I think that death and dying brings the living closer toghether becuase when we are faced with a loved one dying, we are brought closer toghether and come to realize how special the little time together is that we have. Not only are we faced with fact that we are going to lose someone close to us, but it really puts life into perspective and I beleive that for most people we want to make the passing of our loved one as easy as possible and a for the people left living we really remember why we loved that person in the first place. People will be brought closer by the sheer fact that there really isn’t that much time to live in the first place and when you put an actual limit on it, 6months, 2 years for example you realize that it isn’t that much time and for some people they may take a lifetime to express their true feelings, but when you know you are going to lose someone, I believe it is easier for people to open up and let their true feelings show. Compassion and regret for the loss are really strong motivators that bring people close, not just the person that is passing, but for the friends and family left behind. I have seen it first hand and am still profoundly affected by the wake of our loss. Not sad, but really touched and inspired that we all have so much love for each other, even though we haven’t seen some of our freinds for a while, it doesn’t change the fact that we really love each other and we always will. It’s pretty amazing.

I think identity is revised all the way through every transition of adulthood, even in the late stages of elderly adulthood. Erickson’s theory of Integrity VS. Despair is really true. Inevitably as we get older we reflect on our life and our accomplishments, and what we can feel good about. Along with the feelings of integrity comes despair. I agree that despair is a natural part of progression as well.  It comes up in all stages of life, but can be really powerful in late adulthood. There is the feeling that you don’t have enough time left to fix things you want to fix, and the despair can become really intense.

I think that the psychological issues that we experience throughout the life cycles are important if we can grow from them, and if we learn from defeat our feelings of despair at an older age will be less. I think it is really important to see why people feel despair in old age. A lot of the feelings comes from loneliness, elderly people are often times living really lonely existences with no social activities, and sometimes no close family to make them feel loved and appreciated. What a hard transition from possibly losing a husband or wife that you have lived with for so long to living alone! Our culture needs to change their views on elderly and learn to appreciate them.

I think that the elderly should be on top of the respect ladder so to speak and we should be doing everything we can to keep our family’s healthy and happy through all life cycle changes. If we keep our family’s tighter and live with respect for our elders we may be able to see a positive change in elderly care in our lifetime.

I think the idea of a 7-10 year period is stretching it out a little too far for me. I feel like my life has changed dramatically every 1-2 years since I was 17 years old. I went from young and rebellious to a college student from the age of 18-19 and changed completely. I stayed home instead of going out and chose to fill my time with work and school. This was a big change for me at the time and it led to another path, and another that would have been different if I had chosen to not go to school. I then moved to Seattle at age 19 and changed again as aI started four-year college. Even during school I kept working as a hairdresser that kept me on the move and when I graduated I immediately started work in an unfamiliar field. Now I am 27 and after working for two straight years I changed and moved up here to Glacier washington. It was really scary and hard to quit my job, but it was the best think I could have done.

I can see the idea of setting it into high school era, college era and adulthood/parenting era, but I have really tried to keep my life from being controlled and pushed change, especially change that I was scared of and it has kept my life a little more choppy and ever-changing than the traditional era  groupings of change. Even now I am seeing myself delaying parenthood a little while because I don’t want to give up my ability to choose what happens next. I guess I am one of the many young adults choosing to wait to have kids. I just started school again and I think it’s really important to finish and be ready and prepared before I have a kid. Maybe I will change again and find myself somewhere different, or at the least I will be starting a different career that will open up a whole new realm of possibilities that weren’t there a couple years ago.

I really liked this question for the week, especially because I just watched a silent move from 1928 on TCM called  The Divine lady and I thought it was really interesting to see women stereotyping in the film. The film is about a woman who is disgraceful because she is going from affair to affair. One part of the movie she is being called trash for playing with kids at the house of her first guy. The older woman, caretaker tells her “I won’t put up with my children hobnobbin with the likes of you – as ought to be married but aint!” I love that part. Then it goes into her new relationship with the gentlemen and he treats her so differently from what you would expect to see on tv now. He tells he after she sings during one of her dates with him that “her vulgar display is unforgivable and he can’t see her anymore. So she’s on to the next.

I think that Tv has a strong effect on sense of self in that it is something we can relate our possible selves to.For example I think young girls watching this move in 1928 were living in a different age entirely, but the premise transcends time in that she is unmarried and a wild card and is considered by most to be unfit and vulgar. Girls could possibly see her as a total villan, or someone to look up to in that she was free spirited. Even now we have tv that shares the same views in a way. Like Sex and the City where the main character does struggle with not being married but finding happiness all the same in a maze of boyfriends and let downs. It’s culture that really structures our beliefs and it’s really interesting to see a portrayal of a woman unmarried and gallivanting around in a much earlier time period. You can really relate the actress to young movie stars now.

I think one negative from a strong promoting of marriage as the only way to be happy, and the right thing to do is somewhat conflicting and outdated with the culture and advertising we see now. Marriage is still promoted in a way, with pictures of happy couples for example used in advertising, but we also have a really high divorce rate and I think the views of marriage have shifted. Divorce for some can be a constant option as part of a marriage, and the woman isn’t so blindly obedient to her husband as in the 1920′s. One positive on the other hand for promoting marriage is that it’s an option to marry and follow the stereotypical marriage and family and it can be an option for people to choose if that’s what they want. The prospect of love and happiness isn’t a bad thing.

 There are so many different factors and combinations of influences that will affect our development throughout life, the amount of different experiences and socialization methods are really countless. It’s interesting  how the informal and formal modes of education work together to completely socialize people in a given culture from birth to later adult life, molding peoples expectation and beliefs. parenting that goes on outside school, the informal education, and the parenting inside a learning institute, the formal education.  Media /TV as a factor that helps mold our social development has always been really interesting to me. TV and advertising are two of the most influential parts of our informal education that have become a major socialization tool. Especially considering the advertisements that we see every day, all day especially if you live in the city or more populated areas. Not just advertising on TV either, it is everywhere! In the city you walk down the street and everywhere advertisements are getting into your thoughts and helping to  mold your social development even if you aren’t aware that it’s actually happening. Subliminal advertising for example, it is crazy! I have thought often how it has molded me, and played a part in my development. The section in the book detailing media’s impacts showed that the average U.S. child growing up watches between 20-25 hours of TV a day. That is really awful. I watched a lot of tv, definitely, but I felt like I played outside a lot too. 20-25 hours is a staggering number though, more time than what is spent in school and with parents as the book showed.  Another part of TV’s influence are the unrealistic situations that are presented in shows and movies. I find this really interesting as well, you are spending a large chunk of time in front of the tv watching people handle these unreal scenarios, or extreme danger, or even violence and because you spend such a large amount of time watching tv, it is a major socialization factor that is really unrealistic to real life. It’s important to have a balance of recreation, family time, school time, and hobby time to counteract the mass tv socialization and provide a healthier lifestyle for kids.

Jade

It is so true that we are molded into the people we are from our mothers, fathers and the reinforcements we get starting as an infant. Right when you are brought home, it is true that your room may already be painted bright pink if you’re a girl, or blue for a boy. This shows also in the toys we are giving to play with that affects our developing brain, babys and barbies for girls that enforces the mother, girl role of taking care of a baby, or playing house. Boys are given toys, like balls, and trucks that develop their brains interests in being tough in sports, or being able to fix cars, and use dump trucks.

I was most interested in the idea posed in the podcast that we are continually molded by reactions we get from everyone around us. The idea that a 6 month old girl dressed in boy clothes, gets the reactions of, “he’s so strong, so independent.”  whereas a girl will get ” She’s so adorable, little princess!” I really believe this is such a part of who we all are as girls and boys and the learned social environmental factors that gets us to the self recognition we all have today. I think it is evident, yet really important because it poses the idea that it can go the other way to. What if someone was raised in an entirely gender free situation, where there was reinforcement in both male and female directions with no pre-set gender tendencies, that would be very interesting.