13: Proposals
- Utilize audience analysis to plan, write, and revise a proposal.
- Explain the proposal process and various proposal types.
- Format and organize a written proposal.
- Adapt the style and content of a proposal based on the type of proposal and audience analysis.
In a technical writing course, the proposal is an opportunity for you to present an idea to a specific, named audience about an idea you have that company, organization, center, or other business. Whatever topic you choose, you must be able to conduct thorough research that you will integrate into your final report.
To begin planning a proposal, remember the basic definition: a proposal is an offer or bid to complete a project for someone. Proposals may contain other elements—technical background, recommendations, results of surveys, information about feasibility, and so on. But what makes a proposal a proposal is that it asks the audience to approve, fund, or grant permission to do the proposed project.
A proposal should contain information that would enable the audience of that proposal to decide whether to approve the project, to approve or hire you to do the work, or both. To write a successful proposal, put yourself in the place of your audience—the recipient of the proposal—and think about what sorts of information that person would need in order to feel confident having you complete the project. Consider the example of a proposal written to a supervisor at a solar power company suggesting the creation of a policy manual for residential solar panel installers. The proposal’s audience may be an executive, whose knowledge of the technicalities may be very broad. Let’s imagine the executive approves the proposal and requests completion of the manual, which will be produced well after the proposal. The manual’s audience is the technicians, who may have more specialized knowledge than the executive. The content and language used for these two different audiences will need to be adjusted to fit the writing situation.
It is easy to confuse proposals with other kinds of documents in technical writing. Imagine that you have a terrific idea for installing some new technology where you work, and you write up a document explaining how it works, showing the benefits, and then urging management to install it. Is that a proposal? All by itself, this would not be a complete proposal. It would be more like a feasibility report, which studies the merits of a project and then recommends for or against it. However, all it would take to make this document a proposal would be to add elements that ask management for approval for you to go ahead with the project. Additionally, for some technical writing classes offered in college, one of those elements may be scholarly research. Certainly, some writers of proposals must sell the projects they propose, but in all cases, proposals must sell the writer (or the writer’s organization) as the one to complete the project.
Types of Proposals
Consider the situations in which proposals occur. A company may send out a public announcement requesting proposals for a specific project. This public announcement—called a request for proposals (RFP)—could be issued through websites, emails, social media, newspapers, or trade journals. Firms or individuals interested in the project would then write proposals in which they summarize their qualifications, project schedules and costs, and discuss their approach to the project. The recipient of all these proposals would then evaluate them, select the best candidate, and then work up a contract.
But proposals also come about much less formally. Imagine that you are interested in doing a project at work (for example, investigating the merits of bringing in some new technology to increase productivity). Imagine that you met with your supervisor and tried to convince him or her of this. They might respond by saying, “Write me a proposal and I’ll present it to upper management.” This is more like the kind of proposal you will write in a technical writing course.
Most proposals can be divided into several categories:
- Internal, external: A proposal to someone within your organization (a business, a government agency, etc.) is an internal proposal. With internal proposals, you may not have to include certain sections (such as qualifications) or as much information in them. An external proposal is one written from one separate, independent organization or individual to another such entity. A typical example is an independent consultant proposing to do a project for another firm. This kind of proposal may be solicited or unsolicited, as explained below.
- Solicited, unsolicited: A solicited proposal is one in which the recipient has requested the proposal. Typically, a company will send out requests for proposals (RFPs) through the mail or publish them in some news source. But proposals can be solicited on a very local level: for example, you could be explaining to your boss what a great thing it would be to install a new technology in the office; your boss might get interested and ask you to write up a proposal that offered to do a formal study of the idea. Unsolicited proposals are those in which the recipient has not requested proposals. With unsolicited proposals, you sometimes must convince the recipient that a problem or need exists before you can begin the main part of the proposal.
Scenarios for Proposals
Many of you may have never given much thought to producing a technical report based on a viable proposal. Here are some sample proposal ideas to ponder:
- Imagine that a company has a problem or wants to make some sort of improvement. The company sends out a request for proposals; you receive one and respond with a proposal. You offer to come in, investigate, interview, make recommendations—and present it all in the form of a report.
- An organization wants a seminar in your expertise. You write a proposal to give the seminar—included in the package deal is a guide or handbook that the people attending the seminar will receive.
- An agency has just started using a new online data system, but the user’s manual is technically complex and difficult to read. You receive a request for proposals from this agency to write a simplified guide or startup guide.
- Imagine that a nonprofit organization focused on a particular issue wants a consultant to write a handbook or guide for its membership. This document will present information on the issue in a way that the members can understand.
Not all research topics are appropriate for technical writing. Topics that are based on values and beliefs do not fall into the category of technical writing. Historical and literary topics do not qualify.
Sections in a Proposal
You have the following options for the format and packaging of your proposal. It does not matter which you use as long as you use the memorandum format for internal proposals and the business-letter format for external proposals.
- Cover letter or memo with a separate proposal: In this format, you write a brief "cover" letter or memo and attach the proposal properly after it. The cover letter or memo briefly announces that a proposal follows and outlines the contents of it. In fact, the contents of the cover letter or memo are pretty much the same as the introduction (discussed in the previous section). Notice, however, that the introduction to the proposal proper that follows the cover letter or memo repeats much of what preceded. This is because the letter or memo may get detached from the proposal or the recipient may not even bother to look at the letter or memo and just dive right into the proposal itself.
- Consolidated business-letter or memo proposal: In this format, you consolidate the entire proposal with a standard business letter or memo. You include headings and other special formatting elements as if it were a report.
The following provides a review of the sections you will commonly find in proposals. Do not assume that each one of them has to be in the actual proposal you write, nor that they have to be in the order they are presented here. Refer to the assignment sheet provided by your instructor and consider other kinds of information unique to your topic that should be included in your particular proposal.
Introduction. Plan the introduction to your proposal carefully. Make sure it does all of the following things (but not necessarily in this order) that apply to your particular proposal:
- Indicate that the content of the memo is a proposal for a specific project.
- Develop at least one brief motivating statement that will encourage the recipient to read on and to consider approving the project (especially if it is an unsolicited or competitive proposal).
- Give an overview of the contents of the proposal.
Background on the problem, opportunity, or situation. Often occurring just after the introduction, the background section discusses what has brought about the need for the project—what problem, what opportunity exists for improving things, what the basic situation is. For example, management of a chain of daycare centers may need to ensure that all employees know CPR because of new state mandates requiring it, or an owner of Pine Timberland in eastern Oregon may want to get the land producing saleable timber without destroying the environment.
While the named audience of the proposal may know the problem very well, writing the background section is useful in demonstrating your particular view of the problem. Also, if the proposal is unsolicited, a background section is almost a requirement—you will probably need to convince the audience that the problem or opportunity exists and that it should be addressed.
Benefits and feasibility of the proposed project. Most proposals briefly discuss the advantages or benefits of completing the proposed project. This acts as a type of argument in favor of approving the project. Also, some proposals discuss the likelihood of the project’s success. In an unsolicited proposal, this section is especially important—you are trying to “sell” the audience on the project.
Description of the proposed work (results of the project). Most proposals must describe the finished product of the proposed project. In a technical writing course, that means describing the written document you propose to write, its audience and purpose; providing an outline; and discussing such things as its length, graphics, binding, and so forth. In the scenario you define, there may be other work such as conducting training seminars or providing an ongoing service. At this early stage, you might not know all that it will take to complete your project, but you should at least have an idea of some of the steps required.
Method, procedure, theory. In some proposals, you will need to explain how you will go about completing the proposed work. This acts as an additional persuasive element; it shows the audience you have a sound, thoughtful approach to the project. Also, it serves to demonstrate that you have the knowledge of the field to complete the project.
Schedule. Most proposals contain a section that shows not only the projected completion date but also key milestones for the project. If you are doing a large project spreading over many months, the timeline would also show dates on which you would deliver progress reports. If you cannot cite specific dates, cite amounts of time for each phase of the project.
Costs, resources required. Most proposals also contain a section detailing the costs of the project, whether internal or external. With external projects, you may need to list your hourly rates, projected hours, costs of equipment and supplies, and so forth, and then calculate the total cost of the complete project. Internal projects, of course, are not free, so you should still list the project costs: hours you will need to complete the project, equipment and supplies you will be using, assistance from other people in the organization, and so on.
Conclusions. The final paragraph or section of the proposal should bring readers back to a focus on the positive aspects of the project. In the final section, you can urge them to contact you to work out the details of the project, remind them of the benefits of doing the project, and maybe make one last argument for you or your organization as the right choice for the project.
Special project-specific sections. Remember that the preceding sections are typical or common in written proposals, not absolute requirements. Always ask yourself what else might your audience need to understand the project, the need for it, the benefits arising from it, your role in it, and your qualifications to do it. What else do they need to see in order to approve the project and to approve you to do it?
Organization of Proposals
As for the organization of the content of a proposal, remember that it is essentially a sales or promotional kind of thing. Here are the basic steps it goes through:
- Introduce the proposal, telling the readers its purpose and contents.
- Present the background – the problem, opportunity, or situation that brings about the proposed project. Get the reader concerned about the problem, excited about the opportunity, or interested in the situation.
- State what you propose to do about the problem, how you plan to help the readers take advantage of the opportunity, how you intend to help them with the situation.
- Discuss the benefits of doing the proposed project, the advantages that come from approving it.
- Describe exactly what the completed project would consist of, what it would look like, how it would work – describe the results of the project.
- Discuss the method and theory or approach behind that method – enable readers to understand how you'll go about the proposed work.
- Provide a schedule, including major milestones or checkpoints in the project.
- List your qualifications for the project; provide a mini-resume of the background you have that makes you right for the project.
- Now (and only now), list the costs of the project, the resources you'll need to do the project.
- Conclude with a review of the benefits of doing the project (in case the shock from the costs section was too much), and urge the audience to get in touch or to accept the proposal.
Notice the overall logic of the movement through these sections: you get them concerned about a problem or interested in an opportunity, then you get them excited about how you'll fix the problem or do the project, then you show them what good qualifications you have – then hit them with the costs, but then come right back to the good points about the project.
Format of Proposals
You have the following options for the format and packaging of your proposal. It does not matter which you use as long as you use the memorandum format for internal proposals and the business-letter format for external proposals.
The examples below layout the differences and similarities of a cover letter or memo.
Sample formal Proposal layout
Sample Research Proposal
Hopefully, when the time comes for you to create a proposal, the steps in this chapter will help you create one that will engage your audience and get your idea or product accepted. As a reminder, a proposal should contain information that would enable the audience of that proposal to decide whether to approve the project, to approve or hire you to do the work or both. Make sure to always read the requirements for the proposal; especially, if it is going to an external client. Do research on your audience, so you know how to gear the proposal to them for acceptance. The content in this chapter will help you prepare proposals for various audiences.
As you reread and revise your proposal, keep the following tips in mind:
- Use the right format. Remember, the memo format is for internal proposals; the business-letter format is for proposals written from one external organization to another. (Whether you use a cover memo or cover letter is your choice.)
- Write a good introduction as discussed in the preceding, and identify exactly what you are proposing to do.
- Make sure that a report – a written document – is somehow involved in the project you are proposing to do. Remember that in a technical writing course we are trying to do two things: write a proposal and plan a term-report project.
- Organize the sections in a logical, natural order. For example, don't hit the audience with schedules and costs before you've gotten them interested in the project.
- Break out the costs section into specifics; include hourly rates and other such details.
- For internal projects, don't omit the section on costs and qualifications: there will be costs, just not direct ones. For example, how much time will you need, will there be printing, binding costs? Include your qualifications – imagine your proposal will go to somebody in the organization who doesn't know you.
- Address the proposal to the real or realistic audience – not your instructor. (You can use your instructor's name as the CEO or supervisor of the organization you are sending the proposal to.)
- Watch out for generating technobabble. Yes, some of your proposal readers may know the technical side of your project – but others may not. Challenge yourself to bring difficult technical concepts down to a level that nonspecialists can understand.
- Include all the information listed in "Special assignment requirements". If it doesn't logically or naturally fit in the proposal itself, put it in a memo to your instructor.
This chapter was derived by Annemarie Hamlin, Chris Rubio, and Michele DeSilva, Central Oregon Community College, from Online Technical Writing by David McMurrey – CC: BY 4.0 and David McMurrey, Saylor.org and Saylor English 210 Technical Writing, used under a CC BY license. "Proposal" is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by Lise-Pauline Barnett.


7.1: Secondary Stem
In many seed plants, secondary growth begins in their first year within the stem and continues on for many more years. These plants are classified as woody . They develop secondary tissues like periderm and wood, and even tertiary structures like bark.
The first step in producing secondary phloem and xylem (other names are metaphloem and metaxylem) is to form the vascular cambium, which involves cell division inside the vascular bundles and the parenchyma that are between the bundles (Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). The vascular cambium divides in two directions. The cells that are formed to the outside become the secondary phloem , and those formed to the inside are the secondary xylem (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)). After several years, central pith disappears under the pressure of growing wood, and only traces of primary xylem (protoxymem) can be seen under the thick secondary xylem. Altogether, these tissues (pith + primary xylem + secondary xylem) are wood (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)).
The secondary phloem forms outside of the vascular cambium, and traces of primary phloem (protophloem) are visible above it. It is rich in fibers, and unlike the wood, it does not form annual rings.
Most of cambium cells are fusiform initials forming axial vessel elements, while some cambium cells are ray initials cambium cells which make rays and they form rays : combinations of parenchyma cells and tracheids transporting water, minerals and sugars (because it is dark inside the stem and only respiration is possible) horizontally . Rays are visible best on the tangential section of the stem (when section plane is tangent to the stem surface); two other possible sections ( radial and transverse ) show axial components of the stem better. In the secondary phloem, rays are sometimes dilated (wedge-shaped).
The cambium usually does not work evenly all year round. In temperate climates, a ring forms for each growing season and makes it possible to determine the age by counting the growth rings. This is because at the end of season cambium makes much smaller (“darker”) tracheary elements. Trees growing in climates without well-expressed seasons will not make annual rings. To tell the age of a tree, researchers observe the number and thickness of annual rings that are formed. This is called dendrochronology .
Some trees (like oaks, Quercus ) have large vessel elements are found primarily in the wood formed early in the season (early wood); this pattern is known as ring porous . Large vessel elements of other trees (like elm, Ulmus ) occur more evenly in both early and late wood. This pattern is known as diffuse porous wood : with large vessel elements in both early and late wood .
Vesselless wood of conifers is of a simpler structure with relatively few cell types. There are simple rays and frequently resin ducts ; resin is secreted by specialized cells.
In the tree trunk, the lighter wood near the periphery is called sapwood and has functioning xylem where most of the water and minerals are transported. Darker wood closer to the center is called heartwood and is a non-functional, darkly colored xylem (Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\)). Tracheary elements are dead cells and to block them, plants uses tyloses vessel element “stoppers” which also help control winter functioning of vessels. A tylose forms when a cell wall of parenchyma grows through a pit or opening into the tracheary element; they look like bubbles.
Most liliids (for example, palms) do not have lateral meristems and true wood. Some thickening does occur in a palm but this happens at the base of the tree, as a result of adventitious roots growing. Palms may also have diffuse secondary growth which is division and enlargement of some parenchyma cells. These processes do not compensate the overall growth of plant, and palms frequently are thicker on the top than on the bottom. Few other liliids (like dragon blood tree, Dracaena ) have anomalous secondary growth which employs cambium but this cambium does not form the stable ring.
Constantly thickening stem requires constantly growing “new clothes”, secondary dermal tissue, periderm. Periderm is a part of bark. Bark is everything outside vascular cambium . It is unique structure which is sometimes called “tertiary tissue” because it consists of primary and secondary tissues together:
- \(\mbox{trunk} = \mbox{wood} + \mbox{vascular cambium (``cambium'')} + \mbox{bark}\)
- \(\mbox{wood} = \mbox{secondary xylem} + \mbox{primary xylem} + \mbox{[pith]}\)\(^{[1]}\)
- \(\mbox{bark} = \mbox{bast (primary + secondary phloem)} + \mbox{periderm} + \mbox{[cortex]} + \mbox{[epidermis]}\)
- \(\mbox{periderm} = \mbox{[phelloderm]} + \mbox{cork cambium (phellogen)} + \mbox{cork (phellem)}\)
Each year, a new layer of phellogen (cork cambium) appears from the parenchyma cells of the secondary phloem which makes bark multi-layered and uneven. On the surface of a young stem, one may see lenticels , openings in phellem layer which supply the internals of the stem with oxygen; together with rays, lenticels work as ventilation shafts. To produce lenticels, some phellogen cells divide and grow much faster which will finally break the periderm open.
Apart from the lenticels, older or winter stems have leaf scars with leaf traces on their surface. The first are places where leaf petiole was attached, and the second are places where vascular bundles entered the leaf.
The secondary structure of root reminds the secondary structure of stem, and with time, these two organs become anatomically similar.
References
1. “Optional” tissues are given in brackets, synonyms in parentheses.


13.1: Prelude to Acids and Bases
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One of the most concentrated acids in the body is stomach acid , which can be approximated as a 0.05 M hydrochloric acid solution. Special cells in the stomach wall secrete this acid, along with special enzymes, as part of the digestion process. In a laboratory, a 0.05 M solution of hydrochloric acid would dissolve some metals. How does the stomach survive the presence of such a reactive acid?
Actually, the stomach has several mechanisms for withstanding this chemical onslaught. First, the lining of the stomach is coated with a thin layer of mucus that contains some bicarbonate ions (HCO 3 − ). These react with the hydrochloric acid to produce water, carbon dioxide, and harmless chloride ions. If any acid penetrates through the mucus, it can attack the surface layer of stomach cells, called the gastric epithelium . Cells in the gastric epithelium are being constantly shed, so damaged cells are quickly removed and replaced with healthy cells.
However, if the gastric epithelium is destroyed faster than it can be replaced, the acid may reach the wall of the stomach, resulting in ulcers. If an ulcer grows large enough, it can expose blood vessels in the stomach wall, causing bleeding. In extreme situations, the loss of blood through a severe ulcer can threaten a person’s health.
Ulcers can also result from the presence of a certain bacterium— Helicobacter pylori —in the stomach. The mechanism for this ulcer formation is not the same as that for ulcers caused by stomach acid and is not completely understood. However, there are two main treatments for ulcers: (1) antacids to react chemically with excess hydrochloric acid in the stomach and (2) antibiotics to destroy the H. pylori bacteria in the stomach.


6.1: Octaves and the Major-Minor Tonal System
- Introduces the relationship between frequency, octaves, major, minor, and chromatic scales, and tonal music.
Where Octaves Come From
Musical notes, like all sounds, are made of sound waves. The sound waves that make musical notes are very evenly-spaced waves, and the qualities of these regular waves - for example how big they are or how far apart they are - affect the sound of the note. A note can be high or low, depending on how often (how frequently) one of its waves arrives at your ear. When scientists and engineers talk about how high or low a sound is, they talk about its frequency. The higher the frequency of a note, the higher it sounds. They can measure the frequency of notes, and like most measurements, these will be numbers, like "440 vibrations per second."
High and Low Frequencies
But people have been making music and talking about music since long before we knew that sounds were waves with frequencies. So when musicians talk about how high or low a note sounds, they usually don't talk about frequency; they talk about the note's pitch. And instead of numbers, they give the notes names, like "C". (For example, musicians call the note with frequency "440 vibrations per second" an "A".)
But to see where octaves come from, let's talk about frequencies a little more. Imagine a few men are singing a song together. Nobody is singing harmony; they are all singing the same pitch - the same frequency - for each note.
Now some women join in the song. They can't sing where the men are singing; that's too low for their voices. Instead they sing notes that are exactly double the frequency that the men are singing. That means their note has exactly two waves for each one wave that the men's note has. These two frequencies fit so well together that it sounds like the women are singing the same notes as the men, in the same key. They are just singing them one octave higher. Any note that is twice the frequency of another note is one octave higher.
Notes that are one octave apart are so closely related to each other that musicians give them the same name. A note that is an octave higher or lower than a note named "C natural" will also be named "C natural". A note that is one (or more) octaves higher or lower than an "F sharp" will also be an "F sharp". (For more discussion of how notes are related because of their frequencies, see The Harmonic Series, Standing Waves and Musical Instruments, and Standing Waves and Wind Instruments.)
Octave Frequencies
Naming Octaves
The notes in different octaves are so closely related that when musicians talk about a note, a "G" for example, it often doesn't matter which G they are talking about. We can talk about the "F sharp" in a G major scale without mentioning which octave the scale or the F sharp are in, because the scale is the same in every octave. Because of this, many discussions of music theory don't bother naming octaves. Informally, musicians often speak of "the B on the staff" or the "A above the staff", if it's clear which staff they're talking about.
But there are also two formal systems for naming the notes in a particular octave. Many musicians use Helmholtz notation. Others prefer scientific pitch notation, which simply labels the octaves with numbers, starting with C1 for the lowest C on a full-sized keyboard. Figure 3 shows the names of the octaves most commonly used in music.
Naming Octaves
The octave below contra can be labelled CCC or Co; higher octaves can be labelled with higher numbers or more lines. Octaves are named from one C to the next higher C. For example, all the notes between "great C" and "small C" are "great". One-line c is also often called "middle C". No other notes are called "middle", only the C.
Naming Notes within a Particular Octave
Give the correct octave name for each note.
Solution
Dividng the Octave into Scales
The word "octave" comes from a Latin root meaning "eight". It seems an odd name for a frequency that is two times, not eight times, higher. The octave was named by musicians who were more interested in how octaves are divided into scales, than in how their frequencies are related. Octaves aren't the only notes that sound good together. The people in different musical traditions have different ideas about what notes they think sound best together. In the Western musical tradition - which includes most familiar music from Europe and the Americas - the octave is divided up into twelve equally spaced notes. If you play all twelve of these notes within one octave you are playing a chromatic scale. Other musical traditions - traditional Chinese music for example - have divided the octave differently and so they use different scales. (Please see Major Keys and Scales, Minor Keys and Scales, and Scales that aren’t Major or Minor for more about this.)
You may be thinking "OK, that's twelve notes; that still has nothing to do with the number eight", but out of those twelve notes, only seven are used in any particular major or minor scale. Add the first note of the next octave, so that you have that a "complete"-sounding scale ("do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti" and then "do" again), and you have the eight notes of the octave. These are the diatonic scales, and they are the basis of most Western music.
Now take a look at the piano keyboard. Only seven letter names are used to name notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The eighth note would, of course, be the next A, beginning the next octave. To name the other notes, the notes on the black piano keys, you have to use a sharp or flat sign.
Keyboard
Whether it is a popular song, a classical symphony, or an old folk tune, most of the music that feels comfortable and familiar (to Western listeners) is based on either a major or
minor scale. It is tonal music that mostly uses only seven of the notes within an octave: only one of the possible A's (A sharp, A natural, or A flat), one of the possible B's (B sharp, B natural, or B flat), and so on. The other notes in the chromatic scale are (usually) used sparingly to add interest or to (temporarily) change the key in the middle of the music. For more on the keys and scales that are the basis of tonal music, see Major Keys and Scales and Minor Keys and Scales.


1.1: Introduction
Learning Objectives
- Describe basic concepts related to mental health care
- Establish a safe environment for clients, nurses, and other staff
- Discuss psychiatric-mental health nursing and associated standards of care
- Apply principles of patient-centered care while considering client diversity across the life span
Mental health is an important part of everyone’s overall health and well-being. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood to adolescence and through adulthood. [1]  As with all areas of nursing, when caring for a person with a mental health diagnosis, it is important to focus on patient-centered care and evaluate the effectiveness of care in terms of the highest level of functioning that person is able to achieve.
Reflective Questions
As we begin this chapter, reflect on the following questions:
- How do you define mental health?
- How do you define mental illness?
- How do you differentiate between the two with everyday functioning?
- Consider how you communicate with clients. Which therapeutic techniques have you found work best? What interferes with effective communication?
- How does ineffective communication impact client care? How can it affect your nursing license or create legal implications?
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, July 20). Mental health . https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/index.htm ↵


4.1: Socialization
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How Do We Become Human?
Socialization is simply the process by which we become human social beings. George Herbert Mead and Charles Cooley (from the “Chicago School”) contributed the Symbolic Interactionism perspective-most widely used today by sociologists. Mead and Cooley focused on how all the symbol-based interactions we have with others shape and form our self, our roles, our becoming “human,” and ultimately our experiencing socialization throughout our life stages. Socialization is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group’s norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors .
Newborns are not born human—at least not in the social or emotional sense of being human. They have to learn all the nuances of proper behavior, how to meet expectations for what is expected of them, and everything else needed to become a member of society. A newborn in the presence of others, interacting with family and friends typically acquires their socialization by the time they reach young adulthood.
From the first moments of life, children begin a process of socialization wherein parents, family, and friends establish an infant’s Social Construction of Reality , or what people define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences with others. An average US child’s social constru ction of reality includes: knowledge that he or she belongs, can depend on others to meet their needs, and has privileges and obligations that accompany membership in their family and community. In a typical set of social circumstances, children grow up through a predictable set of life stages: infancy, preschool, K-12 school years, young adulthood, adulthood, middle adulthood, and finally later-life adulthood. Most will leave home as young adults, find a spouse or life partner in their mid-to late 20s and work in a job for pay. To expect that of the average US Child is normal.
Three Levels of Socialization
Also when discussing the average US child, it’s safe to say that the most important socialization takes place early in life and in identifiable levels. Primary socialization typically begins at birth and moves forward until the beginning of the school years. Primary Socialization includes all the ways the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and meeting the expectations of society. Most primary socialization is facilitated by the family, friends, day care, and to a certain degree various forms of media. Children watch about 3 hours of TV per day (by the time the average child attends kindergarten she has watched about 5,000 hours of TV). They also play video games, surf the Internet, play with friends, and read.
Children learn how to talk, interact with others, share, manage frustrations, follow the “rules”, and grow up to be like older family and friends they know. When they live up to expectations they are “big boys and girls,” when they don’t they are naughty. In the early years, tremendous attention is required in the safety and nurturance of infants. As they begin to walk and talk they learn to communicate their needs and wants and to feed and clothe themselves. Younger children do not have strong abstract reasoning skills until adolescence, so they rely heavily on the judgment of their caregivers. Most importantly, they form significant attachments to the older people who care for them.
Around age 4-5 pre-school and kindergarten are presented as expectations for the children. Once they begin their schooling, they begin another different level of socialization. Secondary Socialization occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to school and come under the influence of non-family members . This level runs concurrently with primary socialization. Children realize at school that they are judged for their performance now and are no longer accepted unconditionally. In fact, to obtain approval from teachers and school employees a tremendous amount of conformity is required—this is in contrast to having been accepted at home for being “mommy’s little man or woman.” Now, as students, children have to learn to belong and cooperate in large groups. They learn a new culture that extends beyond their narrow family culture and that has complexities and challenges that require effort on their part and that create stressors for the children. By the time of graduation from high school the average US child has attended 15,000 hours of school away from home. They’ve also probably watched 15,000 hours of TV, and spent 5-10,000 playing (video games, friends, Internet, text messaging, etc.).
Friends, class mates, and peers become increasingly important in the lives of children in their secondary educational stage of socialization. Most 0-5 year olds yearn for their parents and family member’s affection and approval. By the time of pre-teen years, the desire for family diminishes and the yearning now becomes for friends and peers. Parents often lament the loss of influence over their children once the teen years arrive. Studies show that parents preserve at least some of their influence over their children by influencing their children’s peers. Parents who host parties, excursions, and get-togethers find that their relationship with their children’s friends keeps them better connected to their children. They learn that they can persuade their children at times through the peers.
The K-12 schooling years are brutal in terms of peer pressures. Often, people live much of their adult lives under the labels they were given in high school. Then it happens. You’ve probably already done this—graduation! Many new high school graduates face the strikingly harsh realities of adulthood shortly after graduation. Anomie often follows and it takes months and years at times for young adults to discover new regulating norms which ground them back into expectable routines of life.
The third level of socialization includes college, work, marriage/significant relationships, and a variety of adult roles and adventures. Adult Socialization occurs as we assume adult roles such as wife/husband/employee/etc . We adapt to new roles which meet our needs and wants throughout the adult life course. Freshmen in college, new recruits in the military, volunteers for Peace Corps and Vista, employees, missionaries, travelers, and others find themselves following the same game plan that lead to their success during their primary and secondary socialization years—find out what’s expected and strive to reach those expectations.
Though we articulate an average life course as follows: infancy, preschool, K-12 school years, young adulthood, adulthood, middle adulthood, and finally later-life adulthood; few life paths conform perfectly to it.  People marry and divorce, become parents, or finish raising their children. They start a career and change after 5-10 years to another, and later even another. They go bankrupt, win lotteries, or simply pay off their mortgages. In each change that comes into their life, they find themselves adapting to new roles, new expectations, and new limitations. Socialization is an ongoing process for everyone until the day they die.
What if Your Social Construction of Reality Is Not Average?
Life is full of diversity and surprises. Not every socialization experience is normal, typical, or otherwise universally identical. A few groups of religious extremists were exposed in the manner in which they socialized their children. Once it hit the national news, many were shocked by it.
 Who was the group? The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) which is a splinter group from the Mormons that has a history dating back to the 1890’s after Mormons stopped the practice of polygamy. The FLDS were originally excommunicated from the Mormon Church (officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), placing the word “Fundamentalist” in front of the Mormon Church’s name. Much of the FLDS is a mimicry of the Mormon Church’s practices during the mid-1800’s. There are tens of Mormon splinter groups, most of which have splintered over polygamy or claims to original priesthood authority. The Mormon Church has made concerted efforts to distance themselves from these splinter groups and their extreme behaviors.
I have a close personal friend who left a group formerly affiliated with the FLDS sect. They do not hold the current leader in a very high regard. Warren Jeffs is the FLDS leader in the news today. He followed in the role of his late father, Rulon Jeffs. Their version of polygamy and isolated communal living is open knowledge now. But that was not always the case. In 1890, polygamists who left the Mormon faith lived private lives, taught their own children, and created a sub-culture that was different, but rarely at odds with the main-stream culture.
The Short Creek raid of 1953 was a major turning point for American polygamists. The federal and state law enforcement agencies raided Short Creek, Utah taking custody of children and putting husbands in Jail. After the mothers were shown by national media as being martyr-like, all charges were dropped and the children were returned to their homes. Short Creek eventually became known as Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona (the current head quarters of FLDS members church; see Carter, M. Associated Press, 1998 at www.skeptictank.org/mormnut2.htm ). This raid proved to be the precipitating event in the eventual ultra-seclusion of the FLDS members. Most Americans are very leery of secretive actions by groups of people.
Because of an inability among FLDS members to agree upon the next prophet, they split into two groups. By 1968 Rulon Jeff’s (Warren’s father) became the self-declared and agreed upon FLDS prophet. At the time Rulon taught a strong anti-black theology that persists today. The FLDS group is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Laws Center (www.splcenter.org/index.jsp). Rulon Jeffs prophesied that he would live to be 350 years old and would turn the world over to God on his 350th birthday. The last decade of his life, Rulon became increasingly ill and died in 2002 (3 May, 2005, NPR.org at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4629320 ).
His son Warren became extremely controlling and dissolved the 7-member priesthood leadership council, assuming sole control and bringing changes that have led to most of the current clashes with authority faced by the FLDS. Warren became even more extreme and isolationistic in his leadership including: the excommunication of nearly hundreds of teenage “lost boys” (Leaders claimed the inherent need to keep a 3-1 female to male ratio and the boys were inconvenient (because a man can’t get to heaven without 3 wives); excommunication of men from their wives, children, and faith with their families being given to other men; the marriage of very young girls to men in their mid-life stages of adulthood; and ultimately, the building of a receptacle for God’s coming to earth in the Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) in Eldorado, Texas (about half of teen girls taken into custody in 2008 from the YFZ ranch were already mothers and polygamist wives: Google Search Warren Jeffs Images/Photos to see wedding photos of him with some very young brides). This extreme isolation of church members from the main stream of society has included no outside contact, no newspapers or TV, no Internet, and a deeply held belief that Jesus Christ would return and rescue them from a fallen world (see Messianic Movement in the Collective Behaviors chapter).
Jeffs went onto the FBI’s most wanted list. After fleeing custody for a series of months, Warren was arrested on 28 August, 2006 on I-15 North of Vegas. The official media report was that good law enforcement lead to his arrest (in fact the officer did practice remarkable calm and professionalism during the arrest). On a personal note, living in Utah for 20 plus years, I have interviewed a number of polygamist family members and have a few inside contacts today. Among them, the rumor is that Jeffs was “turned over to the justice of the land…and to God for all that he had done.” In other words, among themselves, polygamists discuss the high probability that law enforcement received inside information about Jeff’s whereabouts from Polygamists themselves.
In September, 2007 Jeffs was convicted on 2 counts of rape as an accomplice for the forced marriage of a 16 year old girl to her relative. More charges and civil suits are pending in Arizona and Utah for similar allegations and many of the FLDS Lost Boys, who were put onto the streets, depended on welfare and the criminal justice system for sustenance. (20 May, 2008 from http://www.apologeticsindex.org/f/f39ae.html ).
In fact, Jeffs prophesized the end of the world 3 times (April 6, 2005 was the most recent; see 20 May, 2008 from http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl19.htm ). On 27, March, 2007 Jeffs was recorded as admitting he was not a prophet and was not worthy of serving in that role since he’d had sex with his sister (taken 20 May, 2008 from http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=508...&comments=true ). But his followers continue forward in much of the same path that their socialization leads them. They see themselves as members of an elite religious group, following God’s will. Even when their leaders fall. Such devotion is rare unless group members are raised in social isolation from TV, media, and interactions with “outsiders.” But for Rulon and Warren Jeffs this was accomplished by design not by accident.
Now that you’ve read a brief history of the YFZ, FLDS culture and socialization and recent history, contrast the average US child’s socialization into their life stages to an average FLDS Child’s. FLDS children might follow this course for females: infancy, preschool, home school years, teen marriage as second or third wife to middle-aged man, motherhood, 7-12 children by age 40, adulthood, middle adulthood, and finally later-life adulthood—with years as a widow since she might have been 16 when she married her 40 year-old husband and he would likely die 25 years later, leaving her a widow at 41. The life stages for males would be infancy, home school years, adolescences, and excommunication (from family, friends, church, and world taken from granted around age 15-16), abrupt dislocation from a familiar world-taken-for-granted into a strange, and at times dangerous, work, then who knows after that.
Is It Nature or Nurture?
There has been much said and written and said about how important the socialization is to our eventual human adult natures. Historically, there has also been much research into the biological influence of who we eventually become. Think about this question, “how much of our socialization is influenced by our genetics and biology and how much is influenced by the social environment we are born into and in which we are raised?” Heritability is the proportion of our personality, self, and biological traits which stem from our genetic or socialization environmental factors. Nature versus Nurture is the debate over the influence of biological versus social influences in socialization .
In the history of social science the Blank Slate Theory was widely accepted. Tabula Rasa is Latin for Blank Slate. It was a theoretical claim that humans are born with no mental or intellectual capacities and all that they learn is written upon them by those who provide their primary and secondary socialization (this claim was for 100% nurture in how we become human). Most social scientist reject any notion of 100 percent nurture, simply because the research does not support the theory. Socialization alone does not explain adult outcomes.But, is our socialization 100 percent biology? Not really. In the biological sciences, geneticists have regal position on the nature argument. Their studies of heritability have yielded overriding conclusion that biological factors alone do not explain socialization outcomes. Biological and socialization factors are both influential, yet neither are deterministic. In 2004, Steven Pinker argued that the brain is the core issue in understanding how biology and social environment interact in the process of how we become human. He argues that current scientific knowledge has articulated much of the biological factor and some of the sociological factor, but fail to consider the brain’s influence in how a child becomes an adult wherever she grows up in this world. He states in his conclusion:
“The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe.
No doubt hypotheses that pit nature against nurture as a dichotomy or that correlate genes or environment with behavior without looking at the intervening brain will turn out to be simplistic or wrong. But that complexity does not mean we should fuzz up the issues by saying that it’s all just too complicated to think about, or that some hypotheses should be treated a priori as obviously true, obviously false, or too dangerous to mention. As with inflation, cancer, and global warming, we have no choice but to try to disentangle the multiple causes (“Why Nature and Nurture Won’t Go Away” in Dædalus , Fall 2004, pages 1-13).” Musical talents, genius intelligence levels, athletic abilities, various forms of intelligence, homosexuality, heterosexuality, conformity, and other traits have been correlated with biological and environmental factors. Most scientists can conclude at this time that the biological factors are only correlated to, not causally deterministic to any adult outcomes. From the sociological perspective, the focus is heavily on environmental factors which account for conflict, functional, symbolic interactionism, and social exchange theoretical underpinnings of nature versus nurture studies. In other words, it’s very important to consider socialization (nurture) because biologists have yet to find any causal factors in our human natures that can be applied to raising children into adults in a society that will manifest desired traits.“DJBirth” is a photo of his first few seconds of life. In this picture he has not yet taken his first breath. His bluish color is there because he still getting oxygen through the umbilical cord. In “DJwithDad” this is me as a new father, lying beside him. Not only is his primary socialization in full swing, his father is experiencing rather dramatic adult socialization in terms of becoming a good Father. In “DJwithsis” he is shown on the first day of first grade with his little sister (kindergartner).
Secondary socialization was on when this picture was taken. Both have graduated high school and are in college now. In “DJearnsbike” he is shown with a bike he earned over three months at 25 cents per chore. He earned half and we paid the other half. He not only learned to work but he learned to be a consumer and he learned how crime can occur to him. This bike was stolen twice and destroyed on the second theft (he earned another one). In “DJGoldminingwithDad” he is shown in Fairbanks Alaska at a tourist gold mining camp. When our children turn 12 years old we take them on a trip somewhere in the country. DJ and I panned about ½ an ounce of gold together and made awesome memories. In “DJwatchesUncleflirt” we were visiting the Alaska pipeline when DJ’s uncle started flirting with a college student who was working in Alaska to save money for college. DJ observed and later imitated his Uncle’s flirting skills. In “DJsnowboarding” and “DJ4wheeler” we see him in his adult roles where he is self-taught in snowboarding and in 4-wheeling in the Utah sand dunes. He holds a solid job, attends college, and has a hectic social life (like most of you). His adult socialization has been varied and ongoing.
As was mentioned, part of the socialization is the development of self-concept in each of us. It begins at birth and continues dramatic development through the school years, with slight modifications throughout the adult years. Your Self is at the core of your personality, representing your conscious experience of having a separate and unique identity . Your Self-Concept is the sum total of your perceptions and beliefs about yourself . It is crucial to note that your self-concept is based heavily on your social construction of reality—that means others influence your perception of your self-worth and definition.
Wild Human Children/Animals
We need to discuss one extremely rare and harsh environment children grow up in—feral childhood. Feral Children are wild or untamed children who grow up without typical adult socialization influences . They are rare because most human newborns will not typically survive if they are not cared for by an older individual. One of the earliest documented sociological studies of an isolated feral child was reported on by Kingsley Davis in 1940. He discussed two similar cases of Anna and Isabelle. Anna was a five year old girl when she was discovered. She lived for years isolated in an attic and kept barely alive. Anna only learned a few basic life skills before she died at age 10. Isabelle was also isolated, but in her case she had the company of her deaf and mute mother. When Isabelle was discovered at age six she quickly learned the basic human social skills needed and was able to eventually attend school. Davis attributes the difference in outcome to nutrition and the fact that Isabelle had at least some social interaction with her mother. (See Davis, K. 1940 “Extreme Social Isolation of A Child” in The American Journal of Sociology , Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jan., 1940), pp. 554-565 Published by: The University of Chicago Press; Davis, K. 1949 “Human Society by McMillan Pub. New York; and Davis, K. (1993, “Final Note on a Case of extreme Isolation” Irvington Pub. CA.)
In rare cases, human feral children have survived and documentation of their feral childhood is available. See Feral Children.com or http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php . This website discusses three categories of feral children: 1) Children raised in isolation; 2) children raised in confinement; and 3) children raised by animals (much less common). They also refute hoaxes of feral children which are not true. To grow up feral is perhaps the cruelest version of child abuse because the crucial primary socialization does not occur. This means that pubescent feral children lack a sense of self-concept; a pattern of multiple attachments and significant others; probable lack of awareness of self, others, groups, and society; and ultimately a void where socialization and acculturation should be.A few movies are available that portray the complications of being a feral child, especially when he or she tries to interact with socialized members of society. Nell is based on a true story about a Girl who grew up alone in the Carolina back woods after her mother and sister died. The Young Savage of Aveyron (France), is a true story about a French boy discovered in the woods and taken into the care of a physician. Tarzan and Jungle Book is believed to be inspired by true accounts of feral children raised by animals. For example, Amala (8 years old) and Kamala (1 ½ years old) were discovered living with wolves (I know it sounds fantastic, but go with me on this) in Mindapore, India in 1920. Photographs are available in various text and Websites. I’ve included an artist sketch below.
Figure 3. Artist Caricature of Amala (8 years old) and Kamala (1 ½ years old)
© 2009 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
You already know that most humans can’t co-exist with wolves and other carnivorous animals. It is rare to survive such an encounter, especially for 18 month old children. Yet, cross-species nurturing has been documented from time to time (e.g., dogs nurtured kittens and pigs).
As a side note on human-carnivorous animal co-habitation in the wild, there’s a true account of a heart-rending story of a naturalist and Grizzly activist, Timothy Treadwell and his partner Amie Huguenard who moved to Alaska and lived with Grizzly Bears, as though he’d become one of them. It has been made into a documentary and TV Series. Timothy documented his success in living among and with the bears. However, he was killed in 2003 by a rogue Grizzly. (movie called “Grizzly Man”, 2005).
Another Feral child was discovered in 1970 in a Los Angeles suburb. A neighbor reported that a child was locked in the back of a house. Police discovered a girl that was eventually nicknamed “Genie” (a genie pops out of a bottle and emerges into society without having really been raised in society). Genie was about 12. Nova created a documentary on her called “Genie, Anatomy of a Wild Child.” In it you see what Feral really means in the deprivation of acting, understanding, experiencing, and living without having been socialized. I’ve included an artist sketch of Genie.
Genie’s hair was cut short to keep her from eating it. Even though she was chained to a potty chair her entire life, she needed to wear diapers. She spat, clawed, rubbed, and self-groomed more like an animal than a human. She had to be taught the basics of everything and she did learn, but nowhere near at the capacity of an average child.
George Herbert Mead argued that the Self emerged out of social interactions as a result of countless symbolic interactions with other human beings. To Mead, play and playful interactions laid the foundation of becoming human and gaining our sense of self. Knowing that, how troubling must it be for children kept in isolation to play, gain the experiences through interaction, and come to know their Self?
To better understand “Feral” by contrasting it to the animal kingdom, check out the American Humane Society where they address the issue of feral animals www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer. They assist in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of animals each year, many of which were born without families or owners and therefore behave more instinctively than trained.
Self-Concept: Who Are You?
Feral children lack a sense of self, in part because they’ve not had interactions with others with whom they could distinguish themselves. They also have not had feedback on their value, performance, talents, strengths, and weaknesses. Sociologists using concepts from Cooley and Mead have identified an insightful way of understanding our self-concept. The Looking-Glass Self is the reflection of who we think we see by observing the treatment and behaviors of others towards us .
The metaphor used in this concept is a mirror—we see ourselves reflected in the actions and behaviors of those around us (like we see ourselves in a mirror). The Looking Glass Self has three distinct steps to it:
Steps to the Looking-glass self:
- We imagine how we appear to others
- We imagine and interpret their judgment of us
- We react positively or negatively to that perceived judgment while developing a self-concept
Yes, we do watch how others react to us and how they might judge us. But, not everyone in our lives is equal in their potency of evaluation and how we respond to them. Let me show you what I mean. Make a list of the 10 closest people to you in your life. Once you’ve made the list then put a star beside the 3 with whom you feel the closest bond—you really value their opinion and are connected to them and vice versa. These top ten and top three represent your significant others.
Significant Others are those other people whose evaluations of the individual are important and regularly considered during interactions . Strangers you see on campus and in the grocery store do not have the same importance as roommates, close friends, parents, and others you listed. And not all significant others are valued equally. Your fraternity brothers’ or sorority sisters’ opinion of your Halloween costume probably means more than your younger sibling’s opinion.
The process leading up to a self-concept is easy to grasp. I’ve taught my students for decades to think of how they get feedback from others and watch others to get an idea of their expectations in a given role as though they were a weight lifter. The key to understanding self-concept is to understand that balanced self-concept works the same way as balanced weights. Ever try to lift a set of weight with 30 pounds on one side and only 20 pounds on the other? Please don’t! This would prove to be destructive to your physical health.
The same can be said of those who try to balance too high of an “Ideal” expectation in a role, because they’re most likely to perform less than expected in their “Actual” performance in this role. Again, the balance between “Ideal” and “Actual” is crucial. In this example, imagine that you are looking at the self-concept formed by a young female college graduate. She has been accepted into a prestigious corporate internship role and has actually been labeled the “Intern.”
Figure 5. Self-Concept and the New College Graduate—Corporate Intern
© 2009 Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
Once on the job she asked her supervisors, co-workers, and former interns what was expected of her—this information provided the “Ideal” side of the weights. She wrote down her ideal expectations and decided that to perform well and later be considered for full-time employment she should: be on time; be prepared for every meeting; be zealous about doing specifically what her direct supervisor requested; and try to solve at least one lingering corporate problem related to her tasks.
By the end of her first year, she had established a strong pattern of being on time; had come to meetings prepared with additional information to supplement the agenda of the meeting; had accomplished every assignment given to her by her supervisor; but had not solved any lingering corporate problem. She did though discuss a lingering problem with her supervisor and volunteered for an inter-departmental ad hoc committee to study the issue and look for solutions. Because her ideals closely matched with her actual performance, she had a fairly balanced perception of her self-concept. Regardless of the corporation decision to hire or not hire her, she finished her internship and felt good about herself in the process (a balanced self-concept). Another intern might have set far too low of goals for her expectations or far too high. She might also have given herself little credit and under-evaluated her own performance based on comparisons of other interns who’ve worked there. In either case the imbalance typically shows up in imbalanced self-concept.
In the next example, a Freshmen student who desperately wanted to fit in and be accepted into a fraternity set way to high of goals in his college student expectations.
Once on campus he registered for pre-law. He wanted to be a lawyer like his father. He also pledged into a fraternity. Being young, and not knowing his own limitations, he took very tough GE courses yet spent over half his waking time supporting fraternity activities. By the end of his first term he failed 4 out of 5 classes. But, he was a member of the fraternity. His father and he had a long talk over the winter holiday break. In either case, assessing too high or low of ideals or too high or low of actual performance leaves a person imbalanced in their self-concept.
Please notice I have not spoken about a high self-esteem. Self-Esteem is pride in oneself, a positive self-regard, an inordinately high positive self-regard, or a high self-respect . This concept originated in psychological research and has lost popularity among psychologists and sociologists because a high-self esteem is often found among individuals who misbehave in their communities and relationships. Search self-esteem and narcissism on the Internet for more information about the complexities of self-esteem.
As far as our self-concept is concerned we learn early on that we must perform to a certain level if we are to receive the much desired approval from others. As children grow up and into adolescence they begin to develop their abstract reasoning skills. Eventually they develop the ability to sympathize with others. Taking the Role of Other is when children put themselves in someone else's shoes, understand how he/she feels, and anticipate how he/she will act . This happens frequently when children hear sad news about other children. They can put themselves in those circumstances to a certain degree.
George Herbert Mead’s "Mind Self, and Society" discusses the fact that we do take the role of others and by so doing begin to see the “other” within our own selves. By doing so, we conform, fit in, and criticize ourselves when we fall short of the expectations we perceive in the “other” (see Mind, Self, and Society, ed. C.W. Morris; University of Chicago 1934; and Blumer, Herbert. "Sociological Implications of the Thought of G.H. Mead," American J. of Sociology , 71 (1966): 535-44 or Blumer, Herbert. "Mead & Blumer: Social Behaviorism & Symbolic Interactionism," American Sociological Review , 45 (1980): 409-19).
In the Symbolic Interactionism perspective, the average person has a common perspective on what they think other members of society expect, do, and think. When we imagine what an average person would do in a situation we take on the perspective of the generalized other. The Generalized Other are classes of people with whom a person interacts on the basis of generalized roles rather than individualized characteristics. Mead also believed that it is through role playing as children that we learn to take on the role of other. This helps us to imagine and visualize the perspective of others in various groups. In other words, without really becoming a terrorist, we can imagine their point of view—like the role of fundamentalism with religious terrorists who blew up a federal building in Oklahoma or the World Trade Towers in New York (see Mead, G. H. and C. W. Morris (1934) Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, University of Chicago Press, Chicago).
As children grow into young adulthood they prepare for significant roles. They may focus heavily on their athletic talents and grades so they can attend college on a scholarship. They might join the Junior ROTC so they can become a military officer. They might volunteer for Peace Corps (see http://www.peacecorps.gov/ ) or some other charitable service mission. In either case, they are practicing anticipatory socialization. Anticipatory Socialization is practice in advance for some future role.
Larger Social Issues
Let’s shift the focus of attention away from the socialization of individuals and towards the larger socialization picture. In every society in the world today, there are both agents and agencies of socialization. In the US our agents include parents, other family, friends, day care employees, teachers, religious leaders, bosses, and peers. Our agencies include the family, religion, daycare, schools, and employment. The cultures vary dramatically between the US and Darfur, but the structure of agents and agencies is very similar. In Darfur, “Homeland of the Peasants,” agents are parents, other family, friends, Sheppard’s, farmers, military leaders, religious leaders, and tribal leaders. The agencies also include the family, religion, clan or tribe, military, and political structures. In general, Agents are people involved in our socialization while Agencies represent the organizations involved in our socialization.
Many members of society experience a total institution and the intense socialization that come with them. A Total Institution is an institution that controls almost all aspects of its members' lives and all aspects of the individual life is controlled by those in authority in the institution . Boarding schools, orphanages, military branches, juvenile detention, and prisons are examples of total institutions. To a certain degree sororities and fraternities mimic the nature of a total institution in their strict rules and regulations required if members choose to remain members. A core difference among these total institutions is the fact that some are voluntary while others are mandated.
Erving Goffman was a well-published Canadian Sociologist who lived from 1922-1982. Among his many studies of society was a monograph entitled, “Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and other Inmates” (1961’ NY Doubleday). Goffman defines total institutions as places where “like-situated individuals are cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life… (page xiii) .” He also suggested that total institutions have a method of depriving individuals of their former life. The recruit comes into the establishment with a conception of himself made possible by certain stable social arrangements in his home world. Upon entrance, he is immediately stripped of the support provided by these arrangements. In the accurate language of some of our oldest total institutions, he begins a series of abasements, degradations, humiliations and profanations of self. His self systematically, if often unintentionally, mortified… (Page 14) .”
Do fraternity orientation rituals fit the definition of what Goffman described above? True enough, fraternities often strip down pledges emotionally, physically, and at times sexually to degrade and humiliate them. Many force pledges to eat and drink disgusting things, while all the time testing their loyalty to the fraternity. But, keep in mind that few if any fraternities incarcerate their pledges, have total control of every aspect of their lives for extended periods of time (“rounds of life” as Goffman put it), and rarely attempt to deprive pledges of their former life. Yet, urban legends abound about how institutionalized fraternities and their rituals have become. Many pledges are misinformed to believe that the US Library of Congress has almost all orientation rituals in writing in their collection. Not true says Rousey, E.L. Kappa Alpha Order, “The Library of Congress Fraternity Ritual Myth” (Taken form Internet on 27 May 2008 from www.phigam.org/history/ritualmyth.pdf ).


5.1: Ethics Bowl Rules and Procedures
This media file describes the rules and procedures for the UPRM version of the ethics bowl competition. Included is a timeline for the competition and a rubric that identifies the four scoring categories. Both have been adopted from the national ethics bowl competition developed by Robert Ladenson and held yearly at the meetings of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.
This media file has a powerpoint presentation delivered by Jose Cruz, Halley Sanchez, and William Frey at the 2004 meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. The presentation describes activities that help prepare students for the competition, shows how the cases used in the competition are selected, breaks down the competition into its constituent parts, and describes how students are debriefed after the competition. The activities used to prepare students for the competition are crucial; they provide opportunities to practice skills in moral imagination. Debriefing activities are equally important since students frequently fail to see how they have developed skills in preparing for and participating in the competition.


6.4: Concepts of Supernatural Beings
There are many different ways cultures conceptualize their spiritual beings. These include, but are not limited to: Animatism, Animism, Anthropomorphism, Dualism, Euhemerism, Totemism, and Zoomorphism.
Animatism
Animatism is the belief in a supernatural power that is able to be something other than a person or animal. In this sense, it is the belief that the supernatural is all around you and could be anything. Individuals that hold these beliefs explain a powerful unseen force that can potentially be found all around us; in people, animals, plants and features of nature such as volcanoes and the ocean, for example, Mother Earth (believing in the non-living). The belief of animatism doesn't assign a spiritual identity but instead believes in a single unified power that can manifest itself into objects or be acquired by and controlled by certain individuals. The term was coined by the British Anthropologist Robert Ranulph Marett as "a belief in a generalized, impersonal power over which people have some measure of control" Animatism is the cause of consciousness and personality to natural phenomena such as thunderstorms and earthquakes and to objects such as plants and stones. Inanimate objects, forces, and plants have personalities and wills, but not souls. These forces are inanimate and impersonal, This is not true for those beliefs relating to animism. In the South Pacific Polynesian cultures, the power of animatism is commonly referred to as "Mana". For them, it is a force that is inherent in all objects, plants, and animals (including people) to different degrees. Some things or people have more of it than others and are therefore, potentially dangerous. Often a chief must have some with him at all times. Dangerous places, such as volcanoes, were considered to have concentrated amounts of mana. Mana is a spiritual quality considered to have supernatural origin – a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe. Therefore to have mana is to have influence and authority, and efficacy – the power to perform in a given situation. Mana, Marett states, is a concentrated form of animatistic force found within any of these objects that confer power, strength, and success. For example, the Polynesians, believe in mana as a force inherent in all objects. This essential quality of mana is not limited to persons – folks, governments, places and inanimate objects can possess mana.
Animism
Animism is one of the oldest beliefs, dating back to the Paleolithic age (a prehistoric period distinguished by the earliest known primitive tools about 2.5 million to 40,000 years ago). It is greatly associated with primitive peoples, those without a written tradition. Animism believes that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe all possess individual souls. It is derived from the Latin word anima, meaning a breath or soul. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was one of the first Anthropologists to study animism, believing it to be a “minimum definition of religion”, he theorized that all globally recognized religions had some aspects of animism. Tylor posted that animism was birthed by primitive cultures mistaking their dreams for reality.[2] It is believed that animism was first constructed out of a need to explain natural phenomena such as sleeping, dreaming, and death. In classical animism, it is said that spirits are a separate entity from the body, and cause life in humans by passing through bodies and other inanimate objects. Robert Ranulph Marett, another Anthropologist of Tylor’s time, suggested that the earliest forms of animism were created based on emotion and intuition, rather than sacred practices, and written word. He believed that the earliest animists based their religion on inanimate objects acting strangely, or uniquely giving them the illusion of life alike to humans, trees blowing in the wind for instance. Contrary to Tylor, Marett believed that animists did not separate between the body and the soul, claiming them to be a single entity living and dying as one.
In terms of practices, many animistic cultures worshiped plant life, including trees and plants, because of their beauty, strength, and life. It is thought that all beings, including plants, have a soul. This is why in many Native American cultures totem poles are a major symbolic structure, and the main focus of many rituals. Centuries ago the Coast Salish Indian Tribe was well known for its belief in spiritual transmutation between humans and animals, a trait of animistic culture. Living in Cowichan Valley, on Vancouver Island they created hundreds of totem poles in order to showcase the spirits believed to be living in the animals portrayed upon the totems, and the trees the totems themselves were made out of. Now, the remnants of these totems are on display in both museums, and in their original locations in the city of Duncan, now known as “Totem City” because of the animistic art left over by the Coast Salish Indians.
As mentioned, animism is greatly associated with more primitive cultures. However, “new animism” a more symbolic and less literal form of animism is still found in many different cultures worldwide^ . This form of the religion is focused on the different types of souls in different types of people from all different cultures. It is more acutely understood as the teaching of how to have respectful relationships with human beings, as well as the natural world. It is also to be understood, that not all things have a truly human soul, including humans, and part of animism is distinguishing what/who is truly human, and what/who is not. The basic idea is that showing respect for relationships is vital to survival.
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is the concept of attributing human characteristics or behaviors to a non-human being. This can mean animals, plants, and almost anything else taking on the personality of a human. It can mean that any object can be given human traits by a person, such as a dog feeling guilty for stealing food, or the gurgling of a stream sounding happy. Different religions have different interpretations of anthropomorphism, but in general, it is to show their God as something or someone else. In Greek mythology anthropomorphic animals are representations of their Gods. The Greeks show that the gods are different from us by attributing them to the features of being ‘immortal and ageless.’ [3]
In the anthropology of religion, the primary use of anthropomorphism is to embody the supernatural in human form. An example that is most defined in Western culture is in Judaism and Christianity, God has given human feelings of anger and jealousy or compassion and forgiveness. All human qualities that have been given to God in human settings that surround humanity, where these feelings are all emotions that humans have observed and none that we haven't. A functional analysis of anthropomorphism proposes that when the supernatural takes human form, it may be easier for people to relate to the concepts promoted by religion.
Dualism
The term dualism was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition. A meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been more generalized in other usages to indicate a system which contains two essential parts. Bitheism/Ditheism are two forms that both involve the two gods. Bitheism implies that the gods live in peace and Ditheism implies that their in opposition. This means that a Ditheism system would have one good and one evil god or one god that listened and helped and one that ignored. A god of life and one of death is another example. An example of a Bitheism system would be something like one god is of the sky and one of the wind. It is not always easy to distinguish between the two, like a sky god who brings storms and rain and an earth god who brings fertility and tremors. In a moral sense Christianity is a dualism religion with the opposition of God and Satan.[3]
Euhemerism
Euhemerism is a rationalizing method of interpretation that was named after the Greek mythographer (compiler of myths) Euhemerus. Euhemerism is the idea that a real person can become a deity or a supernatural immortal being through the constant telling and re-telling of their stories that leads to the distortion of the actual story. For example, many people believe that Hercules was a real person but was deified through the stories of his life and after some time the embellished story became the accepted story. Therefore, Hercules was remembered as a deity. Euhemerism is the worship and belief in an ancestor or historical being who is thought to have supernatural power. Euhemerus believed that every Greek god was someone that actually lived long ago and was immortalized in myth through their actions in life.[4]
Totemism
Totemism is a religious practice in which a family is seen to have a close kinship with a particular spiritual being, such as an animal or plant. The entity, or totem, is thought to interact with a given kin group or an individual and to serve as their emblem or symbol. [4] Each spirit can be associated with an animal of some kind as a symbol of power or any other type of attribute. Masks are sometimes used as well to recreate the spirit or being. Usually seen through the use of Totem poles. with Native American families in traditional societies. Though this is usually seen in Native American traditional societies, this is something that is practiced all over the world. The term totem is derived from the Ojibwa word ototeman, meaning “one’s brother-sister kin.” The grammatical root, ote, signifies a blood relationship between brothers and sisters who have the same mother and who may not marry each other.[5]
Zoomorphism
Zoomorphism is the attribution of animal qualities or characteristics to a God. Many times it is mistaken for anthropomorphism, which attributes human characteristics or qualities to things that are not human. Zoomorphic supernaturals can be found in many religions, such as Hinduism with the deity Ganesha. Other examples include images of male deities with antlers that appeared in prehistoric art in countries as far apart as France, Australia, Canada, and China. [5]
An example of zoomorphism can also be found Egyptian mythology with the god Anubis. In Egyptian mythology, Anubis was the god that protected the dead and brought them to the afterlife until Osiris took over the position and then Anubis became the gatekeeper of the dead.[6] In Egyptian Mythology Anubis has the head of a jackal with the body of a human.  The head of a jackal is significant because in ancient times jackals would hunt at the edges of deserts near the necropolis and cemeteries and ravage the desert graves throughout Egypt.[7] Anubis was not the only zoomorphic god of Egypt. Horus was often drawn as a falcon on the shoulder of a ruler and he is typically depicted as having the head of a falcon when drawn alone. He was often used to show a ruler's connection to the Gods. Other examples in Egyptian mythology include Hathor, who is often depicted as a cow, and the warrior goddess Sekhmet, who is depicted as a lioness in human form.[6]


4.1.3: Culture As An Adaptive Mechanism
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ADAPTATION
An adaptation is any alteration in the structure or functioning of an organism (or group of organisms) that improves its ability to survive and reproduce in its environment. Adaptations occur in response to stressors or changes in the environment in which the organism lives. Stressors can be abiotic ( climate or high altitude), biotic (disease), or social (war and psychological stress). All organisms, including humans, have the ability to adapt biologically, which is referred to as biological plasticity . However, what makes humans unique is the extent to which we rely on culture to adapt to our environment.
Definition: adaptation
Any alteration in the structure or functioning of an organism (or group of organisms) that improves its ability to survive and reproduce in its environment.
Definition: biological plasticity
The ability to adapt biologically in response to the environment.
Definition: stressors
Something that causes strain or tension.
Biological Adaptation
Other species rely primarily on biological adaption for living in their respective environments. Biological adaptations can be short-term, long-term, or genetic. Which type of biological adaptation is activated often depends on the severity and duration of stressors in the environment. Short-term acclimatization can occur within seconds of exposure to a stressor. This type of response quickly reverses when the stressor is no longer present. Imagine stepping out of an air-conditioned building or car into a 90-degree day. Your body will quickly begin to perspire in an attempt to cool your body temperature and return to homeostasis. When the temperature declines, so will your perspiration. Tanning, which can occur in hours, is another short-term response, in this case, to increased UV-radiation exposure. Tans are generally lost during the months when UV-radiation decreases.
Developmental acclimatization occurs during an individual’s growth and development. Note that these cannot take place once the individual is fully grown. There is usually a “magic time window” of when developmental acclimatization can occur. This adaptation can take months to years to acquire. One example of this is the efficient respiratory system of those who have grown up at high altitudes. Those who were born at high altitudes tend to develop larger lung capacities than those who move there later in life.
Note
A developmental adjustment can occur in response to cultural stressors as well. Intentional body deformation has been documented throughout human history. The ancient Maya elite used cradleboards to reshape the skull. Footbinding in China, now an illegal practice, was considered a mark of beauty and enabled girls to find a wealthy spouse.
Genetic adaptations can occur when a stressor is constant and lasts for many generations. The presence of the sickle cell allele in some human populations is one example. Keep in mind that genetic adaptations are environmentally specific . In other words, while a particular gene may be advantageous to have in one environment, it may be detrimental to have in another environment. The sickle-cell allele is a genetic adaptation in response to living in an environment where malaria is prevalent. However, for those living in non-malarial environments, it is no longer advantageous and actually a serious disease.
Cultural Adaptation
A cultural adaption is the knowledge or behavior that enables humans or groups to adjust, survive, and thrive in their environment. One way humans culturally adapt to their environment is through the use of tools. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, some non-human species do have a rudimentary culture as evidenced by their use of tools. Whether it is dolphins using sponges to protect their beaks when hunting fish on the ocean floor , chimpanzees using sticks to "fish" for termites, otters using a rock to break open a shell or humans hunting with a bow and arrow, the use of tools is a cultural adaptation that improves the species chances of survival in their environment. Humans, however, "use culture instrumentally ...to fulfill their basic biological needs for food, drink, shelter, comfort, and reproduction" (Kottak 2012, p. 21) as well as fulfilling basic psychological and emotional needs.
Definition: cultural adaptation
The knowledge or behavior that enables humans or groups to adjust, survive and thrive in their environment.
Cultural adaptations can occur at any time and may be as simple as putting on a coat when it is cold or as complicated as engineering, building, and installing a heating system in a building, or building a space station for human habitation. Cultural adaptation has enabled humans to survive in harsh environments. However, not all cultural adaptations have been beneficial. While the goal of adaptive traits is to enhance human ability to be successful and survive in their environment, some traits have become maladaptive . That is they have become more harmful than helpful and could actually threaten the survival of the people. One example is the use of air conditioners. Although air conditioners improved our lives and made it easier to live in hot and humid conditions, older air conditioners released chlorofluorocarbons and contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer which protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. Over a long period of time, this would have a negative effect on life on earth.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kottak, Conrad P. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology . New York, N.Y: McGraw-Hill, 2012.
A derivative of:
Biological Anthropology/Unit 1: Evolutionary Theory/Modern Human Variation by WikiEducator under CC BY-SA 4.0.


5.5: Gender is a Spectrum
A large number of people, including many transgender people, identify as either male or female. Others do not neatly fit into the categories of “man” or “woman,” or “male” or “female.” Some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman, or a gender that is different from either male or female. Others don't identify with any gender at all. Some people's gender changes over time.
People whose gender is not male or female use many different terms to describe themselves, with non-binary being one of the most common. Other terms include genderqueer , agender , bigender , and more. None of these terms mean exactly the same thing, and new terms are added occasionally, but all signify an experience of gender that is not simply male or female (Understanding non-binary people: How to be respectful and supportive, 2018).
A related aside: not all people who identify as transgender or outside the gender binary participate in hormone therapy or gender affirmation or confirmation surgery. Not only can hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgeries be expensive, many gender non-conforming people, do not wish to subject themselves to traditional markers of masculinity or femininity.
As is true for people in general, transgender women (TGW) have diverse levels of psychological androgyny (having both feminine and masculine characteristics). For example, five percent of the Samoan population are TGW referred to as fa'afafine, who range in androgyny from mostly masculine to mostly feminine (Tan, 2016); in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, TGW are referred to as hijras (Figure 4.4), recognized by their governments as a third gender, and range in androgyny from only having a few masculine characteristics to being entirely feminine (Pasquesoone, 2014); and as many as six percent of biological males living in Oaxaca, Mexico are TGW referred to as muxes, who range in androgyny from mostly masculine to mostly feminine (Stephen, 2002).
Role of Sex Hormones in Transgender Treatment
Some transgender people do seek medical intervention to help align their bodies in a way that they feel represents who they are. One way this is done is through hormone therapy. Feminizing or masculinizing hormone therapy is the administration of exogenous endocrine agents to induce changes in physical appearance. Hormone therapy is inexpensive relative to surgery, and highly effective in the development of some secondary sex characteristics, such as facial and body hair in transgender men or breast development in transgender women. Thus, hormone therapy is often the first (and sometimes only) medical gender affirmation intervention accessed by transgender individuals looking to develop masculine or feminine characteristics consistent with their gender identity. In some cases, hormone therapy may be required before surgical interventions can be conducted. Transgender women are prescribed estrogen and testosterone blocking medication (such as cyproterone acetate and spironolactone). Transgender men are prescribed testosterone.
Violence and discrimination against people who exist within transgender and non-binary (NB) communities is at an all-time high. Even at a time when gender expression is becoming less of a taboo subject, and visibility and validation of identity is becoming more prevalent, the Human Rights Campaign reported that “ 2021 as one of the Deadliest Year on Record for Transgender and Non-Binary People ”. From social stigma and intolerance leading transgender and NB people to take their own lives, to the outright murders of trans women particularly of color, their lives are often at risk of harm for no other reason than a desire to be seen as who they are and society not accepting them.
Certain regions of the United States can be very unsafe for transgender or NB people. In parts of the U.S. anti-trans legislation is popping up and conservative politicians seem to be uniting around denying them basic rights. As this type of gender policing picks up momentum in states all over the US, we will likely see an increase violence amongst LGBTQ+ people (specifically transgender and non-binary people) as they become further marginalized.
Trans Day of Visibility is an annual awareness day celebrated around the world. The day is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people, while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice.


6: Expressions and Equations Last updated Save as PDF Page ID 35082 Illustrative Mathematics OpenUp Resources Section 31: Equations in One Variable 31.1: Tape Diagrams and Equations 31.2: Truth and Equations 31.3: Staying in Balance 31.4: Practice Solving Equations and Representing Situations with Equations 31.5: A New Way to Interpret a over b Section 32: Equal and Equivalent 32.1: Write Expressions Where Letters Stand for Numbers 32.2: Revisit Percentages 32.3: Equal and Equivalent 32.4: The Distributive Property, Part 1 32.5: The Distributive Property, Part 2 32.6: The Distributive Property, Part 3 Section 33: Expressions with Exponents 33.1: Meaning of Exponents 33.2: Expressions with Exponents 33.3: Evaluating Expressions with Exponents 33.4: Equivalent Exponential Expressions Section 34: Relationship Between Quantities 34.1: Two Related Quantities, Part 1 34.2: Two Related Quantities, Part 2 34.3: More Relationships Section 35: Let's Put it to Work 35.1: Tables, Equations, and Graphs, Oh My!


6.7: Putting It Together
SUMMARY
You should now have a better understanding of just important the study of the Earth’s interior is and the impact it has on various aspects of our lives. In particular, we have looked at these items:
- The various layers of the Earth including where they are, what they are made of and how they behave physically
- How geologists use indirect methods to study earth’s interior
- Earth’s magnetic field including how it is generated and why it’s important
- The influence the interior has on plate tectonics
Contributors and Attributions
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Original content from Kimberly Schulte (Columbia Basin College) and supplemented by Lumen Learning . The content on this page is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.