Sociology

Dante Alighieri once said, the perpetuation of sexuality in the minds of the common man can be best achieved by imputing it with religious value. This statement is not without logic  gender has had influence over the content and direction of some religious writings in the past 900 years.

Peter Abelard Historia Calamitatum
From the perspective of a critical historian, Historia Calamitatum is a generalized narrative of identity anxieties. Abelard presented both the self and the body as characterizations of masculinity. Masculinity is defined as the physiological and psychological dimension of the male species. According to Abelard, the self is a continuous hollow of the sexed human body. It is the soul of identity.

Abelards castration proved decisive in reformulating his idea of gender. During the 11th and 12th century, a castrated man was simply a feminized human being. Abelard rejected this notion by arguing that the physical body is an assumed characterization of identity. Fulco, a monk, mockingly argued that Abelards castration was beneficial in two respects. First, Abelard would be relieved from disturbing passions, from committing adultery. And second, Abelard would be able to fully address the roles of a monk by eliminating a source of embellishment. Abelard replied that religion is not bounded by identity  that is, if a Christian knight commits adultery against a Moslem woman, he must be castrated  principle of equality.

Nican Mopohua
The Virgin of Guadeloupe may be regarded as a recreation of Aztec deities which are of double gender. Note that the text tells of a Great mother, my little child which brings forth flowers in a barren landscape. According to some historians, the Great mother refers to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin or to Tonan, also known as Ilamatecuhtli (noble old woman). In any case, the narrative of Juan Diego had been both idealized and mystified. The Virgin of Guadeloupe acquired a high degree of respect among the Mexicans. The Virgin had also been mystified to the point of making her a mestizo character of faith. In short, the Virgin had acquired a new identity, a new meaning, and a new form.

Joseph Smith The Book of Mormon
Central to Smiths theology is the systematic rejection of heterosexuality and marriage. According to Joseph smith, only knowledge could exalt humanity to Godhood. He argued
Knowledge saves a man and in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge.if man has a knowledge, he can be saved although, if he has been guilty of great sins he will be punished for thema man is his own tormentor and his own condemnerthe torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man (Book of Mormon, XV).

Smith argued that opening ones mind to knowledge was the key in overcoming the consequences of sin. Thus, so long as a man promotes knowledge, he is saved from the torment of hell. The implication a man can have several spouses at a time or he can engage in homosexual activities.
Perhaps, Smiths family background can explain for his tendency to accept homosexuality. Reared in a deeply conservative family, Smith longed for freedom and security. Founding a church moved the primeval fears away, and thus opened the path to frantic liberalism. In any case, he envisioned himself as a man of neutral identity. In his mind, he was neither a man nor woman, but a servant of God.

In societies where modernity is well developed, self-identity becomes an inescapable issue. Earlier societies with social order based firmly in tradition and social roles with defined roles, post-traditional and traditional societies, and individual roles are constantly figured out as it together with the self, the environment and the society also change with you. As Giddens explains, for people living in the late modernity, three focal questions are being asked. What to do, how to act, and who to be. These questions are either discussed openly or simply figured out by everybody through the day-to-day social behavior.  According to Giddens, these questions of identity in modern society are both a consequence and a cause of changes at the institutional level. His analysis brings forth a connection between the micro and macro aspects of the modern society, micro being the internal sense of self and identity, and macro meaning the different institutions like capitalist corporations, development on societies. Such concept has traditionally been separated under study in sociology, the field understands the influence they bring on each other, but somehow cannot be directly understood in isolation.

Giddens sees how various social changes happened through the changes which individuals view life, which in turn stems from the social influences and observations. For example, in understanding marriage and the rise in divorce cases in the country reflects on the changes reflected on marriage and sexuality, which are on macro levels, but originated from the changes which came from the demands from everyday lives, which is micro. Thus, as Giddens examined, brought social movements such as womens liberation for example, this had grown out of the dissatisfactions within everyday life. Modern societies reflect social change which stems from micro and macro forces.
 
Giddens published in the Consequences of Modernity the argument on high or late modernity as a post traditional order characterized by a developed institutional reflexivity. His analysis concerns how the period of modernity, the globalising tendencies of modern institutions is accompanied by a transformation of day to day social life having profound implications for personal activities.

According to Giddens, the self becomes a reflexive project, which is sustained through a revisable narrative of self- identity. Giddens explains that the reflexive project of the self is a control or mastery which parallels the overall orientation of modern institutions towards colonizing the future. Yet it also helps promote tendencies which place that orientation radically in question and which provide the substance for discussions on late modernity.

Jurgen Habermas, a contemporary philosopher gained worldwide reputation after promoting his idea on communicative action. Communicative action as he defined is where actors in society seek to arrive at a common understanding and to coordinate actions by reasoned argument, thus reaching consensus and cooperation rather than doing a strategic pursuit of their individual goals. Habermas elaborated a critique of methods of domination in modern societies. Despite this, Harbermas greatly referred to the ideas in classical philosophical views, particularly the enlightenment. The enlightenment has greatly influenced the work of Habermas, and he studied it in a reflexive way through his works for over two decades through a systematical critical analysis of the present times.  Habermas was consistently criticized for his strong inclination in the reconstruction of the modern enlightenment tradition in understanding the concept of modernity.

In view of modernity, Habermas regarded the concept as something which can be redeemed, thus reconstructing the idea through a distinct communication theory. Hence, his work was focused on overcoming the pessimism of late modernity by resolving the dilemmas of subject-centered reason in the paradigm of the communicative action. In dealing with modernity, most theorists either ignore or acknowledge the role of technology. Habermas influence is brought primarily by the fact that he elaborated the concept of modernity into a carefully-thought out and sophisticated theory without any reference at all to the role of technology. His approach is based on the Weberian rationalization theory which explains the varying differences in cultural spheres. For example, the state, religion, law, science, had each become a distinct social domain with each respective identity. Habermas explains further a system, in which each social domain is being governed by an internal logic of equivalent exchange. The systems organize and influence the daily life in individuals and groups in the modern societies. A situation wherein individuals discuss and act together for their own mutual benefit, or to maintain rituals and roles, according to Habermas is communication done through the functions of the system. The differentiated systems are the foundation of a complex modern society.

Modern societies are really different from each other. The difference between them might seem closely related to the impersonal functions for the system which in turn creates and forms new possibilities of communication. In his work entitled the Theory of Communicataive Action, Habermas locates the normative foundations of critical theory in the realm of communication, emphasizing the attempt to reach a mutual understanding. The idea of communicative action is an in-depth discussion and reflection on Max Webers pessimism on modernity. He even broadened his account of modernity into a full-fledged defense of modernity as an uncompleted project of enlightenment.  

Pierre Bourdieu on the other hand examines modernity through or within the concept of modern art. Unlike the previous theories, he regarded modernity as not only within the sociological hierarchy, but also within the system of social relations. In reference to modern art booming during Bourdieus time, his study on modernity deals with the central move to characterize the expense of capitalism as engendering complex inversion of the cosmos, in which the business are negated in the vision and intentions of an artist. Early modernism for him was a new world lost. Modernism can only be regained if the artistic mode of existence together with the various social realities experience can be interpreted.

In understanding modernity, these three theorists each presented their takes with different influences, which can be summed into two general understanding of modernity. Given the period in which they conceptualized these theories, it can be understood by looking at the difference between civilizations, bearing individual cultures. Or understanding by noting the time or change during or from earlier centuries, synonymous with development or progress, from traditional to modern. Two takes in which these theorists explained modernity is either cultural or acultural. Cultural define the theory on modernity pegged on transformations made in a rise of a new culture. Acultural theory on the other hand is one which describes transformations in terms of the type by which any traditional culture can undergo. Habermas and Bordieu explained a paradigm shift on the modernity as a result of growth reason, enlightenment, the rise of instrumental rationality, or the difference between fact-finding and evaluation. Giddens describes the individual changes seen in the lens of modernity, how the self deals and reacts to the changes around him. Modernity in the aculture type can be explained by these three theorists, meaning they conceived the concept of modernity through transformations with increased mobility, concentration on populations, industrialization, or other similar concepts. Common to the theories presented is the explanation on how every culture can go through, and that all will probably forced to undergo because of the social realities within them. in this kind of theory, modernity is seen as a rational or social operation that regards culture as neutral.    

The mass media is also likely to influence individuals perceptions of their relationships. Whether in serious drama, or celebrity gossip, the need for good stories would always support an emphasis on change in relationships. Since almost nobody on TV remains happily married for a lifetime - whether were talking about fictional characters or real-life public figures - we inevitably receive a message that monogamous heterosexual stability is, at best, a rare ideal, which few can expect to achieve. We are encouraged to reflect on our relationships in magazines and self-help books (explicitly), and in movies, comedy and drama (implicitly). The news and factual media inform us about the findings of lifestyle research, and actual social changes in family life. This knowledge is then reappropriated by ordinary people, often lending support to non-traditional models of living. Information and ideas from the media do not merely reflect the social world, then, but contribute to its shape, and are central to modern reflexivity.

Personality in Greek is defined in a dramatic meaning, the mask we wear whenever we present ourselves to ourselves as well as to others. Personality reflects the self concept which is internal, the self mask or what we want others to see ourselves. It is socially constructed and people are free to attribute different characteristics. However, as an individual, no one can understand hisher self better apart from the social realms we mingle in. Goffman used a metaphor to explain how social meaning is attributed to the concept of the self in the real world. He explained it as being a performer, where the persona has an on and off stage, with various audiences, manifested by the personality he has. It includes the performance, the roles, the scripts, and how each delivers and interprets her role and lines. Individuals and audiences are taken with a performance, and thus becoming the reality people want. But the performances may be less than convincing - seen insincere, interpreted as a masquerade of self-interest. Judgments about them may be cynical or dismissive.

Through the drama actors give meaning to themselves, to others (and of others) and their situation. Interactions (performances before observers) deliver impressions to others according to the actors goals (teleology). Information is exchanged to confirm identity and the significance of behavior. Goffman refers to this the front as a concept as expressive equipment that is employed. It expresses a dramatic realization of the interpersonal self that individuals through impression management activity, generate, present and others expect.

Through the front, the actors social role, interactive behaviours and audience expectations are brought together. It is manifest in appearance and manner in a setting. It is created from controlled (or uncontrolled) performance and information exchange. A front must be convincing - in-line with expectations. This is significant in terms of attributing ethical, correct or inappropriate (if not quite so clearly unethical) characteristics. The actor transmits information via various channels (a process to be controlled if others are to be convinced that behaviour is in line with the role and person they assume). Such credibility is won by satisfying the expected duties and manners of an attributed role being consistent in communication of activities and traits. Various signs and signifiers are used in projecting the front including the Social setting (scenery, props, location)

The front incorporates the setting and baggage we bring with us. We enter, reside in perform in and leave settings and these may offer protections. Some are relatively fixed - some vary according to time (years or moments) or place. Goffman differentiates between

Appearance is an element of front or role. Expectations about appearance are often regularized or normative within a culture - although this is more varied today as fashion designers and followers of fashion challenge expectations. Manner is how we play the role the personal touch - works to warn others of how the performer will act or seek to act in role - dominant, aggressive, yielding, receptive etc). A manner is expected - of the doctor, the sales person, the mother, exposed politician.

Inconsistency with appearance and manner may confuse and upset an audienceobserver until enough information is gathered to decide what is coherent or what is not. Definition of the full self can also involve performance in voluntary, consequential actions (not always available in standard role settings). Outside of their normal roles, many seek excitement in recreation. Experience of higher risk action in other, outward oriented performances (outside of home, family, a steady low risk job) becomes more important in defining strength of character. Many high risk and action settings provide occasion and place for expression of moral sensibilities such as bravery, courage, determination, reliability, mastery of valued arts which inspires the confidence of others.

We have a repertoire and vocabulary of manageable fronts (Goffmans term) which we use across a multitude of settings. Personality trait definitions become collective, normative terms, common understandings in a vocabulary. Thus social fronts are institutionalized.

anomie as relative to social strata
Anomies are a relative concept. Different groups in society will have different limits, different goals and different expectations. The group with the greatest immunity to anomie is impoverished people, especially for people who have been poor all of their lives. This is because poverty teaches one to live within their means. Wealthy people, on the other hand, are more prone to anomie because as Durkheim puts it, wealthy people have nothing above them no limits, no standards and no ceiling.

Durkheim also mentions that the less limited one feels, the more intolerable all limitation appears. These limits, in the form of norm and expectations, vary by social strata. People are assigned different expectations. Age, for instance, is an important social strata. When youre younger, you have more limits over yourself. Anomie can be a chronic condition among younger people because the youth are extremely enthusiastic, extremely desirous and yet society puts greater limit on that population.

Social limits are neither rigid nor absolute. Overtime, they can change dramatically. For instance, in the 1950s, sexual inequality created very low expectations for women. Society imposed very strict limits over what women were able to achieve in society. Most had to settle for being happy staying at home and raising children. So women were confined to the domestic route by society. These were the limits imposed over womens desires and expectations. Today, most women would suffer extreme anomie if society would impose those limits.

Most groups demanding equal rights and privileges or demanding social change are suffering from anomie because their expectations and desires are greater than their opportunity to fulfill these expectations. At one time a group might have been content with their inequality or used to it and are able to live with it but overtime their expectations grow and they demand more. For instance, in 1920, many African-Americans have resigned themselves to the Jim Crow system but by 1940 and 1950, they were not going to take it anymore. Another example can be seen in the labor movement of the United States. Workers came to believe they deserved more a living wage and a larger license supply. They were suffering from anomie. They were frustrated at their treatment and their low wages because they had higher expectations. Today, workers are frustrated because they are not able to live up to the American standard of living.

economic sources
There are two ways to alleviate anomie. If youre suffering because you think youre falling short of your goals and expectations then you need to bring those goals down and bring them more in alignment with your needs. Or you need to change the system so that you can have new opportunities to meet those expectations. But when you resign yourself to lower standards, that is called fatalism. In any case, to avoid anomie people should not desire more than they could legitimately hope for. This hierarchy of expectations and rewards operates most clearly in the economic level of occupations. For each occupation, society assigns a certain reward and a level of compensation. For those occupations that perform the most vital functions of society the rewards are the greatest. These individuals can form high expectations because society affords them the opportunity to achieve those career aspirations. There could be a considerable disappointment when everybody rushes to these occupations because of the reward.

An obvious source of anomie is sudden downward mobility when individuals are no longer able to afford their customary standard of living and refuse to suffer the shame of downward mobility. For example, any setback in our career, like a demotion, can be devastating because we place a lot of value on career in our society. The less obvious source of anomie is sudden upward mobility. With wealth, economic expectations find no limits because youre able to use your money to overcome social limits. This sense of unlimited aspirations and appetites can leave a person aimless and out of control. The rich can become lost in their endless desires and ambitions. They become accustomed to lavish lifestyle and extravagant spending and can actually develop a sense of relative deprivation if they have to suffer any setback in their lifestyle. For Durkheim, life loses its purpose without limits and wealth destroys purpose by removing all limits. This can become a crisis for a lot of rich people. Theyve reached the top, they have all the money in the world, they have all the success in the world and nothings left. So they have to find a way to create new meaning. That is why a lot of these rich people become philanthropists.

Now Durkheim, like Marx, was concerned about the rise of industrial capitalism and all these wealth it was creating. The laissez faire free market is removing social limits. The deregulation of business and industry from their traditional religious and government constraints has unleashed the desires of capitalists. With the church and the state subordinated, capitalists now find no limits to the maximization of their profits or their private wealth. There is no longer any moral prohibition on wealth accumulation. Gross economic inequality is no longer seen as a moral problem. Those social regulations and moral prohibitions have been removed for the wealthy in the modern age. The moral prohibitions against unbridled greed have been removed. Greed is no longer a sin. Its no longer seen as obscene or decadent.

Marx felt that growing exploitation and economic inequality will necessarily lead to growing resembling hostility among workers. It is unavoidable. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer and the poor would rise up as a result of this exploitation. Durkheim said that thats not necessarily true. The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and the poor will just accept it. They will just resign themselves and can get used to it.

In Durkheims point of view, perhaps the most revolutionary group is the middle class. As large segments of the middle class are not able to achieve their expectations, they will be disappointed and this disappointment will lead to some sort of movement or revolutionary situation. History shows that the middle class moves to the right wing and follows more of a Fascist route when they get upset or frustrated and will likely scapegoat other groups in society for their own woes.

Bellah et al. on the therapeutic personality
American character types Biblical, Republican, Utilitarian, Expressive

Robert Bellah and his co-authors claim that the early American character was a mix of four different types biblical, republican, utilitarian and expressive traditions.

The biblical character is the oldest and descends from the colonial times. The biblical tradition values the individuals obligation to the community. An individual has a collective spirit that makes him willing to sacrifice his own self-interest for the greater good of the community. For instance, volunteerism would be a reflection of biblical values. Your religious commitment to God will be expressed in your moral commitment to each other. Religious commitment to God is express in ones moral commitment to others. So thats one dimension of the biblical character.

The second dimension is the Republican tradition. This is not the Republican party, this is the Republican ethos. This tradition stems from the Enlightenment. It was embodied by our founding fathers who valued liberty, equality, individual freedom and democracy. One person that could personify this principle is Thomas Jefferson. Sometimes, this Republican tradition is also called the Jeffersonian tradition. But this Jefferson tradition or Republican tradition, even though it valued individual freedom, it did recognize there were limits. Freedom is not free. That with rights come responsibilities. What Jefferson meant by freedom was not your freedom to withdraw from society but your freedom to participate or to become engaged in government. Thats why the constitution does not have any guarantee or proxy. Theres nothing in the constitution about the freedom to be left alone or any protection of your privacy. The Republicans would think that thinking of liberty as being synonymous to privacy is a perversion of liberty.

Utilitarianism or utilitarian individualism has roots in Europe but it was personified in America by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, like Jefferson realized that this calculating and enterprising individual could only pursue his self-interests in a society where individuals practiced self-control. Utilitarianism values the maximization of individual interests but not at the expense of others.

The most individualistic approach to life is expressive individualism. Expressive individualism was born in the transcendental philosophy of Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson and to some extent Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism elevates the individual above all constraints. This is why its the most individualistic. Whitmans poetry and Thoreaus essays on civil disobedience celebrate the individual and Bellah argues that this individualistic tradition is actually compatible with Republicanism. It doesnt necessarily reject community. Its just that the individual should be free to participate according to their own free will. Thoreau and Emerson only opposed authority when it forced individuals to conform. They were against mindless or coerced conformity.

Triumph of utilitarian and expressive types embodied  by corporate manager and therapist

While none of these four streams of thought advocate an attitude of unlimited self-interest, the idea of rational, isolated self-interested individual nevertheless became the dominant theme of the 19th century. Bellah identified Alexis de Tocqueville as the most important critic of his radical individualism. In many ways, Tocqueville was very impressed by American culture and American government and personality but he was a critic of American radical individualism. He feared that the narrow-minded pursuit of private wealth was destroying the collective mores on which American democracy was built. He saw that these four types were increasingly coming into conflict with each other and that utilitarian individualism was starting to undermine American biblical and Republican traditions. He worried that the growth of the industry and prosperity encouraged people to surrender their civic responsibilities. And as they became wealthier and became more comfortable, they would lose their Republican vigilance or their spirit of engagement and community participation. Bellah believes that Tocquevilles darkest prophecies have come to pass. Americans by the late 20th century have lost a good deal of their biblical and republican tradition. With the development of industrial and corporate capitalism in the 19th and 20th century, the local community institutions that sustained self-government were displaced by large anonymous cities. Urbanization has also contributed to the decline of these republican and biblical traditions. The mores that attach these people to moral commitments are the habits of the heart. These habits were most valued by the republican and biblical traditions and Bellah fears that were losing them as Americans. Not only do we have fewer of these ties in this contemporary society but the few we do have are weak. In terms of culture, the contemporary individual finds less and less meaning and purpose in communal life. The individual is no longer anchored in the community or defines him or herself by social roles. Biblical and republican moral traditions are unsuited to life in large, anonymous, multicultural urban settings. These traditions havent survived industrialization and urbanization. There was a balance in the 19th century between all four of these but as biblical and republican traditions weaken and fade away, expressive and utilitarian traditions become dominant. The individual is now free to make money and maximize his or her pleasure without countervailing civic responsibilities or moral obligations. Our individualism today is no longer grounded in the community. People have more freedom but with less purpose.

The modern character type that embodies utilitarian individualism in the public realm is the corporate manager. Within the bureaucratic organization of the corporation, the manager has been the most zealot disciple of utilitarian individualism. Managers need to maximize profitability of the firm by maximizing the efficiency of workers. To the managerial perspective, workers are merely costs of production that are subject to the impersonal laws of supply and demand. Managers are retained by the board of directors only as long as they increase profits and they only agree to stay as long as they receive sufficient monetary compensation.

Expressive individualism is personified or embodied by the therapist. Both utilitarian and expressive individualism are concerned with maximizing self-interest. But the measure of self-interest for the manager is quantified as money. The therapist measure of self-interest is the more subjective criterion of personal happiness. From the therapeutic view, the goal of relationships is always self-interest. The individual comes first in a relationship and the individuals happiness always takes precedence over the welfare of the relationship. Being too giving, too dependent or too committed to someone else can threaten the freedom and identity of the self. Needing others to feel okay is the fundamental malady that therapy seeks to cure. Sacrifice and dependency are dirty words in therapy. If youre sacrificing in a relationship, if youre becoming dependent in a relationship then you have risk of losing yourself. Thats a bad thing from this therapeutic point of view. From the therapeutic perspective, mutual selfishness is essential to love. Therapeutic marriage rejects all cultural traditions because culture is a one side fits all. A reflection of this therapeutic approach would be people who for instance could not accept the traditional vows of marriage. They wrote their own vows, thus making their own standards for their own relationship.

Finding Oneself by leaving home  church
The object of family is to fulfill personal needs. If your family life does not personally satisfy and does not allow you to be yourself then you can opt out. Bellah and his co-authors are worried about the family becoming less of a moral community, and more of a lifestyle enclave. According to the authors, the therapeutic attitude deprives the individual of the belief that their love and marriage is part of something greater than each partners personal interests and desires. For the therapeutic point of view, love and marriage have no higher moral authority that commands the couple loyalty. The relationship is not grounded in any transcendent moral order. Love and marriage are essentially just contractual obligations based on negotiation between individuals acting on their own self-interest. Feeling becomes more important than belief. Feelings are a weak basis of a relationship because theyre self-leading and capricious. Belief is an enduring, strong basis of a relationship. Even when your feelings for somebody are not strong and they change, your belief can sustain your relationship when your feelings are hurt. The authors are getting concerned that more and more people are basing their relationships exclusively on feelings and that is why so many relationships fail. Our modern obsession of sex and money are manifestations of this therapeutic attitude. Sex is all about feeling, about a needy gratification. The authors dont believe you could sustain a relationship on sex because sex and money allow us to quantify the cost and benefit in a relationship. Judging the worth of a relationship with the cost-benefit analysis equation tends to cheapen the relationship when you try to quantify it or reduce it to something like a market equation or a contract.

Bellah and his co-authors think that its this therapeutic mentality that is pushing up the divorce rate. You dont even have to believe in God to accept the biblical tradition. You just have to think that your relationship has some moral basis to it. That the two of you are more important than each of you. That this union of two people is more important than the personal happiness of each person. And that you can derive deep important meaning more from that union than you can from your own individual interest.

Personality Types
The Therapeutic Personality (Habits of the Heart)
Ascendancy of utilitarian  expressive individualism (the manager therapist)
The authors recognized that the US has four cultural traditions biblical, republican, expressive and utilitarian. The community traditions are the republican and biblical. The expressive and utilitarian traditions represent our individualistic traditions. In the early part of our history, these traditions were balanced. Any time the individual traditions become too greedy or selfish, the community traditions would bring them back in. The community traditions were not totalitarian or too oppressive because we have these offsetting individualistic traditions. However in the 20th century, they argue that the balance has been tilted in the favor of expressive and utilitarian individualism. Our community traditions are weakening. The embodiment of the 20th century utilitarianism is seen in a corporate manager. The goal of the utilitarian individual is to express his self-interest. The other side of individualism is expressive individualism which is studied in the context of therapy. The therapist epitomizes expressive individualism which is not precisely quantified in terms of money but is measured in terms of personal happiness. The goal of the expressive individual is to maximize his happiness. But all happiness is based on feeling and the authors are critical of feeling. They dont think feeling is a strong basis of relationships because feeling is shallow, superficial and ever-changing. And yet therapists always advise to follow your feelings. There had been an ascendancy of feeling over belief. Strong, deeply held beliefs are what community is grounded in. You have conviction with belief but with feelings, theyre fickle and unstable. A marriage based on feeling is a weak marriage and therefore explains the rising divorce rates. From a community perspective, married individuals should be seen as one or as a union. Their destiny and faith have enjoined. This is an old-fashioned view of marriage.

Sacrifice and commitment are dirty words from the therapists point of view. If youre going to sacrifice, you will lose yourself in the relationship. Therapy warns you against losing yourself in a relationship.

Finding Oneself
Leaving Home
The quest of finding ones self in America is predicated on the value of self-reliance. The first and most significant phase of this quest is leaving home. Leaving home is a uniquely American preoccupation that reflects our cultural value on separation and individualism. American teenagers cant wait to get out on their own and make their own way or living. Part of adolescence is an urgency to break away from parental dependency and supervision. Separation from home, while desired, can be difficult because people still get homesick. But the really frightening prospect for both the parent and the child is the child never leaving home. The conception and expectation of self-reliance actually ties us together with our families. Leaving the home is a common understanding that you have with your parents. Much of the socialization process is about preparing kids to live on their own. So as children age, parents are supposed to teach them to have increasing responsibility or to have so-called life skills. If children continue to live at home past their twenties, the parents are regarded as failures in parenting. Our very notion of adulthood and maturity are defined by self-reliance. If you cant live on your own and take care of yourself, youre immature. It is an indication that youre not taking responsibility.

Leaving Church
Finding oneself in America has also meant leaving church. Whats important from this concept of self-reliance is to arrive at your own sect of Christianity or spirituality along your own path. Under expressive individualism, belief is not a question of belonging or serving. Belief is a question of discovering the self outside of community. The struggle of self-reliance and self-meaning is guided by the myth that our deepest and most genuine beliefs are formed in the isolation of our private selves. Old religions are weakening and the fastest growing faith is the one which celebrates individualism. People are turning away from authoritarian religions and turning to egalitarian religions where they can have a say over their own destiny and salvation.

Work as self-realization therapy or profit
Work has become an extension of the self. Through work, you can make something of yourself. The notion that your work is a calling is more in line with the biblical tradition that youve been called to serve others. Thats not the meaning of work today. People no longer understand the meaning of their work in the context of the larger community, let alone in the religious context. Work is about self-interest and the maximization of personal wealth, status and calling. Success in the career today is completely demised from community service.

Lifestyle enclaves v. community
Lifestyle enclaves are cult-like groups of people that share similar personalities and would come together periodically to share something of similar interest to all of them. Theyre not communities because they dont share enough. In lifestyle enclaves, you can drop out of at anytime but in communities you have deeper roots. Commitment in lifestyle enclaves is weak. Lifestyle enclave is actually changing traditional communities. For instance, marriage is becoming more of a lifestyle enclave when you find your mate somebody you can relate to only in terms of lifestyle. You share common leisure activities, tastes, preferences, etc.

Narcissistic Personality
Social Influence on Narcissism
Narcissistic traits are well-suited to modern institutional life-narcissism has become the favored personality

The shallow values of narcissists and their fear of intimate personal relations suit him or her well to the impersonal relations of corporate and government bureaucracies. The narcissist can become a very effective and successful bureaucrat because the bureaucracy requires impersonality or detachment or shallowness. The increasing size of organizations like universities and corporations create greater anonymity and reduce individuals to self-interest and competition. The narcissist is receiving positive feedback from the social order yet he feels empty. You see a lot of successful people in therapy. The problem is that therapy becomes less and less effective since most of the therapeutic methods employed by therapists are hyper-individualistic. They only exacerbate narcissistic tendencies. The appearance of normalcy and success overshadows the symptoms of pathology. Narcissists seem like regular people. They are not crazed nor do they dont appear to be sick or insane. They dont appear to be antisocial and can be very charming and sociable. They function well in society.

Corporate gamesmanship
Todays successful corporate leader is no longer a company man or woman who shows loyalty to the firm. Corporate success is now a game that requires the individual to play other people in the organization against each other. The institutional setting that extols individual career success over team work and cooperation is a fertile ground for the narcissistic personality. The narcissist is very political, very shrewd and knows how to play work politics very well. They have the ability to manipulate people and play the role of the corporate gamesman very well. The corporate gamesman is ready to sell the company down the river if another company gives him or her a better offer. And they would already be scheming to take their clients with them in their new job. Of course the corporation will only have its self to blame. It developed this corporate culture that encourages narcissism. The corporation has furthered this culture of individual opportunism by constant outsourcing and downsizing, by making job security a thing of the past. In the end, its not the worker job performance that counts for the corporate manager, what matters is style, panache and the skill of manipulating others.

The cultures of psychiatry and self-help
The social construction of endless diagnoses means that there are more ways for us to deviate from normal physical and mental health. With all these new diagnoses and the medicalisation of behavior, there are so many more ways to deviate from normal mental health. This feeds into the narcissist hypochondria. Theyre very sensitive to their mental health. They can think about new ways to be sick. Every bad sensation that they have, the hypochondriac would want to put a label on it and want a specific definition. They want a diagnosis for this. They need it. Theres an irrational preoccupation with health. This is a symptom of narcissism.

Bourgeois and Bohemian personality types converge into Bobos (Boboism)
The author of Bobos in Paradise, David Brooks looks at two cultural traditions in the United States, the bourgeois cultural tradition and a bohemian cultural tradition. For most of our history, the two remain depart. You couldnt be both. But only in the late 20th century did they merge and become this sort of high-breed culture known as Boboism. Its only with the ascendancy of a class of educated elites in the 1960s that these rival cultures have become consolidated into a single Bobo culture. The baby boomers, the largest generation in American history by far, are these people born between 1946 and 1960.

The Bourgeois strain in American culture is materialistic and pragmatic. It values refined taste and genteel manners. The snobby elite of the ruling class or the ruling elite comes to mind. They were very status-oriented. In contrast, Bohemian culture is artistic, romantic, earthy, spontaneous and anti-establishment. This is somewhat synonymous with expressive individualism.

The boomers themselves were raised mostly by Bourgeois parents in the post war era but in the 1960s, they embraced this sort of hippie culture which had a lot of Bohemian aspects to it. It borrowed a lot from the beat generation from the fifties. They preceded the hippies. Whereas the Bourgeois conspired to differentiate themselves through conspicuous consumption, the Bohemians strived to differentiate themselves to conspicuous consumption of material goods. Non-conformity to conventional norms. Bohemians do whatever comes natural, whatever feels right. Theyre more spontaneous. The bohemian rejects pay materialism and mindless social climbing. Its a blatant, explicit rejection of the Bourgeois lifestyle. But as a concrete culture, Bohemian lifestyle didnt really take root in the United States until after World War I. Ernest Hemingway is considered one of the young Bohemians in the 1920s. Artists, authors, dancers are the Bohemians of the 1920s and 1930s. Many of them left the United States to go live in France, because they thought the United States middle class Bourgeois culture was so stifling that they had to go somewhere else where they could express themselves more freely. The next incarnation of the Bohemian culture would be the beats in the 1950s. The final and most famous or infamous wave of Bohemians were the hippies of the 1960s. Sex, drugs, rock and roll became their slogan.

(1) What is hermeneutics and how can it help social science
The process of hermeneutics is a style of analysis that seeks to further understand the significance and value of interpretation. This philosophical approach seeks to consolidate ideas and come up with particular meanings in a particular topic or scope (University of Toronto, 2006). Given these, it seeks to understand the value of language as a necessary means to transmit information and ideas related to a specific field of study. Due to this, it is often considered relevant in seeking questions that can help utilize and further improve the level of comprehending the value and significance of a particular endeavor (Abulad, 2007).

Relating this idea to social science, the process of hermeneutics remain essential because of its ability to shape and foster better ways to appreciate the history, culture, and interpretation of ideas. The information provided corresponds to carefully utilizing and providing appropriate questions that can cultivate and enhance the level of appreciating the realities as individuals, groups, and society sees it (University of Toronto, 2007). Due to this, it is often considered essential in raising questions and establishes appropriate perspective over issues surrounding the social science.  Thus, it becomes a vital instrument on how language imparts vital insights with reality.

(2) What is phenomenology and how can it help social science
The idea of phenomenology corresponds to the idea of creating interpretation over specific realties with ones sense of consciousness experience. Here, it details the value and perspective of how the individual sees and responds to these trends within the external environment (Wise Geek, 2007). Here, it characterizes the value of using ones cognitive abilities to create a correlation with ones individual surroundings. This dual interaction then creates a perspective of perceiving specific idea and cultivates the creation of knowledge accordingly (Wise Geek, 2007). Thus, this process seeks to objectify the common experiences that an individual faces which are often considered to be subjective in both origin and interpretation.

Relating this to the aspect of social science, the practice of using the phenomenological approach cultivates better the impact that society impacts the individual. It serves as an important framework in creating interpretations on the value that individual makes concerning experiences and how it coincides with the realities that are happening (Wisegeek, 2007). Similarly, the value of experiences serves to illustrate the capacity of how disciplines of social science affect individual perceptions, judgments, and emotions. Through such relationship, it helps create better analysis on the way social sciences influence consciousness and experiences.

Perhaps one of the most intense and controversial issues that should be addressed immediately in the United States is about the minority groups living in the country. For years, racial discrimination, prejudice and racism had been a part of our oldest values and culture alongside equality, freedom and justice. Issues about race, gender and ethnicity will not be resolved easily unless people will be knowledgeable and passionate about resolving issues such as this (Healey xix).

Things seem to happen continuously in our world. Everyday we see in our television, read in the newspaper and magazines and hear from the radio violent conflicts between countries either economically or politically. In a modern world such as ours, it is a question why primitive behaviors seem to re-surface in forms of untoward behaviors towards other people such as prevailing issues in race, gender and ethnicity (Eller 2).

Asian, Black, Caucasian- these are some of the terms we often hear when people categorize others when it comes to their race. Oftentimes the term race can be connected to the word racism which commonly causes disagreements between people. Racism can be defined as the prejudice of people when it comes to the physical characteristic of others. The term has been loosely used to define the negative feelings of others towards people who have a different race.

Racism for me is a negative trait especially because we tend to judge people just by their physical differences. For an instance when we see someone with a different skin color from us, we tend to generalize their behaviors without giving them a chance to acknowledge themselves first. We overlook their real capacities just because we have this prejudice that our race is more superior to them.

Racism is a barrier when it comes to effective communication with other people. It also limits our capacities to interact very well with others. However, if people will not realize the barriers racism creates, it will still continue throughout generations. If truth be told, racism cannot simply be changed in one day or just by simply passing laws that will be enforced to stop it. Racism is part of a culture and drastic changes are needed to sometimes change ones culture (Bowser xviii).

Another debated issue which continues to challenge most people is gender inequality. The gap between men and women when it comes to social responsibilities remains to be an issue for others. In our time, our lives are oftentimes in a rush. Because of this some of our family members, let us say both our parents work in order to cope up with our lifes demands. Before, people regard women as solely for housework or chores. Women were regarded as part of the household and not as individuals (Brckner 1). They could not vote before or enjoy other liberties which men had.

In our society nowadays, women are considered to be somewhat equal to men when it comes to the labor market or voting rights. Women can wear anything they want and they can choose their jobs. Women now are not stuck doing household chores and babysitting children. They are now more productive in a sense that they contribute more to the present society than before.

In the present, there are female leaders which spearhead good changes in some countries. The strength of the women worldwide is not greatly recognized because of their major contributions in the world.

Gender inequality is an issue which is slowly being resolved by passing laws which widen the rights of women. Unlike racism, inequality in gender, for me, can be resolved easier because it only involves two factors- the men and the women, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Ethnicity and race are often confused with each other. Ethnicity can be defined as the group of individuals who consider themselves to be sharing or bonded over same characteristics or behavior. Ethnicity is different from race because race means the similarities of people when it comes to physical attributes or appearance such as the color of the skin or the shape of the eyes (Eriksen 1). Based on the distinction made by sociologist before, race is a biological category while ethnicity is a cultural one (Jiobu 5).

Ethnic issues are becoming prominent over time in the world and these issues are complex ones. It has also gripped the worlds attention like no other. Based on some data gathered, there are almost as many as five thousand to eight thousand distinguishable ethnic groups to date. These issues are shaped by culture or history and the present conditions of the state of mind of the people.

There are several instances when superior cultures try to dominate other cultures through colonialism. Some people tend to influence others through the way they talk, their beliefs, or just the way they dress. Immigrants are sometimes dominated by the culture of the place they go to. I believe that issues concerning ethnicity should be resolved immediately so as to preserve other peoples culture or ethnic identities.

People should learn how to respect others who may possibly have a different race or ethnicity from us. Either they are of the same or different gender as us we are not entitled to act superior to them. We should always respect others for respect begets respect. If we try to put ourselves in their situation, we will be able to comprehend what they have to go through in order to find a place they belong to.

Indeed being able to stop racism or other issues pertaining to race, gender and ethnicity can be too ideal since these kinds of problems cannot be stopped in a day or in a short period of time. It needs immediate and long term solutions and it should begin within us. In a modern world such as ours, we have to open our minds towards development. Development can only be achieved if we stopped acting on primitive behaviors when it comes to social problems.

To new teachers, the primary challenge is usually establishing control over the students (Nucci, 2006). Melissa Reid has just achieved her long time dream of being a high school teacher but that dream is quickly turning into a nightmare. Two months into the experience, she quickly finds herself out of control of the class. It all starts with Gregorys outburst during a session. The outburst derails the academic discussion to Melissas night job and the consequent revelation that she is not yet a fully-fledged teacher. She allows the discussion to dwell on her private life and the students now fail to see her as their teacher, and hence the authority, instead seeing her as a teaching student.

As a new teacher, her main challenge was establishing herself as the authority and maintaining discipline and order in the classroom. She fails to establish herself as the authority in the absence of her cooperating teacher, Jane Maddox. This accompanied by the revelation that she is yet to graduate makes her lose the respect as a teacher and hence the quagmire. The situation deteriorates rapidly with some of the students yelling, sneering and using inapt language bordering on abusive.

The role of a teacher, beyond imparting knowledge, includes class management. She applies good classroom management practices by applying cooperative learning, understanding the students individually and behavior modification but this is not enough to regain control with James. James overreacts and threatens her with violence. James mother has been called to the school twice in a week and she understands that James has an underlying problem and even suggests professional help.

The need for psychological help for James should be a reason enough for Melissa to take the threat seriously and talk to the dean and James parents. She should advice the parents to seek professional help to better understand the underlying problem of their son.

In this discussion, four articles dealing with the treatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities will be reviewed. These four articles will discuss the training of staff engaged in aiding individuals with specialized needs. A systematic review of each article will be conducted in order to understand the role of each in the present body of research. After a review of each of the articles, a comparison will be conducted in order to assess the best manner in approaching the training of staff dedicated to serving individuals with intellectual disabilities. The strengths and weaknesses of the articles will be assessed in order to generate the best platform upon which to base the future training of health institutions staff members.

The first study to be reviewed was conducted by Lowe et al. Lowes study focused on the training of staff to implement positive behavior support. Previous studies had shown that positive behavioral support was the preferred mode of service by patients with specialized needs. However, health institutions had few members of their staff equipped to provide such support. Lowe et al. wanted to address this disparity by providing introductory training to the staff members in general rather than equipping only specialist servers of the staff with comprehensive training.

The researchers remained relevant when they decided to test the depth of knowledge retained by the trainees and the impact that the training had on their attitudes. The researchers further checked for long-term effects of the training by gauging the knowledge and changed attitude of the trainees one year after the conduct of the training. These questions helped to assess the efficacy of the training conducted.

A quasi-experimental design was adopted by distinguishing between registered and unregistered members of the staff who underwent training. Members of the registered staff were perceived as qualified nurses while members of the unregistered staff were perceived as unqualified nurses. The design was high in internal validity because it provided a baseline measure for knowledge and attitude. The participants were asked to complete the questionnaires prior to training proper.

Overall there were three assessment points to consider (1) prior to training (2) directly after training and (3) one year after training. It was only with regard to the last that the internal validity of the study was threatened. The period of time without monitoring and supervision from the researchers allowed the participants to come in contact with members of the other group. It would have been difficult to control for external factors or to attribute changes to the mere passing of time.

The study was also high in external validity for nurses of the age-range focused on in the study. Lowe et al. were able to differentiate nurses between those who received prior training on the material and those who had not. This makes the results generalizable to both groups. However, the study might not have taken into consideration the recent growth in demand of nurses. This has caused schools in recent years to be more rigid in their training in order to produce graduates with a competitive advantage over other job applicants. The findings for the knowledge scores of registered nurses may therefore not be applicable anymore.

The dependent variable in the study was the training received by the nurses. The independent variable was the treatment that the nurses offered to patients with severely challenging behavior. The independent variable was operationalized in terms of knowledge and changed attitude of the staff. This could have been operationalized in a more effective way if patient feedback had been assessed as well. The study revealed that the training improved knowledge and perceived confidence of the staff members. However, the long-term effect of the training was minimal and not statistically significant.

McClean et al. directed their research to the assessment of Person Focused Training as a service delivery mode to persons with severe challenging behavior. In this study it is also accepted that positive behavioral support is acknowledged as the most effective method of caring for individuals with severe challenging behaviors. To address the problem of actualizing positive behavioral support in the practice of health care staff, McClean et al. propose that a person-by-person adaptation of the method be implemented. This would take into consideration the individual differences of patients thereby promoting personal improvement.

The study was a non-experimental design although in the analysis of data the nature of the patients behavioral problems were categorized as were the nature of the treatment facilities availed of. The study was high in internal validity because it provided a baseline mark for the condition of the patients and the practice of the caregivers. The period of time prior to the application of the independent variable was sufficient to gauge the pre-test condition. Thus, changes subsequent to the introduction of Person Focused Training could be attributed to the training.

The research is also high in external validity because of the wide sampling that was conducted thereby covering a vast range of severe challenging behavior and platforms for treatment introduction. Moreover, the extended period of time throughout which data was periodically and systematically collected allowed for the tracking of changes in the dependent variables. The effects of extraneous variables were minimized and controlled for through the extended period of data collection.

The independent variable in this case was the manner in implementing positive behavioral support. The dependent variable was the condition of the patient. The researchers operationalized the dependent variable by introducing positive behavioral support in a case-per-case basis and taking into account the peculiarities of each patients case. The dependent variable was operationalized by assessing reductions in patients target behaviors.

The results of the research showed that Person Focused Training had significant effects on reduction of target behaviors. Moreover, the training sustained changed behavior over an extended period of time. However, a problem is encountered in the replication of effective methods that were used by the caregivers.

The Person Focused Training should have been further qualified in terms of actual techniques and actions taken by the caregivers in the classes of severe challenging behavior encountered. The lack of analysis in this regard could have introduced extraneous variables which could have better accounted for the improvements of behavior. The deeper analysis of the case-by-case treatment in Person Focused Training would be a good subject of future research.

The third article to be reviewed deals with pyramidal training of staff in order to promote skill-acquisition by all caregivers within the health care institution. The goal of the research was to reduce client behavior targets by improving the skills of the health care staff. This was conducted by employing an experimental design wherein patient progress was noted at varied times. In one case the behavior of the patient and of the staff member was noted every time the staff member administered a particular training session. In the second case, progress was taken note of all throughout the day thereby accounting for the daily behavior of the patient and the behavior of the different staff members assigned to him during the course of the days shifts. For the third group the assessment was conducted only after completion of supervisor training.

The experiment employed a multiple baseline design. The independent variable was the method of training and the dependent variable was the change in behavior in clients and staff members. The method of training was sufficiently operationalized with a method outlined for supervisor training and for supervisor communication of the training to subordinates. The dependent variable was operationalized using different sets of indicators for the various groups in the study. This did not present problems because of the nature of treatment implementation in these groups.

Two baselines were adopted in this study. The first baseline was collected from the staff members and the patients during a treatment and generalization session. The second baseline was obtained prior to the training of supervisors. Upon the initialization of the exhaustive training program, measurements were not collected by the researchers. However, upon completion of the training, the collection of data was resumed.

The research reflected a high degree of internal validity because of the contrast given by the three sets of experimental groups. The first two groups reflected current practices of the facility and as such tracked the improvements that those practices provided. The third group tracked the improvements that could be achieved if the training program were implemented. The use of multiple baselines ensured that the comparisons made between the groups were parallel. The utilization of a single baseline would not have ensured such parallelism in comparisons.

The research was rather limited in its generalizability because it focused on only a small range of behaviors to be reduced and treated. The efficacy of the training might not be evidence considering the number and variety of client cases prevalent in health care institutions. The effectiveness of the model may not be evidenced when it is used to teach the whole array of behaviors to be treated and addressed. Another problem would be the population size of the study. The population studied was rather small. The results might not be produced if a health care institution employing several hundreds of staff members were to adopt it. Taking into consideration the manpower needed to make the training effective, it may be inconvenient or impractical for large health care facilities to adopt this mode of training.

The study showed that the implementation of treatment procedures improved as a result of the pyramidal training employed. The improvement was evidenced by significant improvement in staff implementation as well as improvement in reduction of client target behaviors. The pyramidal technique of communicating skills employed by Shore et al. required a labor-extensive program. This would transfer many of the staff from client treatment to training thereby producing an imbalance in services while staff members undergo and facilitate training.

The fourth and final article to be reviewed involves the implementation of a 3-day training for treating challenging behavior. The goal of the research was to reduce negative emotional reactions and promote self-efficacy of staff members confronted with challenging behaviors. The research also aimed to improve the causal beliefs of staff members regarding challenging behavior.

The research employed a non-experimental design. The design was low in internal validity because of the nature of the collection of data. The questionnaires were sent and collected by post. The threat of social interactions with other practitioners or with other training programs was not controlled for. Baselines were obtained in the study. This increased the likelihood of internal validity. Questionnaires were filled out prior to the 3-day training and once again filled out 3 months after the 3-day training. While the pre-test was sufficient to mark out baseline, the 3 month period opened the opportunity for contamination of the effect of the 3-day training. It is well to note the absence of control conditions to ensure that the changes observed in the 3-day training group was attributable to the training.

The research is high in external validity because it tested a sample of staff members across a wide range of demographic categorizations. The diversity of the practice and personal background of the participants ensured that the research population was representative of the general population at large. However, the low level of internal validity made the research findings doubtful.

The results showed that changes in causal belief and negative emotional responses were not present. However, there was a significant improvement in self-efficacy and confidence of the staff members. The independent variable in the study was the training process and the dependent variable were the self-efficacy of staff members, their causal beliefs and their negative emotional responses. The operationalization of both the independent and dependent variables were sufficient and replicable. However, there was a problem in the manner of operationalizing self-efficacy in that it was largely self-report. The opinion of supervising staff members and the progress of the patients should also have been looked into. This failure to adequately operationalize the dependent variable also contributed to the low internal validity of the study.

Critical Analysis
The four articles that were reviewed all focused on the improvement of services and staff member skills directed towards the treatment of severe challenging behavior. The four articles studied the effectiveness of different training programs that could be utilized for this purpose. Lowes study showed the importance of having all staff members retain skills in treating challenging behavior.

It is noted however that in Lowes design there was a failure to assess the staff members skills in terms of patient progress. This was similar to Tierneys study because the improvement of skills was assessed only based on self-report data given by the staff members. The studies of McClean and Shore on the other hand assessed improvement through the reflected reduction of target behaviors in patients. This provided a more objective measurement of staff member improvement and treatment application.

It is also observed that in Lowe and McCleans designs there was no qualification on the training provided to the staff members. The actual practice of the training was therefore not capable of being reviewed nor could an objective assessment of the actual implementation of the skills be conducted. In Shore and Tierneys studies the training was discussed in detail to ensure that the skills practiced could be identified and assessed. Although in Tierney no such assessment was conducted thereby weakening the study design.

Conclusion
The studies reveal the need to conduct training of staff members in order to improve self-efficacy and in order to lessen negative emotional responses to challenging behaviors. In order to ensure that training is communicated into patient progress then the training should be personal and extensive in nature. Introductory training may improve short-term treatment but will not be retained by staff members in the long-term. Also, a Person Focused Training is effective in promoting staff member understanding and empathy for patients. Person Focused Training coupled with a pyramidal or 3-day training would promote reduction in target behavior as well as reduction of staff member negative emotional response.