Applied Research Detailed Plan

Here is an excerpt from my sociology text book, Sociology: A down to earth approach page 73, that I thought was a good explanation for the purpose of my research...

 Socialization into Gender: Learning the Gender Map:

"For a child, society is unexplored territory. A major signpost on society's map is gender, the attitudes and behaviors that are expected of us because we are a male or female. In learning the gender map (called gender socialization), we are nudged into different lanes in life- into contrasting attitudes and behaviors. We take direction so well that as adults, most of us act, think and even feel according to this gender map, our culture's guidelines to what is appropriate for our sex."...

So basically, society teaches us what is considered feminine and masculine and children who have had the least life experience still seem to conform to these norms... how does this affect their growth? To define how much children I plan on asking them and their parents a series of questions, without predisposing them to the true purpose of my research...

• Who?
• Participants?
• Children
• I predict participants will be between the ages of 3 and 11 
• Male and Female
• A CCD class I teach, the childcare center I work at, and my nieces friends 
• Adults 
• I predict the participants to range from ages 25-45
• I know there is a big gap between these ages but I am probably going to ask the parents of the children I interview and I assume they will range somewhere between these ages 
• What? 
• Materials 
• Survey Question Examples for kids 
• What is your favorite color?
• What toys do you play with/ games?
• Who are your friends? 
• I expect their answers to fulfill their gender roles
• Survey Question Examples for parents
• What do you and your kid do together? 
• Do you pick out your child's clothes/toys?
• I expect the parents to have answers that show the influence they have had on their children abiding to gender roles 

• When? 
• Where? 
• Location- most likely... Church, Gym, and my house
• Why? 
• To evaluate how gender roles influence children
• How?
• I am going to survey male and female children as well as male and female adults to compare the outcomes of their responses and evaluate the part that gender roles play in an average lifestyle

Applied Research

After blogging for the first academic quarter I am now approaching my second quarter "applied research". Which is pretty exciting because now I can apply everything I have concluded through my posts to the real world. There are a lot of different types of research methods but I was thinking I would mostly value survey research and/or naturalistic observation. Between everything that I have written on my blog I think a big focus was the part that gender roles play in childhood socialization. So I plan on surveying the children I know, boys and girls with age varying, about how gender roles effect them. Of course they do not really know what gender roles are so I plan on being discrete about the object of my study. It will be interesting to see if they respond to the questions how I predicted.

*( Note: This applied research plan is incomplete but its just a starting ground!)

Eighth Post: Choice

(I typed this like two weeks ago and thought I posted it but unfortunately either it didn't go through or I forgot....)

This is my last blog before I start collecting applied research, than I plan on directing my posts towards that. Under the broad topic of childhood socialization each of my blogs managed to differ so I would like to use this post to summarize what I have learned from my observations, but I also have a good idea for a post sooo I am just going to do both!

In my previous post I mentioned how girls should start being educated about bullying at an earlier age. Its an unfortunate truth but in today's society the youth needs to be exposed to the potential harms of the world to avoid danger. It is a pleasant feeling to assume every person has good intentions, but as people age and are frequently exposed to the danger's of the world they realize it is naive to believe just that. Children on the other hand do not have a developed world view and are vulnerable to the attacks of a predator because of their innocent optimism.
It is unfortunate that people cannot feel completely secure in their own neighborhoods. When my oldest siblings, who are now well into adulthood, were in elementary school on Halloween they were allowed to walk up and down the block alone, their biggest precaution was to check their candy before they ate it. When I was in elementary school an adult would trick-or-treat with us but there were still very upbeat, communal,and safe vibes in connotation with trick-or-treating. But in present day when my niece goes trick-or-treating, in the same neighborhood my siblings and I did, she has to be overcautious to protect her personal security.. I have noticed now that Halloween celebrations mostly take place at school, trunk-or-treats, or even local mall's. The traditional emphasis on trick-or-treating throughout your neighborhood seems to have less emphasis. What I am observing could be explained by Edward Sutherland's Differential Association Theory, it suggests that from the different groups we associate with we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms. So, since my niece Alyssa associates with her generation she denies the tradition my siblings and I were accustomed to and is more inclined to participate in the church's "trunk-or-treat" or go look at a haunted house. However, Alyssa does not feel like she is violating what we considered normal because (due to the profound threat of strangers kids trick-or-treat less) majority of her peers are doing the same as she.

One more thing.... A quick synopsis of what I have gathered so far.

 My posts have had so much variation that I thought it would be difficult to sum them all up in one sentence. I was trying to skim over them and see what really relates and than I realized that the concrete definition of Childhood Socialization that I included in my second post really does the job..."The term social refers to a relationship or interaction between two or more people, who by definition respond to each other and influence each other’s behavior. Socialization is an important process in child development. Stated simply, it is the process whereby individuals, especially children, become functioning members of a particular group and take on the values, behaviors, and beliefs of the group’s other members. Although the process begins shortly after birth and continues into adulthood, the age of early childhood is a crucial period of socialization."... It is almost funny that after this month of posting what I have concluded is what I started with. But to be honest in my second post I had less awareness about what this definition was really saying. This portion of the blogging project has shown me the vital importance of Childhood Socialization, how children are socialized does not just mold the basis for their personal development but it molds the basis for the development of our future society.