, concentrating particularly on the
concepts examined therein.
Students should know the course concepts very
well and be able to explain their subcomponents and
indicate their significance for ongoing group life.
More thorough, comprehensive answers will receive
better scores, as will those that more directly address
the questions being asked. Develop your materials as
fully as you can.
Develop stronger answers by being more explicit
and elaborating more extensively on your materials.
Since the midterms will be written in regular class
periods, it will be necessary for you to work fairly
quickly during that time. Come well prepared and be
as thorough as you can be during that time frame.
Point form answers are acceptable but more
developed answers will be given higher scores. In all
cases, be thorough, specific, and accurate. It is your
responsibility to show that you know (can explain)
the concepts and that you are aware of the contents of
the materials in any question you answer.
***** See the Sample Questions in the 234
package. Since I will be using these questions as my
base in developing the questions on the test, the test
questions will be very similar (if not completely
identical) to those represented there. An excellent
way of studying is to write out answers to these
questions. That should help focus your studies as well
as help you develop familiarity and fluency with the
material. *** If you have not actually had experience
in writing about the materials at hand, it can be
extremely difficult to develop good answers on a test.
The final test is essentially cumulative in essence so
the things you learn earlier will help you all the way
through the course.
For the mid-term you will be given 2 sets of two
questions each (i.e., select 1/2; 1/2).
For the final, you will be given 3 sets of two
questions each select 1/2; 1/2; 1/2 -- sometimes 1/3).
The importance of people developing and
writing out more detailed answers to questions in
advance cannot be overstated.
Indeed, if you have not developed viable
answers to these questions out before the test and,
likewise, have not had the experience of writing
answers up in advance, you are apt to have
5
considerable difficulty developing viable answers in
the test situation.
Answers will be graded on the basis of their
comprehensiveness, conceptual clarity, detail, and
attentiveness to the specific questions being asked.
Be as thorough, precise, and informed as you can
possibly be.
The concepts are the key to the course. Be sure
to know the course concepts (i.e., establish your
frame of reference) -- be able to define the concepts,
explain them, and indicate their linkages with
theory, methods, and the study of human lived
experience.
The major theorists for this part of the course are
Aristotle
Wilhelm Dilthey
Charles Horton Cooley
George Herbert Mead
Herbert Blumer
***Those who are not well prepared for this test
will likely have considerably difficulty dealing with
the material that follows…. We build on these
earlier conceptual matters.
PS: Do not miss the next class ** very important
for your research (GSP) project!
**************
October 19 (Week 6) --- Please do not miss this
class -- very important for your GSP project!
Generic Social Processes (GSPs)
# Ch 5 (SI&ER: 141-150): Generic Social Processes
Definition of GSPs (SI&ER: 142)
Acquiring Perspectives (SI&ER: 150-152)
Achieving Identity (SI&ER: 152-153)
Being Involved (SI&ER: 153-155)
Doing Activity (SI&ER: 156-158)
Performing Activities
Influencing Others
Making Commitments
Experiencing Relationships (SI&ER: 159)
Experiencing Emotionality (SI&ER: 173-186)
Forming and Coordinating Associations (SI&ER:
160-163)
Establishing Associations
Objectifying Associations
Encountering Outsiders
GSP Conclusion: 163-167
Acquiring Perspectives: Language,
Intersubjectivity, and Interpretive Frames
# SI&ER: 150-152 (Perspectives)
# Donald Evans.... "Socialization into Deafness"
(234 package) [Earlier in the Readings]
# Robert Prus… ―Aristotle‘s Theory of Education‖
(234 package).
# Eldon Snyder.... "Getting Involved in the
Shuffleboard World." (234 package).
October 26 (week 7)
Doing Activity: Accomplishment in Process
# SI&ER: 156-158 (activity)
* Performing Activity
*Influencing Others
*Making Commitments
# Robert Emerson.... "Doing Discipline: The Junior
High School Scene" (234 package).
# Robert Prus.... "Drinking as Activity: An
Interactionist Analysis." (234 package).
# Mary Lou Dietz and Mike Cooper.... "Being
Recruited: The Experiences of 'Blue Chip' High
School Athletes" (234 package).
# Robert Prus and Wendy Frisby… "Persuasion as
Practical
Accomplishment:
Tactical
Manoeuverings at Home Party Plans." (234 package)
**** Note: Term-Paper assignment is due shortly....
Hope you have started.... Do not leave this until the
last couple days!
*****See paper instructions later in this syllabus
November 2 (week 8) Hope to see you in class!
*GSP Statement of Intent [5% Bonus]. Due
today....NO extensions. [Also helps with the GSP paper]
*Name & ID#
*Tenative Title:
*Specify the GSP to be examined (selected from the
list of three options on the GSP paper instructions
later in the syllabus). List out the subprocesses.
*List the authors, title, and briefly describe the
three studies you will be using as your data in
comparing and assessing the subprocesses within
this GSP.
Getting Involved: Initial Involvements,
Continuities, Disinvolvements, Reinvolvements
# SI&ER: 153-155 (involvements)
**Multiple Realms of Involvement
**Initial Involvements
Seekership / Recruitment / Closure
Instrumentalist / Inadvertent Involvements
6
Reservations (drift = reduced reservations)
**Continuities
**Disinvolvement
**Reinvolvement
# Experiencing Halloween (in-class discussion)
# Mary Lou Dietz.... "On Your Toes: Dancing Your
Way into the Ballet World" (234 package).
# Charlotte Wolf.... "Conversion into Feminism"
(234 package).
November 9 (week 9)
Achieving Identity: Self-Other Definitions
# SI&ER: 152-153 (Achieving Identity)
# Erving Goffman.... The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life.
Intro 1-16; Performances
17-76; Teams 77-105; Regions 106-140;
Discrepant Roles 141-166. (In class materials –
but also see SI&ER: 78-82)
# William Shaffir and Jack Haas....
"The
Development of a Professional Self in Medical
Students" (234 package).
***Discuss GSP projects
[At this point, you should have done a good bit of
work on your paper and we can discuss
procedures from this point, dilemmas,
emphases, and the like]
November 16 (week 10)
***GSP (Generic Social Process) Paper
Assignment -- Due today ***See paper
instructions later in this syllabus
Worth 40%. A grace period (no special permission is
required) will be extended until the beginning of the
class on November 23 to allow for all manners of
difficulties in route.
However, recognize that in taking this extension you
are “running on borrowed time.” Except in the case
of earlier, pressing medical circumstances, No
further extensions will be given after this week of
grace.
Papers received between November 24 and
November 30 will receive 50% of the grade assigned
(e.g., a paper that scored 80% would only be worth
40% of the 40 points allocated for this part of the
course – as in 16/40).
Papers received between December 1 and December
6 will receive a maximum grade of 10% (as in 4/40).
Achieving Identity: Self-Other Definitions (cont‘d)
# Haas, Jack... "Handling Fear and Identity: High
Iron Steel Workers" (in-class materials only).
# Kathy Charmaz.... "The Discovery of Self in
Illness" (234 package).
# Clint Sanders.... "Tattoo You: Tattoos as Self
Extensions and Identity Markers" (234 package).
# Amrit Mandur ―Becoming a Fantasy Role Player‖
(234 package).
# Orrin Klapp The Collective Search for Identity
(in class materials only)
Developing and Managing Relationships
# SI&ER: 159 (Relationships)
Anticipating Encounters with Others
Focusing on Particular Others
Experiencing Closeness
Dealing with Distractions and Disaffections
Disengaging / Reengaging Relationships
# Karen March.... "Needing to Know: Adoptees‘
Search for Self Completion" (234 package).
# Tina Chester.... "The Processes and Problematics
of Coordinating Events: Planning the Wedding
Reception (234 package).
November 23 (week 11)
Experiencing Emotionality
# SI&ER: 173-186 (Experiencing Emotionality)
# Robert Prus…―In Love and in Despair: Ovid‘s
Contributions to an Interactionist Analysis of
Intimate Relations.‖ (234 package).
# Nancy Herman....
"Former Crazies in the
Community" (234 package).
# Wolff-Michael Roth and Michael Bowen.. "On
Disciplined Minds and Disciplined Bodies: On
Becoming an Ecologist." (in class materials
only)
November 30 (week 12 – Last Class)
Forming and Coordinating Associations
#SI&ER: 160-163
Establishing Associations
Objectifying Associations
Dealing with Outsiders
# Bernard Karsh et al.... "The Union Organizer and
His Tactics." (234 package).
# Scott Grills.... "Recruitment Practices of the
Christian Heritage Party" (234 package).
# William Shaffir and Steve Kleinknecht… ―It Just
Ends: The Trauma of Political Defeat.‖ (234
package)
# Robert Prus… ―Terrorism, Tyranny, and Religious
7
Extremism as Collective Activity: Beyond the
Deviant,
Psychological,
and
Power
Mystiques.‖ (234 package)
In Perspective
Having had an opportunity to explore the concepts,
literature, and methodology of symbolic interaction,
we briefly return to consider some theoretical and
methodological issues fundamental to the study of
group life.
Although the course is essentially cumulative in
overall development, I will hand out a sheet that
identifies the materials you should concentrate on for
the final at the last class.
If you miss the last class, send me an email
([email protected]) and I will forward a copy of this
information statement to you.
++++The Final Exam +++++++++
Final Test: (Scheduled by Registrar’s Office).
Worth 40% of the final grade. Anyone who is
exempted from writing the midterm will be required
to write a 60% final.
Do not book any flights, arrange any vacations, etc.,
without first checking the final exam schedule.
The final exam (2.5 hours) will consist of 3 sets
of essay questions, with choices of selecting 1/2,
1/2, 1/2 (sometimes 1/3). The questions will be
somewhat along the lines of those on the midterm
test. However, it is expected that answers to the
final exam will assume a stronger, more informed,
conceptual quality and display greater familiarity
with the fuller set of course materials.
As well, because we will have covered
considerably more material and people likely will
have learned much more about the course, what
may have been a ―good answer‖ on the midterm test
likely will not appear very strong on the final exam.
***** See the Sample Questions in the 234
package. Since I will be using these questions as my
base in developing the questions on the test, the test
questions will be very similar (if not completely
identical) to those represented there. An excellent
way of studying is to write out answers to these
questions. That should help focus your studies as
well as help you develop familiarity and fluency with
the material. *** If you have not actually had
experience in writing about the materials at hand, it
can be extremely difficult to develop good answers
on a test.
GSP Paper Assignment -- Instructions
Working with a 20 page limit (printed, doublespaced), your assignment is to develop an
interactionist analysis of (only) one GSP (Generic
Social Process --- see pages SI&ER 141-172; 173186).
For your paper, choose ONE of
1. Influencing Others (SI&ER 157-158).
2. Establishing Associations (SI&ER 160-161; this is
a subcomponent of Forming and Coordinating
Associations)
3. Defining, Expressing, and Controlling Emotional
Experiences (SI&ER 177-179)
Note: You may discuss other GSPs in developing
your statement, but focus centrally on one of these
three processes in developing for your paper.
Also…. Start as soon as you can because things often
become very busy later in term.
In developing this project,
(1) Carefully describe an interactionist approach to
the study of human group life
(2) Tell what GSPs are and what relevance they have
for the study of community life.
(3) Identify the particular GSP you will be focusing
on and tell what your GSP is about, indicating how it
more specifically pertains to the study of human
group life.
(4) Examine and assess the subcomponents of the
GSP you have selected using THREE of the
following studies on your reading list. However do
Aristotle (theory of education), Kathy Charmaz, Tina
Chester, Mary Lorenz Dietz, Mary Lorenz Dietz and
Michael Cooper, Robert Emerson, Donald Evans,
Scott Grills, Nancy Herman, Lori Holyfield, Bernard
Karsh et al., Amrit Mandur, Karen March, Ovid,
Robert Prus (drinking article), Robert Prus and
Wendy Frisby, Clint Sanders, William Shaffir and
Jack Haas, William Shaffir and Steven Kleinknecht,
Eldon Snyder, Charlotte Wolf.
Be sure to clearly identify the articles you have
selected and make sustained reference to them as you
8
develop your analysis. ***
(5) Develop your discussions of your GSPs and the
studies that you have selected in an integrated,
comparative manner. Do not deal with one article
and then another, one by one. Maintain a
comparative approach around each of the
subprocesses of the GSP you have selected and
discuss your 3 articles relative to each subprocess.
Use headings for each subprocess to more clearly
organize your paper around these subprocesses.
Explain to the reader what you think each subprocess
entails.
(6) Also, remember, your task is not to prove some
particular notion is true nor is it to show that you can
find examples of something. The objective is to
examine and assess the viability of the features of the
particular GSP you are considering by using your
readings as your database. And, if possible, try to
extend present conceptualizations of things in more
precise and/or accurate terms. Think PROCESS.
(7) Do not expect any specific study from your
readings to deal with all aspects of any GSP, but
indicate where the articles you have selected do and
do not deal with these subcomponents and try to
show what you have learned about your particular
GSP in the process (especially how people enter into
each subprocess as agents). You also might indicate
how one might go about gathering more information
about your GSP in settings of the sorts discussed in
the readings you have selected.
(8) If it is helpful to you, you may (but need not)
incorporate materials from other ethnographic studies
on this list, but your paper should be based on these
course materials. You will not require any outside
materials to complete this assignment.
(9) Please write carefully and be as thorough as
possible. Describe and analyze, but do not prescribe
or tell what people should, ought, or must do.
(10) In concluding the paper, tell what you have
learned about GSPs, ethnographic research, and
human interchange.
(11)
While items 1-2 and 8-10 (preceding) are
important for framing your project, your paper should
be developed primarily around items 3-7.
Note: because it may not be possible to return your
papers before the end of classes, please keep a copy
of your work for study purposes.
Formatting the GSP Paper
Title [Identify your GSP and tell a bit more]
Your name, ID
[Abstract – optional]
Introduction
Tell what you are doing and how you intend to do so
Identify the 3 papers you have chosen
Frame your Analysis
Establish SI as your theoretical viewpoint
Discuss GSPs generally, your GSP specifically
The Analysis
Define your terms of reference – Outline the
Subprocesses of your GSP
Tell what you think each subprocess involves (i.e.,
establish a basic, tentative working definition)
Organize your paper around these subprocesses
Use your three studies to discuss each subprocess.
Discuss one subprocess at a time, using your three
studies together at each point to learn (through
comparative analysis) about each subprocess.
Using your three studies as your base, tell what you
have learned about the ways that people engage each
of the subprocesses – that is, how people deal with
their situations, themselves , and one another as
agents in more generic terms.
Conclusion
Discuss things learned, challenges encountered,
suggestions for future inquiry, lessons for the future
[Epilogue –optional; add other thoughts, experiences]
Optional Reading
#Prus, Robert 2008 ―Aristotle‘s Rhetoric: A Pragmatist
Analysis of Persuasive Interchange.‖ Qualitative Sociology
Review 4 (2): 24-62.
http://www.qualitativesociologyreview.org/ENG/Volume10
/abstracts.php#art2
#Prus, Robert 2007 ―Aristotle‘s Nicomachean Ethics: Laying
the Foundations for a Pragmatist Consideration of Human
Knowing and Acting.‖ Qualitative Sociology Review 3 (2): 545.
http://www.qualitativesociologyreview.org/ENG/Volume7/a
bstracts.php#art1
#Prus, Robert 2007 ―On Studying Ethnologs (Not just
People, ‗Societies in Miniature‘): On the Necessities of
Ethnography, History, and Comparative Analysis.‖ Journal of
Contemporary Ethnography 36 (6): 669-703.
9
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/36/6/669
#Prus, Robert 2004 ―Symbolic Interaction and Classical
Greek Scholarship: Conceptual Foundations, Historical
Continuities, and Transcontextual Relevancies.‖ The American
Sociologist 35 (1): 5-33.
Some Abbreviations – for your convenience
(Not required but for your note taking reference—
You may use these abbreviations on your tests)
CC (CCs) = career contingency(ies)
EDL = everyday life
ER = ethnographic research
GSP (GSPs) = generic social process(es)
HGL = human group life
HK&A = human knowing and acting
HLE = human lived experience
II (IIs) = initial involvement(s)
IM = impression management
IS= intersubjectivity
ISR (ISRs) = intersubjective reality(ies)
P/S = presentation of self
SC(s) = subculture(s)
SCM (SCMs)= subcultural mosaic(s)
SI = symbolic interaction
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Using Computers in Class
While helpful in many ways, the use of computers and
other electronic devices also can be distracting to others
in the class as well as the primary users.
People who appear to be (proof is not relevant) using
their computers or other electronic devices for other than
course related purposes during our class lectures will be
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