Reflective Project #1

For Reflective Project #1, you may choose one of the following two options. Please ensure that your paper is around 3 pages, double-spaced, with a heading (your name, course info, etc.) and a creative title. Remember that you must utilize ideas and concepts from the textbook, class lectures and discussions to illustrate your point, so the prompt that you choose to write about must reference any of those corresponding chapters, lectures, discussions, and/or activities. Lastly, factors such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar certainly count towards your reflection paper grade, so be sure to edit your paper beforehand. 

Below are the two prompts that you may choose (one) to write about:

1) Break a social norm of dress/attire (be sure not to wear anything illegal, dangerous, or extremely disruptive). Here are some ideas: try dressing in female clothes if you are a male; wear formal attire to a casual get together; wear clothing that is too warm/too cold for the weather; wear stripes with polka dots, wear an unfashionable or outdated outfit, etc. Then, interact with others and observe their responses while wearing your norm-breaking outfit. If you would like to break a different type of norm (not one of dress or attire), then please check out this page on Options for Breaking a Social Norm.

***Important Note: Given the COVID-19 pandemic, I ask that you avoid breaking social norms outdoors. If you decide to pursue this option for RP #1, please only break social norms with those who you live with, and I also ask that you be safe and not break social norms related to safety measures of COVID-19. Please message me via Canvas Inbox if you have any questions about this!***

In your paper, address the following:

• State the Problem: define the norm you will violate, discuss briefly how this norm acts as a mechanism of social control, and describe what you will do to violate the norm.
• Hypothesis: describe the range of possible reactions others will have to the violation of this norm, what do you predict the major reaction will be?
• Describe the Setting: physical-where is the norm violation taking place? Social-how many and what types of people are observing?
• Describe the Incident: tell what happened.
• Summary and Interpretation: how did you feel as you were violating the norm? Why did you feel the way you did? Did people react the way you expected? Did you encounter any difficulties in carrying out your assignment? What, if anything, did you learn about how norms exercise social control?

-OR-

2) Use Census data to analyze your neighborhood. You will need to access this site:

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/beverlyhillscitycalifornia,glendalecitycalifornia,losangelescitycalifornia/PST045219 (Links to an external site.)

-OR-

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescountycalifornia,beverlyhillscitycalifornia,glendalecitycalifornia/PST045218 (Links to an external site.)

Here are the instructions for how to navigate the site:

• You will see a search engine box under “Quick Facts” on the upper left hand side of the page. Type in your city or zip code and press enter. Note that my link above already has the City of Glendale (and the City of Beverly Hills plus the County of Los Angeles to provide two comparisons) already set up, so you will only need to do this step if you live in a City other than Glendale (which I know many of us do!).
• Once the page loads, a column will appear with the city or zip code that you plugged in. As you scroll down to view the data underneath the column, you will see demographic information on “People” (such as the population, age and sex, race and other characteristics including housing, family and living arrangements, computer and internet use, education, health, economy, transportation, income and poverty).  Analyze the data presented to you about your city/neighborhood. What is your reaction to this data? Are you surprised by it at all?
• Then, analyze the demographic information provided about “Businesses,” and “Geography” for your city/neighborhood, and consider your reactions to this data and whether you were surprised by it again.
• After you’ve examined these three variables (and their sub-variables) closely, write a description (at least one full paragraph) for each of the three variables, that synthesize the information that you found for each of these. Each description should include what your findings are, why you think they are this way for your area as well as the two areas you compared to, and whether or not you were surprised by your findings. 
• Now repeat these steps again, with one exception. Instead of examining the data on your city/neighborhood, you will examine the notoriously wealthy City of Beverly Hills, as well as the greater County of Los Angeles, to provide you with some data to compare your city/neighborhood to.
• Write three more descriptions on the same variables of “People,” “Businesses,” and “Geography,” comparing the information of your current city/neighborhood of residence, to that of the City of Beverly Hills and the greater County of Los Angeles. Is your area similar to or different from Beverly Hills? How about to the County of Los Angeles? Why do you think this is? Was there anything that surprised you in the Beverly Hills data? How about in the County of Los Angeles data?
• Be sure to conclude with what you learned from this experience, and to connect it back to what you learned from the Research Methods portion of Module 1.