Sociology Book Review Chapter by Chapter Journal Assignment
Chapter 11: Ethnicity and Race
The chapter starts from providing the definition for the term race. Race can be defined as a socially constructed category of people who are united by physical characteristics that members of this particular society consider to be important. In order to illustrate the term, the chapter provides an example of black women born in the Caribbean who came to England when she was 12 years old. The woman lives within a group of people who have another race which impacts her social life. She has to adapt to the traditions of the local people, however, this seems to be easy because of the fact that the country she lives in is cosmopolitan. The chapter also provides the definitions to such terms as racism, displacement and scapegoating. Racism is a prejudice that is based on physical characteristics such as skin color or other physical distinctions. Displacement and scapegoating are two terms that are closely linked to prejudice and racism. That is because displacement is the process of the anxiety of people depending on their real origin. In its turn, scapegoating is the process in which a particular individual or a group of individuals are blamed for something unjustifiably. So that it is possible to see that the terms displacement, scapegoating and racism are connected by discrimination.
Chapter 16: Education
The opening case of the chapter describes the high school graduation rate in the United States. According to the chapter, only 80% of public high school students earned a high school diploma in 2012. This rate can be defined as insufficient to ensure social development of the nation. The main reason for this statistics is the fact that a large percentage of students in the United States attend underperforming schools with no teacher-expectancy effect. Teacher-expectancy effect is the impact that the expectations of a particular teacher about a performance of a particular student may have on actual achievements of this student. According to Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jackson, it is a very common situation when a teacher does not expect great achievements for a student from a poor family. As a result of this, an achievement gap occurs which can be defined as educational inequality. However, it is important for teachers to pay attention to such aspect as emotional intelligence.That is because emotional intelligence is extremely important for personal and professional growth as it allows to identify, assess, and control emotions of oneself and others.
Chapter 19: Population, Urbanization and the Environment
The chapter starts by covering the issue of the unexpectancy of the population increase. The study of population is defined as demography. Demography relies on statistical data so that it is able to assume the probability of a particular scenario. According to the most optimistic prognosis, the world population will reach 11 billion by the end of this century. The rate of population growth depends on fertility which can be defined as the …