tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35248477.post5559717057824066208..comments2024-03-27T14:20:05.905-04:00Comments on Montclair SocioBlog: Ethnocentrism and Family ValuesJay Livingstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06652075579940313964noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35248477.post-68529193232316606012011-03-20T17:33:05.465-04:002011-03-20T17:33:05.465-04:00@Jacob L. Stump. Thanks. You’re right of course....@Jacob L. Stump. Thanks. You’re right of course. The question is not who “really” values family. To put it that way is ethnocentrism, not social science. The social science questions would ask how different groups define “family” and the expectations on various family members. <br /><br />@brandsinger. “Something is screwy here.” What’s screwy is my methodology – shoddy, really, not screwy – but then, my purposes are different from the objectives of real surveys on values. In class, I say, “Write down three American values.” I don’t say “distinctively American.” If students ask me to be more specific, I say, “Things that Americans value.” Screwy or not, Family gets a lot of votes.<br /><br />I can’t find any real surveys that ask the question this way. If you know of any, please post a link. (I tried Googling “survey ‘distinctively American value’” and other strings, but got nothing usable.) The more typical strategy is to give people a list of values and ask how important each is to them (personally, not to their country generally). These surveys, as you say, find strong agreement among Americans on Freedom, Equality, and Democracy. Also Success/Achievement, Independence, Patriotism, Self-Fulfillment, and others. I don’t know of surveys where Family is one of the choices, but if it is on the list, I’d be surprised to see Americans not rating it as important.Jay Livingstonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06652075579940313964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35248477.post-50020724859989285432011-03-20T12:29:47.268-04:002011-03-20T12:29:47.268-04:00Jay -
The premise here is odd:
"When I begi...Jay - <br />The premise here is odd: <br />"When I begin the unit on culture, I ask students to jot down three American values. The one that appears most frequently is family."<br /><br />Something is screwy here. The "American" value that appears "most frequently" is "family"? Never heard that before. Must be how you phrase the question. Over the years the question "what are the most distinctively American value" elicits "democracy" / "freedom" along with "opportunity" and perhaps variations on "individualism" - including independence, self-reliance, selfishness and ambition. I could also see materialism, community, racism... <br /><br />but not family... because "family" is not a distinctly American value / quality / trait. Not in any poll, dialogue, conversation I know of.brandsingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11684844742391749078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35248477.post-6771384026989461392011-03-20T11:56:56.687-04:002011-03-20T11:56:56.687-04:00Great post! But...you say:
"The trouble appa...Great post! But...you say:<br /><br />"The trouble apparently is that Asians really do value family."<br /><br />I'm not sure that Asians have somehow got a hold of real family values and Americans have not. Why make the appearance/reality distinction?<br /><br />Perhaps it is more analytically useful in terms of explanation to say that these are two varying interpretations of what "family" means and how "family" is practiced in the "American" and "Japanese" contexts. Explaining how this interpretive different means in practice should be the social scientific aim--it seems to me.Jacob L. Stumphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11836268810457999439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35248477.post-16387701366234277292011-03-20T11:55:34.659-04:002011-03-20T11:55:34.659-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jacob L. Stumphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11836268810457999439noreply@blogger.com