Choose ONE of the following questions and respond in 200 words:
The post should 1) draw on key concepts from the book, 2) respond to each component of the question (most questions have multiple prompts), 3) demonstrate critical thinking and evaluation of the topic, and 4) incorporate an outside resource that relates to the question/response.
1. Do people adjust their behavior and presentation of the self to affect the opinion of others? Would you say that we have different "social selves" that we present in different settings? How does this relate to the concepts of front and back stage as well as the techniques of social actors discussed by Goffman?
2. Do you think the mass media significantly contributes to the socialization process? When answering this question be sure to identify and describe the major agents of socialization in U.S. society today. Does the media have more influence over socialization than the other agents of social control? Why or why not?
3. Identify the operational definitions in the following statements and discuss what, if anything, may be wrong with them: (1) smoking is bad for people's health, (2) poverty causes crime, (3) children who watch more than three hours of television a day tend to be more hyperactive than other children, and (4) alcohol consumption is related to spousal abuse. Then try to transform one of the statements into a testable hypothesis with precise operational definitions.