Strategic Note-taking for Social Sciences Research QRSTUV.docx

Strategic Note-taking for Social Sciences Research: QRSTUV
Title and
Author
Question Research
Methods
Summary of Findings Takeaway
Message
Unfamiliar
Vocabulary
Kenneth Gergen,
“Together We
Construct Our
Worlds”
P5-12
Since what we
consider real is
socially
constructed,
what makes
people agree it
is real.
For example:
Before we
know tree is
tree. What

makes people
believe it is
tree?
Observation Gergen argues the most important means
of reality maintenance is conversation. It
is through conversation that we create
social common sense, which is also what
makes our world today. For example, if we
do not agree on trees as trees, then, there
will be no trees.
Social Origins of Good and Real:
• The ways in which we understand the
world is not required by “what there is.”
• The ways in which we describe and
explain the world are the outcomes of
relationship.
• Constructions gain their significance
from social utility.
• Values are created and sustained within
forms of life (including science).
If everything we
consider real is
socially
constructed, then
nothing is real
unless people
agree that it is.
Social

Convention : are
those arbitrary rules
and norms
governing the
countless behaviors
all of us engage in
every day without
necessarily thinking
about them, from
shaking hands when
greeting someone to
driving on the right
side of the road.
Social Utility :
is a service, or
characteristic, that
benefits the
majority of
population of any
given society.
Gerld Handel,
Spencer Cahill,
Frederick Elkin,
“Human Neural
Plasticity and
Socialization”
P13-19
Is it possible to
have a child
who were
born with
disability to

succeed as a
normal child?
Observation,
Content Analysis
• This article introduce the debate of
nature versus nurture focusing on human
development and individuals’
consequent abilities and characteristics.
• The author of shows a couple studies
that is limited to the importance of
neural plasticity during primary or
children socialization.
• The author is proven that neural
plasticity of human brain are the
foundation of child development. It is
what shapes the child’s personality and
abilities.
• However, socialization/experience
shapes biological functioning. In another
word, experience is what shapes the
neural circuitry of the human brain and
sustain it.
Humans have
not a single but
dual nature.
Human Neural
Plasticity : The
brain's ability to
reorganize itself by

forming new neural
connections
throughout life.
Synapse : a junction
between two nerve
cells, consisting of a
minute gap across
which impulses pass
by diffusion of a
neurotransmitter.
Infantile Autistic:
characterized by lack
of interest in others,
impaired
communication skills,
and bizarre behavior,
as ritualistic acts and
excessive attachment
to objects.
Kent Sandstorm,
“Symbols and the
Creation of
Reality”
P20-27
What is some
downside when
converting our
experience to
symbols.

Observation • Sandstorm sated that symbol is the key
factor that make us different from all
other creatures in the world. In this
article we look at symbol, sign, and
meaning through the symbolic
interactionism perspective.
• Importance of symbols:
1. Symbols are abstractions
which allow us transcend our
immediate environment and to
have experience that are not
rooted in the here and now.
2. Symbol allows us to
remember, imagine, plan, and
have vicarious experience. And
through observing those
experience allow us to
understand others’ experience.
3. Symbol is also the
transmission of culture.
4. Symbol provide us with
templates for categorizing our
experiences and placing them
within a larger frame of
reference.
We convert our
experiences into
images and
symbols.

Human Perception:
the process by which
the brain interprets
and organizes the
chaos that bombards
our senses, is formed
and how it affects our
memories.
Conceptualization:
the action or process
of forming a concept
or idea of something
Eviatar Zerubavel,
“The Rules of
Denial”
P28-36
As described in
the article,
during a
meeting we
tends to ignore
the person’s
button’s color.
Is it always
true that we
tends to ignore
little things
like that?
Content analysis • Zerubavel illustrates how our
socialization shapes our perception and

interpretations of the objects and people
we encounter.
• We are born into a world already
interpreted and organized by others.
Moreover, they also provide us with
filters that prompt us to ignore,
disregard, or deny certain stimuli and
events.
• When social attitudes shift, our focus
will shift as well. We tends to focus on
issues which the society all agreed on as
important.
• What society expects us to ignore is
often articulated in the form of strict
taboos against looking listening, and
specking.
Our brain
automatically
ignore things
that socially
agreed as not
important.
Proverbial: well
known, especially
so as to be
stereotypical.
Physiology: the
way in which a
living organism or
bodily part

functions.
Tact: adroitness
and sensitivity in
dealing with others
or with difficult
issues.
Taboo: prohibited
or restricted by
social custom.
Susan Blackmore,
“The Meme
Machine”
P37-42
If imitation is
what make us
differ from
other animals,
is it true that
there is nothing
else that
animal can do
but we human
can not?
Content analysis • The article starts off questioning what
makes us different than animals?
• There are three common answers to that
question:

1. We are simply more intelligent
than any other species.
2. Human consciousness is
unique and is responsible for
making us human.
3. Existence of a human soul or
spirit that transcends the
physical brain and explains
human uniqueness.
• Blackmore, however, disproved all three
points above and argue that: what makes
us different is our ability to imitate.
• Imitation comes naturally to us human.
• And it is named “meme”.
Everything you
have learned by
imitation from
someone else is a
meme.
Versatile:
able to adapt or be
adapted to many
different functions
or activities.
Dennis D. Waskul,
Phillip Vannini,
“Smell, Odor, and

Somatic Work”
P47-57
Is there a
specific type of
smell/odor that
is easy to catch
attention on?
Content analysis,
Observation,
Data collection,
Experiment
• Unlike other sense, olfaction is a rich
arena for sociological investigation,
because odor is fundamentally public
and shared.
•
• Habits of sensing
• Participants in this experiment
were more likely to distinguish
between enjoyable and
disagreeable odors in terms of
habits of sending that olfaction
evokes.
• We intend our concept of habits
of sending as filters of all the
material that reaches our
perception and thought.
• Even an odor generally deemed
pleasant or neutral can be

interpreted as noxious when
linked to negative memories.
• Somatic Rules and Somatic Escalation
• Hygiene is associated with care
for the self and others, class,
status, health, and civilization.
• Perception is often associated
with cultural values.
• Somatic rules are contextual and
diverse, however, their
application is consistent but
variable.
• Unpleasant odors can be made
tolerable if the circumstances are
appropriate.
Smell is cultural. Somatic
Escalation:
naturalization of
why something
smells bad.
Hygiene:
conditions or
practices conducive
to maintaining
health and
preventing disease,
especially through
cleanliness.
Perception: the
ability to see, hear,

or become aware of
something through
the senses.
Nostalgic:
characterized by or
exhibiting feelings
of nostalgia.
Pathogenic: (of a
bacterium, virus, or
other
microorganism)
causing disease.
Putrefaction: the
process of decay or
rotting in a body or
other organic
matter.
Arlie Russell
Hochschild,
“Emotion Work
and Feeling
Rules”,
P58-64
Do we use deep
acting every
day?
Content analysis • The author of this article credits
Goffman for recognizing that emotion
are subject to social regulation. But she
also criticizes him for limiting attention
to outward expression of emotions.

• The article starts comparing
Goffmanian’s focus on consciously
designed appearances; and Freudian’s
focus on unconscious intrapsychic
events.
• EmotionWork
• The act of trying to change in
degree or quality an emotion or
feeling.
• NOTE: it is the act of trying, not
the outcome.
• Two types of emotions:
1. Evocation: in which
the cognitive focus is
on a desired feeling
which is initially
absent.
2. Suppression: in
which the cognitive
focus is on an
undesired feeling.
• Three techniques of emotion
work.
1. Cognitive
2. Bodily
3. Expressive

Inside is as
important as
outside.
Acquiescence:
the reluctant
acceptance of
something without
protest.
Continue • Feeling Rules
• Rights and Duties:
1. The extent( one can feel
too angry or not angry
enough)
2. The direction( One can
feel sad when one
should feel happy)
3. The duration( of
feeling)
Nancy S. Berns,
“Closure Talk”
P65-72
Why are
people so into
the idea of
grief? Is it

socially
constructed as
well?
Content analysis • Berns argues that closure has become a new
emotion for explaining what we need after
trauma and loss and how we should respond.
• Closure can mean so many things. The
author use the term “closure talk” to refer to
how people use the concept of closure and
emphasize that closure is a part of
storytelling.
• Six types of closure talk:
1. Closing a chapter—moving on.
2. Remembering —closing the fear
of forgetting.
3. Forgetting—leave behind the
pain.
4. Getting even
5. Knowing — to end unresolved
questions and worries.
6. Confessing and forgiving—
confessing or receiving an
apology or forgiving someone
helps one find closure by ending
angry.
• Closure is: Possible; good; desired; and
necessary.

• Today closure become a great selling point.
Unlike proving other services, closure
provide emotional appealing which resonates
with many people.
• Industries profit from people’s emotions; and
shaping the idea that people are supposed to
feel and respond to death(you need money to
grieve properly.)
Closure is a
socially
constructed
concept that
often causes
more harm than
good.
Consumerism: the
protection or
promotion of the
interests of
consumers
ChristianVaccaro,
Douglas Schrock,
Janice Mccabe,
“Managing
Emotional
Manhood”
P73-83
Is it true that
pressure can

give you
confidence in
area you
already
mastered in?
Data collection;
Interview;
Fieldwork;
• The author conducted experiment on
MMA fighter to study fear management.
• Study have shown a long-lived cultural
that real man control their fear and other
emotions.
• Through the interview, we have studied
that most fighter suffer from fear before
the game or even during the game. They
are afraid being hurt or losing the game.
However they usually avoided saying
“I’am afraid/scared/fearful.” Because
that will make them look like woman.
• For fighters, their emotion work is to
transforming fear into confidence by
gathering information of future
opponents and scripting game plan.
• Fighters’ emotional framing most often
involved defining cage fight as:
1. Just another day in the gym
2. Business
3. A valuable experience

• Fighters also gain confidence by
defining themselves as superior to their
opponents.
• Ex. Creating powerful visual self;
defining their opponents as inferior.
• Keeping one’s own fear under control
was thus key to instilling fear in
opponents.
Emotion work is
a form of
gendered identity
work.
Paramedics: a
person trained to
give emergency
medical care to
people who are
seriously ill with
the aim of
stabilizing them
before they are
taken to the
hospital.
Ostracize: exclude
(someone) from a
society or group.
Brandon A.

Jackson,
Adia Harvey
Wingfield,
“Getting Angry to
Get Ahead”
P84-92
Why would UP
leader place
such a strong
emphasis on
brotherhood,
since the right
way to fit in
the society is to
fit-in in all
social groups?
Participant
observation,
In-depth interview
• This study focuses on students with in a
particular campus organization for black
men. Uplift and Progress (UP) is a
national organization that is dedicated to
eliminating the negative stereotypes of
black men and instead encouraging
positive ones.
• This article illustrate how the leaders of
UP teach recruits to suppress emotional
displays stereotypically associated with
young African American.
• Black man are culturally seeing as the

“angry black men”
• So they may face pressure to avoid
behaving in ways that reflect this
stereotype.
• Research hav shown that anger is more
likely to be target toward those with
lower status. Such as lower class,
woman, or colored people.
• People with lower status may not feel
that they have the freedom to express
their emotions.
• Key actions that elicited bible anger
from black men in leadership roles int he
UP organization:
1. Express anger in order to
facilitate boing among their
recruits.
We should
display a
professional
demeanor at all
time.
Elicit: Evoke or
draw out (a
response, answer, or
fact) from someone
in reaction to one's
own actions or
questions.

Ethnography:
the scientific
description of the
customs of
individual peoples
and cultures.
Sara B.
Chadwick,
Sari M. van
Anders
“Do Women’s
Orgasms
Function as a
Masculinity
Achievement for
Men?”
Do women’s
orgasms
function as a
masculinity
achievement
for men?
Qualitative survey • The results of the survey conformed to
the research hypothesis that women’s
orgasms often particularly function just
like a masculinity achievement for men.
According to the results of the research,
success conditions were observed as
among the factors that would results into
the highest scores for men. In this case,

the results indicated that men who often
take cultural and communal approach to
sex are likely to find abundant pleasure
in sex more than men who take
exchange approach and focus of his
sexual partner pleasure. In summary, the
results indicated that men often feel
more masculine and report higher
satisfaction for sex in case they have a
feeling that women’s orgasms
encounters with them during sex;
however, this is opposite for men with
high masculine gender role stress.
• Three key points discussed in the article:
1. Women’s orgasms are the main
symbol for sexual satisfaction.
2. Several factors such as state of
mind and high masculine
gender role stress interfere
with men’s performance and
satisfaction for sex.
3. How women’s orgasms can
function as masculinity
achievement for men.
Embracing
cultural and
communal
approach to sex
as a man would
make you find
abundant

pleasure in sex
more than men
who take
exchange
approach and
focus of his
sexual partner
pleasure.
Masculine gender
role stress :
This is the outcome
of emotion distress
and it often results
from failure to obey
the norms of
traditional
masculine gender
role.
Women’s orgasms:
The ability of a
women to attain
sexual climax
during sexual
intercourse.
Marin A. Martin,
“Becoming a
gendered body”.
P93-114
How are body-
related

behaviors and
self-
perceptions
related to
interpersonal
and social
experiences of
objection?
Semi-structured
field observations
• The researcher found out that schools
often discipline children’s bodies. In
this regard, the kind of conditions and
situations that children encounter while
in school regulate and control their
behaviors regardless of being physically
active thus preparing them for social
world. The kind of disciplinary controls
that children get from schools do not
only make them have docile bodies, but
also make them have gendered bodies
and body adornments and clothes were
found to be the most explicit way in
which children’s bodies become
gendered. In addition, the kind of clothes
that children dress during their schooling
shapes their experiences.
• Three key points discussed in the article:
1. Schools play very vital roles in
shaping children’s experiences
and defining their gender roles.

2. The kind of disciplinary
controls children receive from
school help them have docile
and gendered bodies.
3. Clothes and body adornments
given to children during their
preschool make them become
gendered.
The conditions
and situations
that children
encounter while
in school
regulate and
control their
behaviors
regardless of
being physically
active thus
preparing them
for social world.
Becoming
gendered body:
This is the ability of
the body to evolve
and reproduce to
separate whether a
girl from a body or
indicate clear
differences between
a male and female.
Social world:

The word is broadly
used to define the
universes of
discourse where
certain common
symbols, activities
or organizations
emerge i.e. the gay
community is often
considered a self-
conscious of social
world.
Dennis D. Waskul,
Phillip Vannini,
Desiree Wiesen,
“Women and
Their Clitoris”
P115-129
The fact that
women’s
genitalia are
generally
unspeakable is
it counted as
gender
equality?
Observation;
Purposive sample;
Questionnaire
• `The authors portray how somatic

experience cane reflexive and
meaningful even when symbolic
resources are relatively scare or absent.
• Women’s genitalia are generally
unspeakable.
• During the study we found out that They
did not acquire this information in
primary and secondary educational
setting.
• This result in lots of women learn that
spot through playing their genitalia
without learning the name it all. Often
during rest-less nights or in the bathtub
according to the study. The author
describe this circumstance as symbolic
purgatory.
• In some case, women reported learning
their clitoris from peers as well.
• Most women in the study said that they
learned the name through popular social
media.
• Many women remained incapable of find
a label for the clitoris for extended
periods of time. When the word was
brought up, it is the feeling and the
experience that is being remembered.
• It is common to understand/see
masturbation experience as shame and
guilt associated.

• Women in this study equally illustrated
that the body may be inscribed by
discourse.
Women’s
genitalia are
generally
unspeakable.
Clitoridectomy:
excision of the
clitoris; female
circumcision.
Symbolic
purgatory: having
the quality of
cleansing or
purifying.
Vulva: the female
external genitals.
Greg Lukianoff,
Jonathan Haidt,
“The Coddling of
the American
Mind”
How triggering
warnings are

hurting mental
health?
Content analysis • The article indicates that trigger
warnings such as the use of on message
boards, pathetic images and pictures and
pathetic stories can trigger flashbacks by
an individual making them remember
the traumatic situations they went
through sometimes back. This is
observed by the author as being wrong,
for example, showing women images of
women being raped, assaulted or killed
might provoke their emotions thus
awakening their past traumas. According
to the article, the majority of extreme
PTSD cases especially in various
campuses result from triggering
warnings that are used in these
institutions that finally severely hurt the
lives of these individuals.
• Triggering warnings like the use of on
message boards and assaulting pictures
is likely to awake trauma in people.
• Moreover, fortune telling and telling of
tragic stories is able to provokes the
emotions of audiences thus making them
suffer PTSD.
• Areas where trigger warnings are
predominantly used include feminist
forums and self- help.
The majority of

extreme PTSD
cases especially
in various
campuses result
from triggering
warnings that are
used in these
institutions that
finally severely
hurt the lives of
these
individuals.
Trigger warnings:
These statements
from a video or
piece of writing
alert the viewer or
reader to the fact
that it has
distressing contents.
Traumatic
situations:
These situations
result into
psychological,
emotional, physical,
and spiritual harm.
Angela Orend,
Patricia Gagene,
“Corporate Logo
Tattoos and the
Commodification

of the Body”
P130-140
What is the
relationship
between plastic
surgery and
culture?
Qualitative
ethnographic
observation;
Field work;
In-depth interview;
Conservational
interviews
• This study focuses on the relationship
between culture and body by
interviewing people with the following
questions:
1. What are the meanings that
those who acquire corporate
logo tattoos ascribe to them?
2. What motivates some
individuals to inscribe
themselves with a corporate
symbols?
3. Are corporate logo tattoos a
form a resistance against the
cultural industry?
• Two main theme gathered though data

collection:
1. Their motivation to get the
tattoo was brand loyalty and
for them, the logo signified
personal and group identity as
well as adherence to a lifestyle
associated with the brand.
2. The simulacrum was the intent
to appropriate the logo and to
extent the meaning s of the
brand.
• For example: like the word
or like the artistic style.
• The study suggest corporate marketers
have skillfully constructed a reality that
includes individual and group identity,
community, and lifestyle.
Tattoo are
symbolic of the
commodification
of the body.
Resurgence: an
increase or revival
after a period of
little activity,
popularity, or
occurrence.
Panopticon: an
experimental

laboratory of power
in which behaviour
could be modified,
and Foucault
viewed
thepanopticon as a
symbol of the
disciplinary society
of surveillance.
Simulacrum:
an image or
representation of
someone or
something.
Meika Loe,
Leigh Cuttino,
“Grapping with
the medicated
self”
P141-152
Does people
who take
medicine get
addicted to it ?
Interview;
observation;
Qualitative research
method
• In this society, we manipulate bodies to

meet the exceptions of others.
• In this section, research is conducted to
study the lived experiences of individual
who have ADHD through historical and
demographic trends and macro-structural
analysis.
• We live in a society where prescription
drugs are available and accessible.
Student will risk shame if their bodies do
not perform in accordance with the
collegiate academic ethic.
• Most student who refuse to take
medicine because they believe it will
make them lose their natural self.
• According to the participants of this
study, many people didn't believe in
ADHD until being diagnosed.
• Non-medical routes to managing their
performance and avoiding failure:
1. Cooling out- the process where
individual redefine their future
on a more realistic terms.
Setting easier goal. And do
things that they are capable of.
2. Stop using prescription
medication altogether.
In order to have
control, they

must allow
themselves to be
controlled.
Regimentation: the
act of regimenting
or the state of being
regimented. the
strict discipline and
enforced uniformity
characteristic of
military groups or
totalitarian systems.
Psychostimulants:
is an overarching
term that covers
many drugs
including those that
increase activity of
the central nervous
system and the
body, drugs that are
pleasurable and
invigorating, or
drugs that have
sympathomimetic
effects.
1. Pick a subculture. This subculture should be one in which
you feel like you know the
rules, have internalized the rules, could explain the rules to
other people, and don't

much have to think consciously about the rules to operate inside
them. As a
example: for me, it might be paramedic subculture, food geek
subculture, choral
singing subculture, gym subculture, Bay Area subculture, white
middle-class
subculture, crazy-cat-lady subculture, adjunct faculty
subculture, sociology
subculture, listener-of-my-favorite-podcast subculture, or long-
time Santa Cruz
resident subulture. And that's just the tip of *my* subculture
iceberg! You could pick
subcultures based on race, class, ethnic identity, religion,
extracurricular activities,
employment, video games, sports...the possibilities are endless.
In choosing the one
you're going to focus on, think about the subcultures that you
feel most connected to
or invested in. Like any research project for which you feel
passion, these topics will
tend to be the most interesting. There is no constraint on the
size of the subculture
you choose; it can be tiny (your intramural fencing team) or
enormous (your race,
class, or gender).
2. After you clearly identify and describe your subculture,
please elaborate at some
length on its rules, symbols, norms, linguistic quirks, or beliefs.
Questions to
consider:
o Who are members of this subulture likely to be?
o Is it open to anyone who is interested in being part of it, or is
it limited to certain
categories of people by virtue of their membership in specific

social groups? Why
and how?
o What exactly are the rules for engagement? What, as a
member of this
subculture, should you do or not do; say or not say; think or not
think?
o What would would happen to someone in the subculture who
deviated from
these rules?
o If you broke the rules and got kicked out (literally or
figuratively), to what lengths
would you have to go to repair your reputation and relationships
within the
subculture? Would the possibility of re-acceptance exist, or
would breaking the
rules result in permanent censure/expulsion?
o What symbolic meanings do members of this subculture attach
to adherence to
or disregard for the rules? How is group membership
legitimated?
o What visual, auditory, and verbal symbols exist within this
subculture? How is
consensus achieved with regard to the meaning of these
symbols?
o Through what mechanisms do aspects of your subcultural's
symbolic meanings
shift over time? How, in other words, does social change take
place at the level
of your subculture?

3. Use vocabulary from at least 3-4 of our readings so far this
quarter (BELOW) to
frame your subculture in social-psychological terms. Please
highlight each concept
you choose in bold to make it easier for the reader to
identify.You needn't define
them explicitly in your writing as long as you can demonstrate
your understanding
through your use of the words/concepts in context.
4. Cite the readings you use in ASA (American Sociological
Assocation) format. If you
haven't used ASA format before, it's one of the more
straighforward ones. You'll
need to know it for Soc 3A if you haven't yet taken that course,
and for any formal
research papers you write as a Socy major, so it is worth
practicing any chance you
get. You can find a short version here (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external
site..
5. There is no need to include a title page, but please make sure
that your first page
does not fill up so much space with your name, class name, etc.,
that you only end
up writing half a page worth of text.
6. Please keep in mind that this is inherently personal research.
Be self-reflexive:
situate yourself within your writing; tell the reader explicity
what is at stake for you,
why you are invested in this subculture, etc. Use the first person

throughout your
paper when talking about your own thoughts and feelings. Write
in plain text, with
attention to clarity and straighforward communcation that a
non-sociologist could
readily understand (in other words, do not over-write in an
attempt to sound smart or
to fill up space).
7. Let your passion and your inner geek shine through. If you
are genuinely interested
in what you are writing, the reader is more likely to be as well.
8. Ensure that the paper is strongly organized with a clear
introduction, consistent
transitions between body paragraphs, and a satisfying
conclusion. Make sure the
reader understands through your introduction what a subculture
is, why it's useful to
understand them as a concept, and what they can expect to get
out of reading your
paper.
9. Edit beautifully for grammar, spelling, writing mechanics,
organization, and typos. If
you really want to nail it, trade papers with someone else and
allow another human
brain to find the errors that your brain will miss.
LIST OF VOCABS FROM READING:
1. Social Convention
2. Social Utility

3. Human Neural Plasticity
4. Synapse
5. Infantile Autistic
6. Human Perception
7. Conceptualization
8. Physiology
9. Tact
10. Nostalgic
11. Pathogenic
12. Putrefaction
13. Acquiescence
14. Perception
http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teach
ing/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf
http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teach
ing/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf

Strategic Note-taking for Social Sciences Research QRSTUV.docx

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