Sociology

GORDON KUSSI TABIRI English Writing: From Start to Finish My life as a college student Seven years ago I gained admission to pursue a B. A program in one of the prestigious universities in Ghana. The name of the university is Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). I was offered a four year bachelor degree program leading to a degree in Sociology and Social Work. Thus, I read BA Sociology and Social Work. I was so happy at the time because of two reasons.

One was that, I had tried twice to be admitted into the countries universities but refused until finally the third time of which I succeeded. The second reason why I was happy was related to the fact that I had the opportunity to continue my education to a level that I had always dream about. My first year as a fresher on campus was very interesting for me. I was to read sociology and social work as a major and Geography as my minor.

I therefore registered for my courses for the first year which included subjects such as introduction to sociology, traditional social structure of Ghana, introduction to human geography, development of geographic thought, introduction to physical environmental systems, communication skills, introduction to computers, and ethics and etiquette in traditional systems. I read these subjects for the first and second semesters as my first year program. I attended all lectures, wrote my assignments and the years exams. The results of the exams came and I had a Cumulative Weighted Average (CWA) of 59. 17.

I was so disappointed about my results and decided to make better grades no matter what it takes to do so. I wrote the second semester exams and improved upon my performance by obtaining a CWA of 60. 32. I realized the fact that increasing the hours of my studies yielded good results. My second year on campus was very exciting. This was because I made very good friends and also had acquainted myself with campus life in general. I had a good friend by name Christian Boateng who happens to be an old classmate at Akrokerri College of Education where we both obtained our diploma in basic education in the year 2001.

Christian was very instrumental in my life on campus because he taught me how to study for long hours. We actually took similar courses together in the first two years of our education in KNUST College. We were also roommates for three years and shared a lot of things together. My second year courses also included literature in English, introduction to geomorphology, theory and practice of geography, principles of cartography, concepts and theories in sociology, social structure of modern Ghana as well as the nature of social work. The courses were very challenging especially those related to geography.

I had a successful year and also improved on my performance. This second year was very significant to my life because it was during this period that I decided to read a master’s program after graduation. That year helped me realized a lot of my potentials and also changed my perception of life in general. My third year in KNUST also saw me reading courses such as perspectives in sociological theory, research methods, theoretical framework for social work methodology, industrial sociology, medical sociology, and also bamboo and rattan processing.

I enjoyed reading these courses especially industrial sociology, medical sociology as well as sociological theory. During my third year, we were made to drop our minor course, so I concentrated only on the major which was sociology and social work and also other borrowed courses. I also managed to secure the same room on campus with my friend, Christian. We both studied hard and had very good grades in our third year exams. We also had lots of fun on campus until school vacated. Christian was actually based in Kumasi which is the city in Ghana were KNUST was located whereas I was also based at Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

In view of this, I spent most of my school holidays in Accra with my family. During the long vacation after the end of the third year, I had an attachment with Tetteh Quashie Memorial Hospital situated at Akuapem Mampong. I was attached to the social welfare department of the hospital where I performed generic social work. It was a great experience since I had practical training in dealing with social welfare cases of clients at the hospital, district court and the district family social welfare cases. My mentors taught me so well that by the time I finished my attachment, I had developed a passion of working as a social worker someday.

After my attachment, I prepared for my final year academic work. On arriving on campus for my final year, I registered for courses such as social psychology, social development, human resource management, approaches to counselling in social work, environmental sociology and a long essay dissertation. I had actually started writing my BA thesis in the third year of my studies. My topic was, “the role of non-formal education to the contribution of the social and economic development of Ghana: a case study of the Ejisu- Juaben Municipality”.

It was a great and challenging topic to write, in that there wasn’t much literature on the subject of non-formal education. Owing to that, I researched the web widely in writing this project. My supervisor by name Mr. Barnie gave me all the directions and support so well that I obtained an excellent grade in this long essay. I was very excited because I was constrained by time in combining my academic work with writing of this thesis. In spite of all the challenges, my hard work paid off with me obtaining very good grades in all my final courses I took.

Thus, I completed all my forth year course exams and was ready for graduation. We were to graduate exactly one month after completion of all the necessary course requirements. I was among one of the students who were to graduate with second class upper (honors) degree in sociology and social work. During graduation, my uncle and a cousin of mine accompanied me, and it is a day that I will never forget in my life. I dressed neatly in my graduation gown and went through the ceremony very happy of my accomplishments. After the ceremony I took several pictures with friends and my family and we had a great party after the occasion.

I would never forget my experience on campus because it transformed my life. My general outlook of life has changed tremendously. I now understand that I have great capabilities as well as weaknesses. My college experience has contributed in shaping my personality today. I have learnt to work hard to overcome my weaknesses as well as develop my potentials and capabilities. This is the reason that I had saved money to pursue a master’s program in Switzerland to be able to actualize my dreams and aspirations in life.

Jurgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action sought to explain this contemporary sociological thinker’s ideas on system and the life-world. The meaning of this “life-world” for Habermas, meant: one’s own personal space, including personal identity and consciousness. “It is the lived realm of informal, culturally-grounded understandings and mutual accommodations. ” (Wikipedia) The life-world goes on to function through norms and beliefs of the society. Everyone in the society plays their role, which is based on their personal identity, and the society goes on functioning as a system.

The system includes a chain of commands dealing with politics, economics, etc. Consequently, this leads to a colonization of the life-world. The system is an impersonal structure that entails organization and functionality. Because it is based on functions within social, educational and environmental policies, as well as markets (Parsons’ AGIL), there must be a form of order for it to run smoothly. The political institutions do not allow the individual to just think of himself, it essentially leaves a demand for all to work together as a whole.

The life-world is based more on happiness and order within. When the functions of the system and life-world collide the life-world becomes colonized. Things are harder to be rationalized within the system because barriers are formed in the lines of communication. The struggle to please one’s own self and the need for order in the political realm causes a conflict of interest in modern society. The two entities are becoming rationalized as both continue to evolve. The life-world will continue to be hindered as the system continues to block lines of communication.

As modern society goes on, the struggle within one’s self and the need to continually stabilize society will eventually cause a greater problem that will require further research beyond that of Jurgen Habermas.

In Michael Foucault’s Discipline & Punish, he sought to explain his theory of surveillance within contemporary society. He does this by using the idea of the Panopticon as an example. The panopticon is a structure, created by Jeremy Bentham, which is built in a way that allows all angles to be easily viewed.

The design, which is a circular, spherical building, allows those conducting the surveillance to see everything without having to worry about corners and non visible spots. The subjects that are being viewed never actually know when they are being specifically watched due to the construction of the building. It is also built so that the viewer cannot be easily seen. This structure is mainly existent in prisons but can also be used within schools, factories and military structures. Surveillance is defined as being the “continual observation of a person or group, especially on suspected of doing something illegal. (Encarta Dictionary) The most obvious example would be in the prison system where prisoners are being watched by prison wardens and guards. Cameras are set up at ever imaginable angle to monitor the behavior of the inmates. These cameras are active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, recording every move of every prisoner. Furthermore, if the guard were to stand in the middle of the panopticon, he would also be able to view all angles easily without too much movement. Foulcault formulated his theory of contemporary society, in relation to the panopticon. The idea of total surveillance represents power in society.

The individual is constantly being watched which consequently alters their behavior. Because the surveillance is constant and unknown, we develop a state of paranoia within ourselves and never feel completely alone unless we are absolutely sure that we are in a private space. Foulcault’s interpretation extends to the acts of the government: “The role of legislation allows the means of authority to spread without need for one central authority figure. This advocates the self monitoring society which in essence is panopticism. ” (Gieser) It is said that because the government is seen as the overseer.

We, the citizens, develop our own sense of self-surveillance that in turn, satisfies the surveillance tactic. Foucault felt that this panoptic ordeal “dehumanize[d] and strip[ped] the population of their power”. (Gieser) Thus, it leaves us with no actual sense of normalcy and security.

The idea of culture industry was created by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School. Culture industry is simply the use of manufactured goods in pop culture to influence society, thus causing society to be passive and not worrying about economical woes.

Society develops unnecessary wants and needs while capitalism is masked and flourishing. This form of culture molds the idea of what’s important to society through mass production and ignores what works for the individual. Thus, a sense of uniqueness is lost. The Frankfurt School felt that this was an important way of trying to understand modern capitalist society because it was clearly going in that direction, at the time and now. Karl Marx inspired these beliefs through his own works and encouraged the Frankfurt School to expose capitalists.

They did this by using ancient examples that proved that these frivolous items being praised were only there to mask the fact that we, the people were being manipulated and controlled. Exposing society to the control was supposed to encourage them to break free and regain their senses of self. The focus was on capitalism because it was strengthening its hold onto society at a constant rate. Adorno felt that through exposing these capitalist tactics, the cycle would reverse, causing individuals to gain there personality back, but that did not happen.

Capitalism has only flourished and become more severe. Modern society is evolving and as that happens; more capitalist tactics are being created. Thus culture industry is doing nothing but becoming stronger. The Frankfurt School took the time out to enlighten the masses but despite the fact, capitalism prevails.

References

1. Geiser, Brenton. All Eyes on You. <http://ustorage. ucsb. edu/~brentongieser/index. html> “Surveillance (n. )”. Encarta Online Dictionary.
2. Dec. 14, 2007. http://encarta. msn. com/dictionary_1861717276/surveillance. html http://www. wikipedia. com

One of the ways in which sociologists theorize deviance is through the control theory. This theory was first pioneered by Travis Hirschi in 1969. The control theory suggests that a person who does commit serious crimes is free of any emotional, social feelings and for those that do not commit crimes are able to control themselves to not commit crimes and behave in an acceptable manner in society without being a danger to others. Basically, this theory emphasizes that a person from birth is capable of acting in criminal behaviour, but the social factors affect a person from committing criminal acts or not.

Within this theory there are four factors in which someone will not commit in any deviant behaviour. These factors are attachment, commitment, involvement and belief . Attachment applies to affection that a person has for their parents or friends, etc. and does not want to disappoint or hurt by involving themselves into delinquent behaviour. Commitment is used to describe what a person has to lose when they involve themselves in committing crimes, etc. such as having a high standing in society or whether they are in school or are employed.

Involvement refers to the amount of time a person invests in something that keeps them busy such as any extracurricular activities, for example, which would prevent them from having the time to commit crimes. The final factor belief refers to a person’s own belief system and whether or not they choose to follow societal rules and that if they do believe in these rules, they would be less likely to act in a deviant manner. These bonds that are presented by Hirschi are meant to represent that they control our behaviour through social contraventions and are not necessarily laws that are within our society.

Basically, this theory best describes the reasons in which deviance is theorized because it takes into effect all of the reasons in which a person would or would not act in a deviant manner. The four bonds that were mentioned above highlight the factors that are important in almost everyone’s lives and that if any of those are missing in our lives, it would lead us to act in devious ways. An example in which describes the way in which these social bonds can present hemselves when they are no longer there are described in the article “Key Idea: Hirschi’s Social Bond/Social Control Theory” when they describe how a person would still stop at a stop sign in the middle of nowhere with no other traffic and no police cars observing. This is a good example because it shows that a person is still worried about any possible implications that a bad decision would affect them. The control theory is a theory, which could best to explain deviance and why people act in a deviant manner. The reason why is that the manner in which people are raised and who they are surrounded by.

For example, someone does not commit any crimes because of the fact that they have family and friends and conform to society’s rules so that they could continue to have the bonds that they have with their friends and family, but when that bond is broken, that leaves room for the person to partake in deviant acts. Some of the weaknesses that can be pointed out in this factor could be that some delinquents who are underage could possibly have less parental supervision and that they would be free to experiment with different things whether it is illegal or not.

Another weakness in this theory is that a person is not essentially capable of committing criminal acts from birth, but there are events in a person’s life where they need or want to involve themselves in criminal acts. This theory is the better theory when describing deviance. This is the better theory because it takes into effect most of the reasons why a person would or would not take part in deviant behaviour. The four social bonds that are described within this theory are things that a person would hold dear and would not jeopardize these relationships or beliefs and feelings by partaking in criminal or deviant behaviour.

I resolutely concur with Gustave Le Bon’s LAW OF THE MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS, which is indeed a socio-psychological phenomenon manifested throughout history and continues to manifest in our day-to-day lives. We are social beings. That makes this law almost absolute that to exclude oneself from it would mean excluding oneself from the rest of society and humanity, or one’s community to be more specific.

Le Bon’s multifaceted analysis on the psychological crowd gave me the feeling of referring to it as a community. As he spoke of “collectiveness”, I remembered “sharing.” His discussion on the “individual comprising the crowd” reminded me of “group membership.” When he spoke of “contagion” I thought of “shared expectations and common goals.”

His “influence and suggestion,” are “motives and issues” to me in relation to community. Most importantly, his statement of individuals being equals regardless of intellect and social status is “democracy.”  These heightened my belief of the law as I became more comfortable in relating his claims to everyday life.

What is more convincing with the article is that it was written in a realistic and practical approach. Le Bon didn’t dwell idealistically in his concept of the psychological crowd, like me in my understanding of a community.

Diversity, conflict, and factions in thinking are certainly inevitable and are always threats to harmony and homogeny. More so, the bottom line of every crowd or community’s dynamics is the motives, commitment, and gains of its members.

Like Gustave’s discussion on the psychological crowd’s dynamics of having the individuals conscious and independent ways of thinking dissolved in a crowd, my understanding of a community is that it is composed of people who transmit knowledge through sharing rather than individually inheriting traits and characteristics from their parents.

Undeniably, this law had been formulated through in-depth observation of the dynamics of historical events and processes. It shall never cease to support the existence of social, cultural, political, and economic entities, that is all the advances as well as the setbacks human development has brought to us.

ALL religions, ALL laws, ALL business establishments and policies, ALL family systems, ALL academic institutions, ALL forms technology, ALL sciences, ALL wars and conflicts, etc. are all products of MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS. As long as people converge to work on something, as long as they exist and need each other, this law shall be valid.

If Sociology is the study of human social behavior, origins, institutions, organization, and the development of human society, then Le Bon’s Law would be the very much essential to justifying the existence of the science (Sociology).

It effectively presents a powerful phenomenon that explains the process of the simple individual being the foundation of a more complex crowd, which tells us so much about social relationships and behaviors, and organizational processes. Thus, it is able to profoundly provide us a base of what we are actually studying every day in this course.

We as human beings have always been curious about the sources of our own behaviour. Attempts to understand this relied on ways of thinking that were passed down from generation to generation. These ideas were often expressed in religious terms or drew from well-known myths, superstition and traditional beliefs. The objective and systematic study of human behaviour and society is a recent development dating from the 1700’s. A key development was the use of science to understand the world and this approach brought about a radical change in outlook and understanding.

Just like physics, biology, chemistry and other disciplines, sociology emerged as part of this important intellectual process. The origins of sociology were the series of sweeping changes ushered in by the ‘two great revolutions’ of the 18th and 19th century Europe. These events transformed the way of life humans had maintained for thousands of years. The French Revolution, 1789 marked the ideas and values, such as liberty and equality, over traditional social order.

This was the Industrial Revolution, the broad spectrum of social and economic transformation that surrounded the development of new technical innovation. This caused an influx of migrants causing a rapid expansion of urban areas, forming new social relationships dramatically changing the face of the social world. There were a few individuals who contributed to early sociological thinking; one in particular was a French author, Auguste Comte (1798-1857) who actually coined the word ‘sociology’.

He argued that sociology can and should study society and social phenomena following the patterns and procedures of natural sciences. Another contributor was Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and he had a more lasting impact on modern sociology than that of Comte. Some regard Durkheim as the first sociologist to apply statistical methods to the study of social phenomena. Throughout his career, Durkheim was primarily concerned with how society would maintain integrity and coherence in the modern era, when things like religion could no longer be assumed.

His book Suicide (1897) is a very well-known piece of literature. These sociologist developed ideas into how we could study humans and the world in which we live. Sociology is seen as being the study of human social behaviour and its origins, development, organizations and institutions. It is a social science which uses various methods of investigation and is to develop a body of knowledge about human social actions, social structures and functions. The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, law and deviance.

With all aspects of human activity it is affected by interplay between social structure and individual agency, which means sociology, has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects such as health, internet and political economy. There are two non-sociological explanations of human behaviour, naturalistic and individual explanations. The naturalistic approach suggest that humans behave as a product of inherited disposition; programmed by nature, e. g. / race, motherhood, gender (etc.)

We take for granted that all women are maternal and want to become mothers and be just like their own mothers but this is not always the case. The individual approach is on that sees human behaviour as a result of psychological make-up of the individual person, eg/ people who commit suicide have their own personal reason for doing so. This persons suicide may not solely be a personal choice but may have other social factors associated like religion. This is what sociology is all about, challenging the unknown and looking at things from a different perspective, “Sociology defamiliarises the familiar” (Z.Baumen 1990 Thinking Sociologically p15)

Sociologist look at these behaviours from all different perspectives and challenges what we believe to common sense theories. To make sense of human reality sociology attempts to make sense of the human condition through analysing the manifold webs of human interdependency as opposed to the naturalistic or individualistic approach. It disturbs the comforting quiet way of life by questioning what we usually take for granted. “It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this: things are not what they seem” (P Berger 1963 Invitation to Sociology p34)

To gather information we use sociological methods called quantative and qualitative data. Quantative data is presented in the form of numbers and statistics; macro-sociological perspective. This helps to go beyond personal impressions and opinions and is done in the form of social surveys, questionnaires and structured interviews, e. g. / The Kinsey report on the sexuality of Americans (1948-1953) Qualitative data however is to tell us why and methods used are usually interviewing people to build up an understanding of a respondents point of view rather than a generalized opinion on their behaviour.

There is also participant observation and this is observing someone in their own environment and learning what life is like for them, e. g. / The Paulo Case. “Sociology deals with a factually observable subject matter, depends upon empirical research, and involves attempts to formulate theories and generalizations that will make sense of facts” (Giddens Scope of Sociology p6) The use of concepts are needed to describe things accurately and precisely and to describe and address abstract and immaterial social phenomena such as individualism, social class and globalization, etc.

As you can see from this essay sociology is a very important study and without it we wouldn’t question human behaviours or the society surrounding us. It helps us to gain a better insight into who we are and why we are the way we are and how others can have an effect on each and every one of us.

A married woman had a conflict with her best friend because of money. She needed so much in putting up her business and for its permits. As she waited until the business grows up, she needed more for the benefit of her family. Her husband was sick and had no capacity of providing for the whole family. She had no choice, but to borrow money and take the risk of being a first time business woman.

The friend lent her so much with incurring interests of almost 25 percent of the total debts. The woman was not able to pay on time because of the problems that came her way the past few months.

Due to that, a feud arose. The situation of her husband became worse that required her to spend much and work a little harder. Because of working and too much thinking, she developed insomnia that led to her body losing weight. One of her children had to stop studying because she could not longer subsidize his needs. There were many speculations spreading in their place. There were a lot of stories made out of the problem that they were having. Some even exaggerated the issue that put the married woman and her family in a very humiliating situation. All eyes were on them that made them feel really bad.

The family members, especially the mother did not wan to go out anymore to socialize and came to the point of just lying down in the bed and doing nothing. She feared even the mere fact of opening their gate when someone visits and was scared of facing their relatives due to unwanted questioning. She stopped functioning well even in the house that led to some misunderstandings between her and her husband and the children themselves. She even heard from her sister that her son did not want to admit to his classmates how they are related, because he never wanted to be asked and be treated unequally by others.

Instead of talking to the friend that she owed from, she opted to cut the communication between them by not answering her calls and hiding every time she comes to their house. That made the feud worse. Because the friend thought she really never wanted to pay, she tried asking legal advices to sue the married woman. The woman never cared at all. It seemed like her financial problem let her identity change. She was never the same woman again. One day, as she was sleeping in the couch, she heard people talking outside. Mush to her realization, they were the police in their place trying to look for her.

She went out and was brought by the police in heir office for some interrogation. Although very much ashamed of the neighbors watching them, she never tried hiding her face, because as much as she wanted to, the people around her would still know that it was her. So she believed there was no chance of escaping from embarrassment. Her friend, together with the police, asked her so many things about their issue and asked her to sign in a contract saying she would pay in months time together with the incurred interests. She was very much ashamed of what happened. She always cried.

Her family sympathized so much with her. They were findings way to help her in paying and cheered her up for her to forget her problem even in a little while. Soon they discovered it was futile doing that. What they did was invite relatives to visit her who were all telling her that everything would turn out right. To their disappointment, it did not help too much. Even being obedient to her did not do too good in the problem. Although everyone noticed that she was needing help, nobody succeeded in making their part. She cried more and slept less. Her physical appearance talked much about what she was suffering then.

She never talked about the debt and chose to walk away from the situation as much as possible. Because it seemed like it was helping, the family never mentioned about it anymore. But time went by, the due date was coming. And there, the problem started again. The same scenarios were seen regarding her behavior. I believe that the situation is not just a shallow one. It talks about money; therefore it needs to be dealing with some more legal and psychological advices. The family members, as noted, never bothered asking how the problem started and were the money was used.

Nobody even asked the history of the feud and the reason why the woman was so much affected with the issue. It is just stated that they found ways to cheer her up and to help her, without even knowing the proper way of doing it and the best things that woman needed. She was not asked how much she was needing. They can also ask the help of a professional for her easy recovery on the matter. They might have used the counseling techniques for the subject to easily cope up with the situation. According to a website regarding counseling skills, it is very important to listen and communicate well to make up the major part of good counseling.

What these kinds of people actually needs is the assurance that they are accurately heard by their peers and listeners. It is always best to see them calm down after they tell you their insights on the matter. They must also do probing because that is the only way to find out what else they are feeling, other than what is being asked of them. They must have used open-ended questions for them to be able to elaborate on their answers and freely state what they are feeling. Through that, the person’s burden will be lessened and would feel better. It is always good to have your feeling voiced out and revealed in a free manner.

Given the freedom of speech, one gets the feeling of relief and loses the tension that she or he is experiencing. Communication is a very useful tool in helping a person feel better after a very depressing experience. In fact, many people who experienced unaccepted death of relatives and other related issues seek the help of professionals for counseling. The counsel must not be very formal in dealing with this. He or she must chose the most comfortable position while talking to the client and must show interest for the client to feel open about the situation and say more of what he or she is undergoing.

What they only wanted is for them to be heard. They may use empathetic responses to the clients as they share their stories. Through this, the client would see that the counsel was able to attend well to his or her story and fully understood what she or he is feeling at the moment. They can also use the method of summarizing and paraphrasing the problem of a client. The counsel must ask the client what she or he is feeling and narrate it according to his or her desire. After hearing the client’s side, the counsel will then repeat what the she or he said to clarify issues and make sure he or she heard the client right.

The counsel must use his or her own words in repeating the story for them to be ale to see the experience in a different view or perspective. By seeing it that way, the person will recognize new feelings that was not experienced believe and will therefore be enlightened with everything. The role of the counsel is so vital because it is them who take part in the counseling. Without their proper knowledge on the right way of counseling, the purpose of it will be futile. The aim of helping the person in any manner will be useless because the rules were not executed properly.

They must have a wide knowledge on counseling aside from the basics to have a successful one. Knowing the counseling techniques will be a stepping stone to be a very effective counsel that everyone looks for nowadays. In general, listening to the client, probing for further information, asking open ended questions for freedom in answering, giving emphatic responses for affection, summarizing and paraphrasing stories can be useful techniques in counseling. Many people must apply this in real life events. The person being interviewed is a woman with sic children. Four of which are boys and the rest are girls.

She was a member of a broken family and had a very traumatizing experience when she was younger. Her education was sponsored by her Aunt who believed so much in her potentials and talents. She had a lot of friends in and out of school. She never bothered approaching people for friendship, instead the other people go to her to introduce themselves. She was a woman with full confidence and courage. She used to join beauty and academic contests where she gained a lot of fame and awards. She was known by everyone, because she has the beauty, the brains and the attitude.

Everyone was her friend and all of them were kind to her. She came from a remote area and married a man whom she met in tertiary school. They were a happy couple then. They had all the things that they need, without forcing anyone in working. They both have good jobs that are able to provide for the needs of their family. They were indeed a happy family surrounded with love and care. It just by fate that the husband suffered from arthritis that later turned into the worse version of it. Every joint was already infected which made him paralyzed and bed ridden. There were no ways for him to work anymore.

That was the start of all the financial problems. The husband needed therapies as the children needed support for their education. The woman did not give up, instead she worked harder and found ways to earn more. The cooperation that they have is the family is one of the strengths that they are so proud of. Their children were cooperative and everyone was industrious. They always make sure that they make their part in the house chores and responsibly do the tasks assigned to them. The woman was brave and was courageous in all the problems and challenges that come her way.

She was kind to everyone that made it possible for other people to also treat her well. She is educated and was able to finish her degree with several achievements. She was always doing her best to be on top. She was technically a career woman and a successful one. Her weaknesses include her financial constraints. A lot of things get affected with her problems with money. She had been asking people to lend her some and promised to give it back in a particular day. She lost her word of honor that is why many people do not trust her at all.

She had difficulty in building that trust since she did not do what she promised to the people around her. Also, because of working too much and spending a lot of time outside their home, she lost track of her children. Her family, on the other hand, did not know her at all that much. They had difficulty dealing with her because they did not know the approach to use for them to be able to start the conversation the right way. She already lost her identity outside the home and has been opting to choose going out with other people than her family.

The problem that she is currently dealing with right now is the treatment and prejudice of other people towards her. A lot of the people around have not been the same anymore. Every relationship that she has with others is very civil. The intimacy of her relationships with others was lost. A lot of things changed. She’s thinking that it has something to do with her recent problem with money. She never wanted to discuss and explain to them the issue, so it ended up losing intimate relationships. Her companions are never the same people again. She also lost her confidence in everything that she does.

She never asked about her old friends and just remained as she is now after the incident. Although many people stare at her when she passes by or even if strangers never forget to glance at her when she’s out, she never dared explain. She believed that everything happened for the love that she has for her family. Nowadays, a lot of people are seeking help because of some problems dealing with interpersonal issues, including relationships with other people. It is not always that they get the best solution to their problems or even get the half of the satisfaction that they need when they ask for counseling.

The main purpose why they seek help is for them to minimize the emotional burden that they are having every time they think of their problems. Also, they are aiming to lessen its effects on the people near them and their daily activities. It is sometimes very serious that it even causes their dysfunction in the society. Culture is a very big factor that mold every individual and their behavior in the society. That thing makes them. It continuously affect their being as they grow older. They can adopt it even if they move out of the place where it came from.

It is already difficult removing what you got in the set of culture that your society got. Every person has differences in cultural background and orientation. Each is brought up differently, thus require different approaches in counseling. According to Broom et. al in the book called Sociology: A Core Text with Adapted Readings, cultures vary in their ways of guiding human behavior. Understanding the clients cultural background would be a very big help in giving off solutions and in the counseling itself. Knowing one’s orientation and composition will be a very big factor in deciding how to approach a client.

The counsel will find it easier dealing with him or her, since she somewhat got the technique in counseling the client well. There will be a very little difficulty. There are clients who are sensitive with words and who may get offended once talked to in a manner that another client needed. Some may never want talking about the family. This may be because the client came from a broken one or had a traumatizing experience inside his or her family. Some may not want dwelling too much on personal issues like the sexual ones. Knowing this will have a great impact on the role of the counsel in active listening.

Cultural competence is very much relevant in dealing with this kind of issues since they are dealing with people in cross-cultural contexts. According to a website, “Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies and strategies that join in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable them to work effectively to cross-cultural situations both in prevention and treatment contexts” (Cross, Dazron, Dennis and Isaacs, 1989). Cultural competence therefore is the ability to deal with the problems of people and relationships coming from different places with different cultural background.

It is important to have that ability because today counseling is in demand. It will be very useful applying that ability in giving the right solutions. It is true that each person who asks for counseling has his or her own story that we must understand both in his or her context and ours. Cultural competence also helped in the relationship between the counsel and the client. It is a pre-requisite to an open relationship, which can lead to honesty and sincerity, which can make the counseling easier and more personal. Let us take for example the case that I have mentioned above.

The woman lives in a remote are. There are probably very few people there, which means that only a number of persons know her and talk about if ever they do. Her situation now is very much different since she is living in the city where a lot of people see her everyday. Her sensitivity of gossips probably rooted out of that fact. She may not be used to people doing that to her. She is also famous in school. She had a lot of friends. Everyone knew and adored her. But her setting changed into somewhat chaotic when she gained friend whom put her into shame later on.

Her trauma might have come from the reality that she is not used of being betrayed and treated in a not so nice manner. She came from a broken family, which might have taught her the values of having a beautiful family. After the family members that she has now gets affected with what she was going through, she already gave up because of the fear of having the same kind of family again. She had a reputation in the place where she came from. Remember, she had the beauty, the brains and the attitude, so she can’t accept the fact that she became laugh stuff in the place where she is living now.

The culture in their place is very much different with the culture that she is witnessing now. Moreover, her experiences in academic and beauty contests were the reasons why she was talked about in that remote area where she came from and not about debts. The counsel must find the most efficient way to hip her by studying her cultural background and be aware of the present differences. The role of the counsel is not basically to listen, but to understand. How more can he understand if he does not even know where the client came from and the cultures that brought him up?

If the counsel is able to help her out of this, she may be able to function well again. She can go back to work and provide the needs of her family. She will again understand why she works alone and why her friend did that to her. She may go back to her normal life and be confident again with actions. She may even discover that she also sinned by not facing her friend to talk about the matter. And who knows, she may have her lost relationships back. The efficiency of a counsel can be seen on the client. I have presented in this paper that counseling plays an important role in the society.

They can help patients change for the better and realize what is wrong with them by just listening and understanding their cases. In the past, counseling is just done to mentally ill patients. But now, even the mere fact that you are sad can already require professional counseling. We can’t deny that one of its purposes is to lessen attempts of suicide and other things that a patient can do due to too much depression. The counsel must be very responsible about this because ending up an interpersonal problem somewhat depends on them. They must find a way to learn what must be learned in order for them to be called as such.

Their primary roles must given attention to by enhancing their talents in helping people with problems. References Bonjean, C. M. , D. Broom, and L. Broom. 1990. Sociology: A Core Text With Adapted Readings. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Cultural Competence and Professional Psychology Training. (2008). Retrieved December 7, 2008, from Goliath Website: http://goliath. ecnext. com/coms2/gi_0199-159598/Cultural-competence-and-professional-psychology. html. Counseling Skills: Basic Counseling Skills for Any Situation. (n. d). Retrieved December 7, 2008, from http://www. askmikethecounselor2. com/counselingskills. html.

Asian Americans are portrayed in the spotlight of being more successful in both school and the work field than Caucasian Americans. They are raised upon higher standards than children of Caucasian parents and tend to excelled in all aspects of life. With the high expectations placed on them by their parents and peers, Asian Americans tend to be pushed harder to be more prosperous in life. The stereotype of Asians doing better in school, being held to higher standards with their parents, and more success in life, is supported through the evidence of grade point averages and observers of Asian American families.

Asian students in high school tend to earn better grades than most Caucasian students. Asian American students try to push themselves in school by taking higher level courses than required by the school. With those harder classes, students of the Asian American race on average spend more time studying and doing homework than students of the Caucasian race. Working in the homework room of an afterschool program, I help children with homework and see what they are working on. Many of the Asian children in the afterschool program have extra homework that they receive from a class they take at night called Kumon.

Kumon is a class that children take to help increase their success in school by learning higher level math and English than what is taught at their public school. Siddha, one of the Asian kindergarteners at the Williams Martial Arts and Fitness after school program takes Kumon classes. He is successfully reading small sentences and doing addition and subtraction problems at the level of a second grader, if not a little bit higher.

Children of Asian parents usually have less of a choice when it comes to extracurricular activities and their social life. Asian parents typically make their children spend more time studying and doing schoolwork and do not allow them to spend much time with friends outside of school. Aside from school, most of the extracurricular activities done by Asian Americans are more focus on intelligence and knowledge rather than enjoyment and socializing.

Many Asian American children learn to play the piano or violin as supposed to participating in sports such as soccer or basketball. Asian parents tend to instill better morals in their children as supposed to those instilled in Caucasian children. According to the article from USA Today, “Study: Asian Americans value hard work, family” more Caucasian children are born to unwed woman then Asian American children.

The hard work of Asian Americans is typically shown through a more successful and enjoyable life after completing their education. The article from USA Today stated, “Asians as a whole have a median household income of $66,000 (half make more, half less) compared with the U.S. median of $49,800.” With that being said, Indians (still considered Asian Americans) make the highest median household income based on race at $88,000 per year.

These statistics show the success in school results in higher paying jobs after college than people of the Caucasian race. Asian Americans set themselves up for more success in life through their work ethic and doing everything to the best of their abilities and household income is just one example of how they succeed in life more than the average Caucasian American.

All of the examples used in explaining the stereotypes of Asians are all connected through good work ethic instilled by their parents. Yes, they
tend to get higher grades, but they also are taught to spend more time studying and are put into knowledge enhancing extracurricular activities. All of these combined lead to a happier and overall more successful life because they put in the hard work to get higher up into the career world and continue to work hard to keep their position.