Category: Lugh Goes to School

APA Format

What do you think about APA formatting? Do you think it adds to a paper or does the need for attention to form detract from the ability to demonstrate knowledge of a subject? I had one professor who was so hung up on formatting that he completely disregarded the content of what I wrote as a result. If it were not for doing well on the class quizzes, I would have failed simply because not enough emphasis is placed on demonstrated knowledge, which makes me wonder if there were people who spewed absolute garbage and managed to pass simply on the form?

Lugh goes to School Part 2

Well as things are there is not much at a college level for online/distance-learning Sociology courses so I am branching out and taking an Introduction to Psychology course starting July 5th. At the university level, there are many sociology courses, however, it would seem that you must be part of an undergraduate or graduate course load. and quite frankly I do not have the time or the money to support that endeavor. So I shall keep plugging away at the college courses I find interesting.

WOOT!!! Update

I just received my grade on the following https://unplugged-pagan.com/2022/11/21/second-assignment-done

I received an A+ with the following commentary from the course instructor “Great work! Insightful and thoughtful connections to the course content.” Now just have to wait for the final exam mark, but I think we can say one and done!!!!

I was a little apprehensive about the topic of my first analysis as it had to do with a sensitive subject matter but relieved it was received well from an academic standpoint. and this puts me in the realm of a 3.67 GPA

Well instructor went ahead and marked the final exam, my finishing GPA for the course was 3.8, percentage-wise 85 percent or a letter grade of an A.

It will do donkey. it will do!

Role Conflict and Role Strain

Role Conflict

occurs when seemingly incompatible social expectations exist while attempting to act in multiple roles at once.

Role Strain

The strain individuals feel as they try to occupy two groups at once.

Simulacra

copies that depict things that either had no original or that no longer have an original

I am but a Junior in this whole study of sociology, but as I read I have to reason and evaluate and postulate upon the concepts I am encountering, there are times to I have to write things out and this is again one of them. As with most things I write about I draw upon personal perspectives and real-world occurrences. There are many who do not like what I write, they feel I should just shut up and go away. Sorry, that is not going to happen, If I can help but one person out there, if what I have written gives one person hope, or possibly even an “AHA” moment I will take that as being some measure of success.

I am trying not to live in the past, for I truly believe that one who lives there has no future, but there occasionally comes a time when I read or encounter something that thrusts me back there and I am left with a few options on how to deal with it. Stay up all night with the thoughts running around in my head or writing. More so lately I am choosing to write, I truly wish I could take my thoughts directly out of my head and place them on a computer screen. This writing thing is just way too slow. Although this may be a good thing because it is causing me to slow down and think. But just be forewarned that my writing may seem to go all over the place.

So tonight these three things came up in my reading for my sociology course 1/ Role Conflict, 2/ Role Strain, and 3/ Simulacra. now, what do these things hold in common in my mind at the moment? Simulacra: depictions of things that have no original or that no longer have an original. To put this in perspective this is how my head views the concept of Simulacra, going back to a place such as a vacation spot, job, group, or other such thing and you have created an image or expectation or memory in your head of that thing and not having that thing live up to your expectations. Role conflict, let us expand on that a bit and call this internal conflict, where your mind is trying to resolve the difference between what you believe should be and what is in fact real. Role strain your mind’s inevitable response to being incapable of resolving said role conflict, and IMHO sometimes results in depression.

Cults and Total Institutions

Well as i am going through my course materials for Intro to Sociology the required reading brought me to a section on Erving Goffman. Goffman was a Canadian Sociologist whose early works had him studying life in institutions, IE prisons, and mental health wards. His works brought me back to another subject I had looked at a while ago and that was Cults, and defining what cults were. In that subject matter, I read that studies on Cults were difficult to complete. The reasons are quite understandable, Cults usually are things that are Identified “posthumously,” and no one really goes out and says “Hey we’re a cult come join us.” Cults also evolve over time and do not usually begin as such. I would say they are more like the frog who has been put in a cauldron of water and had water temperature increase slowly and gradually over time until the water is boiling and it is too late for the frog to get out.

This all being said I think the claim that “cults” have not been studied I believe is not entirely true. I believe Goffman’s work on “Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates” is totally applicable to Cults. I think the only main difference between life in an institution and life in a cult, is the circumstance that brought you there. I believe that as an institutionalized person your overall goal is to get out and back into society as a whole person, whilst the mindset of those who are in a cult would probably be they never want to leave and immerse themselves further and further until mainstream society becomes something they avoid rather than embrace.

Now there are those who are in an institutionalized environment that never want to leave because they have been there so long they are afraid of the outside world we definitely know that there are those who realize they are in an unhealthy environment and once that realization attempt to leave. In either of those cases usually, the transition to normal society is difficult. In these cases what sometimes happens is re-institutionalization or winding up in another cult or perhaps even creating one. There is also the sad situation where the idea of leaving, or the realization they need to leave is so profound that suicides occur.

Neo-Tribalism

“According to Michael Maffesoli, a French sociologist, we are living in “the time of the tribes.” Our world is changing rapidly and is fraught with risk and unpredictability. The foundations of our beliefs and understanding of our history are being challenged and are changing. As individuals, we are seeking out new meanings to our lives and new places to belong.” (paraphrased)

New collectives, or tribes, have emerged says Maffesoli: They are dynamic, fleeting, and “Dionysiac”…..
— Source “The Sociology Book: page 291

Is tribalism positive or negative?

With a negative connotation and in a political context, tribalism can also mean discriminatory behavior or attitudes towards out-groups, based on in-group loyalty
— source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism

Reflections I,ME

Is there no such thing as our true self?
Are we only actors performing roles based on the positions we occupy in society and culture?

As I plod along through this course I cannot but reflect on myself and life over the last many years. Of all topics to come across was that of suicide. I had to briefly ponder that, and how socially we all had our parts to play in that last desperate action of an old friend. It is also interesting to reflect upon the emergence of a community, to be there nearly from the beginning, and to have witnessed where it has gone up to the point where I have departed from it. From a sociological standpoint I now somewhat understand the how’s and why’s and cycles of it.

Right now I am currently working through a module on Socialization and Symbolic interactionism and part of the module was this video. After watching it I had to sit and write this particular post because well it just made me want to sit and reflect for a few and to write. Here is the video and maybe you might need to reflect as well.