Avoid PLAGIARISM
Module 5 Assignment– Reflecting on Labels and their Impact
I really enjoy teaching about ‘labeling theory’ because we can see many of the concepts from that approach in our everyday lives. We have all been ‘labeled’ at some point in our lives: it could be a positive or negative label; it might have been applied in a subtle or dramatic way; it might have been applied in the home, at school or some other venue; and, that label may have changed our identity or perhaps it slid right off of us.
As discussed in Chapter 8, one of the things that labeling theorists are concerned with is the power of labeling in shaping self-concepts. Labels can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as our future behavior may fall in line with the identity created by the label. We can see dramatic examples of this in the formal social control system of the justice system; however, we don’t need to look that far to see labeling theory in action. I am betting that we have all experienced similar processes in our own lives: moments where we begin to see ourselves as others see us, often in ways that shape our own behavior and life course.
Please read Chapter 8 before doing this assignment.
I am hoping that you can think of an example of how the reactions and labels of others have shaped your own life and sense of self. Please write a reflection about a label that has been applied to you at some point in your life—it could be in the past or present. This could be something positive (e.g., smart, athletic, handsome, kind, curious, good listener, loyal, creative) or negative (e.g., uncoordinated, lazy, party person, prone to gossip, delinquent, unfocused, no follow through, short-tempered, poor writer).
As you think about a label that has been applied to you at some point in your life, please consider the following questions:
What was the label and who did the labeling? Here your answer 200 words or more. With CONCEPTS
How did that label affect your own identity/sense of self? Here your answer 200 words or more. With CONCEPTS
How did this label impact your future behavior? Here your answer 200 words or more. With CONCEPTS
Your total response in this assignment should be 4 PARAGRAPHS– and please draw on CONCEPTS FROM CHAPTER 8 when writing your response.
Example response from your instructor.
I don’t know why I am using myself so much as an example this summer, but I think it might help in this case.
Somewhere, within about one year’s time, I went from thinking I was not ‘book smart’ to believing that I could pursue a graduate degree. Looking back, I can see how the reactions of others were so crucial to this turn in my own identity/sense of self.
I can’t remember when the label was initially applied, but I can remember thinking –stating it openly at times– that I wasn’t ‘book smart’ as a high school student. As labeling theorists would have guessed, my initial struggles in school were polygenic– they had multiple causes (which I won’t go into here). What sealed my fate, in terms of high school academic achievement, was when I internalized the label of not being ‘book smart’ and when I started to act out that internalized label.
I think the label, in my case, was applied in very subtle ways– while I struggled in most of my classes, I usually managed to scrape by in the low-C-grade range. However, I can’t remember a single teacher ever pulling me aside and saying, ‘I bet you could do better’ or ‘you do x or y well’. I believe I was seen as a ‘nice’ student who just wasn’t strong academically. I can remember the low point– being yelled at by my high school guidance counselor as he transferred me into a remedial math class midway through my senior year. I remember him telling me, not in so many words, that I would not amount to anything in life. I remember believing him– and thinking, ‘I know that already!’ Looking back, I was a ‘nice’ and deeply depressed 17-year-old, who would have benefited from actual guidance and counseling. And, in hindsight, I can also see how my own considerable privilege insulated me from other ‘labels’ that likely would have been far more stigmatizing than the subtle ones that I received and internalized.
I can remember sitting in that remedial math class, which took place in a classroom with large glass windows that faced a busy hallway and being so embarrassed– most of my friends were planning out what college they were going to and I was learning to ‘make correct change’ in ‘consumer math’. I can remember being made fun of by my peers for being in that class– I think I was the only senior in it. I tried to avoid the topic and play it off like I didn’t care, but of course I did. I left high school thinking– this school thing is not for me. My plan was to enroll in community college for a bit to please my folks, and then find something else that didn’t involve school. Far from a rock-solid life plan– and one that was very short on details.
Twelve months after being shamed by my guidance counselor, however, I was doing extremely well in community college, planning what I wanted to study when I transferred to the local University and asking my professors about ‘how they got their jobs’. What the heck happened?
I can point to two ‘societal reactions’ that completely altered my sense of self in that twelve-month time frame: the mentorship of my paternal grandfather and the grade I earned in a Humanities 101 class at my community college.
At the age of eighteen, during my first semester at community college (where I was still struggling), my grandfather came to my house unannounced and dropped off a paper grocery bag full of books. These were mostly pop-psychology and philosophy books, obscure stuff that he was into. He said he thought I would have a ‘knack’ for this sort of thing– and that if I ever wanted to talk about the ideas in them, I should come visit him and we could chat. Not wanting to let him down (and feeling sort of flattered), I read the books carefully, took notes on index cards, and went to speak with him about what I had read– a tradition that we carried on for a decade. In those meetings, he took what I had to say seriously and kept insisting that I had a ‘knack for this sort of stuff’. Here was an authority figure giving me a different ‘looking glass’ to stare into. I sort of started to believe him and I liked reading the books. He kept giving me books– and I was soon finding my own and reading them quickly and carefully. I read more books in three months than I had in my whole life prior to that point. This is not an exaggeration.
Having not done well during my first semester of community college, I took a Humanities 101 class during the ‘winter intersession’ to catch up on credits. It was like a three-week class between New Year’s Day and the start of the Spring Semester. It dawned on me that if I could get something out of those books my grandfather gave me, maybe I could do the same with the ‘schoolbooks’– maybe I had ‘a knack’ for them as well, but just didn’t know it yet. I vowed to try my hardest for this three-week class– a promise I made to myself. To put it in scientific terms, I studied my butt off for that class. I sat right up front to watch slides of Greek statues and took detailed notes on Gothic architecture and Impressionist painters. I made flash cards to study during downtime at work, I proofread my paper, and studied all night for the scantron final. I even drove fifty miles to tour a famous museum for extra credit– I took my girlfriend and made it a date. I can remember trying to be very serious and intellectual as a way to impress her as we strolled through room after room admiring art that I knew absolutely nothing about. “I believe that’s actually an early Renoir over there”, my 18-year-old self probably said. I can remember sitting with her on a patio at the museum, drinking overpriced sparkling water and feeling like an adult, perhaps for the first time. Looking back, I was trying on a new ‘intellectual’ identity– and clearly overcompensating, in part because I had been sitting in ‘consumer math’ six months earlier. I was probably totally insufferable that day, but at least I was trying, which I sensed my girlfriend liked. (Spoiler: today, 8-6-21, is our 15-year wedding anniversary)
That three-week Humanities 101 course was a turning point for me. I greatly admired the instructor for her intellect and passion for the arts, and I got a heck of a lot out of the class. I also got an ‘A’. This was the first ‘A’ in something that wasn’t, like, PE that I had earned in a very long time, perhaps ever. I internalized that ‘A’ and did very well the following semester. Suddenly, I was on the honor roll, and soon being ‘book smart’ was a label that I identified with. I continued to act out the ‘good student’ label for many years to come– it became a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ from that point onward.
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• Again, be specific to the material in the attachment. I will not accept external sources. INCLUDE THE QUESTIONS WITH YOUR ANSWERS.
Note: Avoid PLAGIARISM and copying and pasting you will get you ZERO. I will scan the papers. 600 words or more NOT INCLUDED THE QUESTIONS.
See the materials in the attachments.
1- CH-8.
2- Module 5 Slides Deviance.
3- Voice recorder. Module 5 Panopto lecture.
Review and write according to the instructions.
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