Summary Outline  ||  Introductory Remarks  ||  Traditional Treatments   ||  Functional Analysis  ||  Entry Format with Samples

Summary Outline for the Format of Assignment 2: My Talk
(Chapter 9: Section[9.3.II.2.1])

[-2A] The Analysis of Topic .....................
[-2Ai] Breakdown of Topics Exchanged...........
[-2Aii] Topical Chart of Transcript .......
[-2Aiii] Topical Annotations
[-2Aiv] Topicalization Dynamics .

[-2B] The Analysis of Argument Logic ............
[-2Bi] Schema of Argument Structure ........
[-2Bii] Description of Operational Talking Procedures.
[-2Biii] Schema of Behavioral Strategies in Talk . . .

[-2C] The Analysis of Sequence ................
[-2Ci] Tabulation of Adjacency Relations.......
[-2Cii] Schema for Move Embeddings .........

[-2D] The Analysis of Relationship ..............
[-2Di] Tabulation of Role Types ...........
[-2Dii] Tabulation of Pair Types ...........
[-2Diii] Case History .........

[-2E] The Analysis of Setting....................
[2Ei] Tabulation of Implicit Meaning ........
[-2Eii] Tabulation of Derivative Relations .........
[-2Eiii] Tabulation of the Rhythm of Exchange........
[-2Eiv] Transactional Engineering through Talk ......
[-2Ev] Discourse Analysis

[9. 3. III], Explanatory Notes and Instructions for Assignments 3: My Daily

[9. 3. IV], Round; 4: My Standardized Imaginings; and 5: My Community and

[9. 3. V] of Relationships.


[9. 3. III - V. 1] Introductory Remarks. These three assignments along with the assignment on MY TALK (see [II] above), represent a detailed, objective record of your 'psycho-ecology. ' We have argued, in the course of the lectures, that understanding social exchanges requires you to objectify your experience; that is, to use objective ways of noting, recording, and reporting your "pathways" within the social, physical, mental, ambient, and relationship spheres. Such exercises, we believe, serve to objectify the practitioner's experience, to transform it into the cultural coinage of acculturation, viz., enculturation, socialization and assimilation: these are the processes that shape us, that provide us with the occasions for our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Thus, by completing the~e assignments you are accomplishing the following goals:

(i) to practice recording and observing the 'life-flow' of your social exchanges and occasions;
(ii) to process this information through a standard format, as directed by our instructions, and thereby produce valuable scientific data not now available on any community, as far as we know,
(iii) to examine similar records prepared by others, from your own community (classmates) and to form a definite impression of the standardized character of a person's life experience, or 'consciousness';
(iv) to discuss and topicalize the scientific issues involved in understanding the individual in his social and psychological environment.

[9. 3. III- V. 2] Traditional Treatments of the Environment: All modern accounts of "the environment" presume the systems model; that is, they involve the mechanistic transformation whereby human life occurs in a closed bubble whose properties or living conditions can be studied, analyzed, known -- and hence, controlled and understood. In order to better accomplish these goals, the scientific study of this world-bubble is sub-divided into various sub-departments of study. These are called "fields" or "topic domains" (also: subjects, or subject matters, areas of specialization, interdisciplinary programs or institutes, and so on). In the field of jurisprudence ('the law'), "the environment" is a socio-legal and socio-political entity called "county"; each county has an internal organization of its own (e. g. "local conditions") and is part of an overall organization of other counties (into cities, states, etc. ). The law recognizes the social environment as a formative element in the causes of behavior. For instance, such programs as Head Start and Equal Opportunity Employment are legal recognitions of the social- psychological principle that an individual's actions (including skills and abilities ! !) are caused, to a significant degree, by the social environment. As a result, changing the social environment through legislation in order to improve the skills and abilities of minority groups, has been a major feature of American political creativity in the modern era. Note that "minority groups" is a socio-dynamic topic: in the days of Roosevelt and the post-depression recovery (roughly, when your parents were children), everybody became a minority group: the workers, the business tycoons, the coal miners, the mothers, the children, the old people, the poor families, the orphans, the immigrants, and so on. It was the mobilization of the population into the modern categories of mass population management. It was the application of science and ideology to the solution of social ills, to the betterment of the bubble.

Psychology contributed by helping establish such practices as educational testing, employment selection, vocational guidance, personality diagnosis, psychotherapy, counseling, industrial management, creative skills, cognitive development, attitude and opinion surveys (polls), advertising, psychopharmacology, to name but a few that are familiar in our community. During the Second World War and immediately after (roughly the period just before your birth), "the environment" was seen as a dangerous bomb that might go off as World War III. It was the first time in man's history that "the planet" became a socio-political entity: there were no longer any un-charted zones or pre-historic areas; the United Nations in New York had to have delegates for every nook and cranny on the surface of the bubble. Furthermore, the United Nations, through its executive branches (e. g., "UNESCO" --United Nations Economic and Social Organization), had helped establish the view that the social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of human existence must, as well, be managed. By the late 1950's, "the environment" had dwindled to "Space Ship Earth" (or to "The Chariot" of the Gods ! ). Though you saw man walk on the moon and the robot-machine on Mars right in your living room, and though you're told that the Universe is s-o-o very large, yet real estate is expensive and beaches are crowded and employment is competitive and goods and services are expensive and playmates are restricted and friends are busy and creative thoughts are rare......In fact, can you think of anything that isn't restricted in a society? The environment we live in is charted out in great detail. Witness the business life, the educational career, the marriage and family rituals, the bank account and income tax records, birth certificates, social security, mental testing, medical records, legislation, and so on. The modern view recognizes, above all, the inter-dependence of everything with everything: we are systems-oriented in our theorizings. This attitude requires, above all, a passion for record keeping: data, lists, inventories, forms, tables, almanacs, directories, charts, glossaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, museums, albums, collections, and so on. We are a race of hoarders: we collect personal records, vita entries, mementos, and memories. We put a primary value on ownership and the protection of individual rights and privileges. We have developed a national compulsion involving information: its recording, its storage, its selective distribution. We have evolved a national preoccupation concerning the issue of Privacy and protection of information, and watched the birth of the specter of a Computerized Data Bank on all Citizens. We are enmeshed in the slogans of the day: about genetics and heredity and intelligence of the races and the ethnic groups; about childhood effects on adult personality; about social class of parents and cognitive development of children; about parental divorce and crime rate; about advertising and health; about magazine reading and standards of conduct; about international relations and the local conditions of living; and so on. These are, then, the traditional and current views on "the environment. "

Inspection of Figure 1 may help you localize the significance of this exercise. A useful way of doing this is to make up sentences as you look at the chart: e. g., "Social Psychology is defined as the triangular area bounded by three key concepts: the individual, the setting, and experience. " Note that the various disciplines are similarly defined by three key concepts. Note also that some fields are adjacent to each other because they share one or two defining key concepts. The key concepts in Fig. 1 are represented by dots. It is possible to keep going and extend the figure as far as your knowledge allows. This kind of topic fragmentation chart is used in our research; we call it ethnosemantic. "Glossary charts" (and segments thereof) are thus culturological maps of community practices, not unlike directories and the Yellow Pages.

[9. 3. III - V. 3] The Functional Analysis of Community: For the most part, contemporary scientific methods in the social fields (psychology, sociology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, management, etc. ) require the practitioner to isolate the variables of interest from the total environment. Various experimental traditions and conventions exist, so that the practitioner can be trained as a researcher or technical advisor. Hence most social projects require a team of managers and directors composed of individuals specializing in separate skills and abilities.

In contradistinction to this partial and segmented approach ("inter-disciplinary") there is the view, accepted by some, that the study of the environment should have a 'wholistic' approach that is neither inter-disciplinary, nor specialized, but rather, objective and actual, based on the perspective of the individual not the researcher. This is a fundamentally different approach of study. It focuses on the individual's actual environment and makes use of the individual's units of observation, awareness, and experience. It is important to understand this distinction. It is often discussed under the topic of "subjective vs. objective. "

Subjective ordinarily designates impressionistic and personal views, while objective is taken as verified and validated. A misunderstanding has crept up and is widespread concerning the objective, and you may have been exposed to it. You may even share that misunderstanding. This assignment will help clarify your understanding of what it means "to objectify one's experience. " Thus, for instance, it is not the case that objectivity is dependent on numbers, such that the majority (or even, the vast majority) is more objective than the minority (or even, the single individual). A common instance is given by our legal system of juries and defense lawyers: the objective facts are determined by actual, single individuals ("witnesses") and not by majority count, surveys, or frequency distributions; instead of "statistical significance" (as in the inferential logic of experiments) the objective socio-legal fact is defined totally by a single individual witness who is then either totally right or totally wrong.

In the functional approach which these assignments represent, we capitalize on this meaning of the objective: we attempt to objectivity the individual's experience. Note that the individual is the sole witness to his experience; therefore, the only one who possesses the objective facts of his experience. This approach has been followed in social psychology by writers who have remained on the fringes up till now but are now creeping toward the center on top of such new waves as "ethogeny" (see Harre', 1976; 1977; and Harre and Secord, 1972), "ethnomethodology" (see Garfinkel, 1967; Goffman, 1971 etc.; Cicourel, 19 ; Sudnow, 1972; Jakobovits and Nahl, 1975-77), "implicit psychology" ( Wegner, 1977 ), "ordinary language philosophy" (Wittgenstein, 1953; Austin, 19 ; Steinberg and Jakobovits, 1971; Chappel, 1964), and "psychological anthropology" which can be watched-in-the-making in the anthropology journal literature and convention topics (e. g., American Anthropologist and Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association).

The functional analysis of the individual's actual environment requires that the individual present the objective facts on the daily round. This means that the individual is to act as a 'witness for the public. ' That is, the individual is to make a report of the actual life environment we call experience or social existence. This report, in order to be acceptable as socio-legal documentation, must be in the proper format; i. e., the objective format or register of reporting. Hence, these assignment instructions specify a standard and conventionalized format of reporting the objective fact of experiencing the flow of social life. You are thus to look upon the STRUCTURE of your reports as given by the assignment, while the CONTENT itself is supplied by your witnessings. This procedure is similar to filling out an application, or making up a Vita since the individual in all these cases is supplying information about himself according to a pre-designed format ("form" or "blank"). However. there are also important difference to be pointed out. Note that application forms are always limited; even extensive Biographical- Bibliographic Records (as in the annual "Bio-Bib" forms to be filled out by UH faculty), the information is restricted both in quantity and quality. Even case history files (psychiatric, legal, biographical, diaries, notes, etc. ) are restricted to a particular purpose--the purpose that motivates the record keeping, and hence, the selection of items to be recorded. It is therefore the case that no matter how much effort we put into making a report as complete as possible, the report will never be complete; it will always be possible for you to keep talking about an event, your reactions to it, your attempts at reporting it, your reactions to your attempts, your reactions to your changing reactions over time, and so on. This shows that reporting or witnessing is a Productive topicalizing activity that never ends spontaneously as long as the individual exists in the social environment.

You should not therefore regard these assignment reports as an attempt to collect a lot of detailed information on your daily activities and concerns--a sort of detailed survey. They are not that. It is true that survey reports can be used to collect facts about "people in general", but not about you, since in the survey approach, you along with everyone else get averaged into groups and distributions. In that case, the data is turned into another survey. However, we will study methods of analyzing daily round reports which are informative about how an individual is affected by particular circumstances and, further, how these circumstances are standard, recurrent episodes created by the daily round setting. In other words, natural history is involved. We want to show that individual activity on the daily round --- our actions, thoughts, and feelings --- are outcomes of our involvements in a social occasion; that is, socialized individuals are not biographically free as long as they are socialized since to be socialized means to be involved in one's environment according to particular practices of the community on the daily round. Thus, wherever you are, you cannot help attending to features of the environment that are pre-established: e.g.,
- whether you are alone or in the presence of others;
- whether you can be seen or heard;
- how you feel and what your body is doing and how it appears;
- whether you're speaking or listening and what topics were just discussed;
- etc., etc.

It is clear upon reflection that a person-on-the-daily-round is an ethnodynamic field in the very real and pragmatic sense that forces are acting upon the person and having effects and consequences. The nature of these forces can be studied and understood. We believe that social psychology should play a central role in the gathering and analysis of daily round data that systematically reveal the nature and character of the ethnodynamic forces that create for us what we call a social occasion.

Social psychology, for us, is the systematic study of social occasions. Social occasion thus becomes the unit of study in social psychology. A social occasion is defined by reference to the daily round. The daily round is also a unit in social psychology. It is the unit that allows the systematic study of a community from the perspective of its members. To be a member of a community means to be an individual who has a daily round. A daily round is like our reputation and biography: each of us has a unique routine, yet all the element~ of all the routines, including our own, are standard elements. If we were to inventory all the elements of every unique daily round, we would only find a distribution of occurrences -- some very rare, some very common, and so on.

Thus, a person is an ethnodynamic field sensitized and reactant to direct ional forces imparted by the dynamics of social occasions. These forces can be studied and understood. One approach, as taught in this course, involves the collection of daily round reports according to a pre-established taxonomy, and their analyses according to various methodological techniques. CHARTS T/2, T/7, T/11, T/18, T/20, T/21, T/23, T/24, and T/25 present a new theory of socialized behavior as developed in our work for the past decade (see Jakobovits and Nahl, 1975-77, for more details). We are defining the study of social psychology as an educational activity comprising two necessary components: creating social psychological data and studying them. We realize that this is a new idea in large class college instruction where we have been used to presenting to students data created by others and testing them on the retention of this knowledge. A more flexible approach produces opportunities for the student to mimic the behavior of investigators; for example, several traditional type textbooks now on the market come with a supplementary workbook or laboratory manual in which the students replicate standard experiments discussed in the literature.

While this idea has merit in our judgment, we feel that it does not substitute for the two essential conditions we've specified, namely, that the student create social psychological data and study them. Since social psychology should deal with the systematic study of social occasions, the data to be created by the student should deal realistically with social occasions. A methodological approach that deals realistically with social occasions is available from the social psychological literature, though one must go outside the current, narrowly defined inner track, and employ techniques already evolved in ethogeny, ethnomethodology, implicit psychology, ethnosemantics, anthropology, and social psychology itself.

[9.3. III - V.4] Further Notes on Entry Format with Samples from the DRA: The following are annotated examples taken from the DRA. The accompanying diagram is a schematic outline of Assignments #3, 4, and 5. Note that there are 72 Categories within which a person may insert entries. One makes at least one entry for each Category, though in many cases one may have several entries, depending on how one keeps track. There are 17 categories for Assignment #3, 27 for Assignment #4, and 28 for Assignment #5. The names of the categories are the TITLES given in the Full Functional Outline. Please note, once again, that the TITLE is reproduced exactly as it appears in the outline: note the centering on the page, the underlining, and Capitalized vs. All Caps entries. Note, as well, that the algebraic code of the TITLE appears before each and every one of the categories, as in the Examples provided. However, if a person has more than one entry for a category (as is quite likely), then the second, third, etc. entry could be entered below the first and marked "Entry 2," and so on.

The entries may be brief or long, or very long, but in every case sufficient details are needed to enable the reader to "picture the scene" being reported, or the major sketch of the situation within which the observation occurs. Note that the person's report is entered within quotation marks at the beginning and end. One may, at one's own discretion, add comments to the entry; these comments are typed immediately below the entry, as in the Examples given here. See the following table.

A useful way to gain an understanding of the overall schema is to read the Examples below, keeping in mind the TITLE given in each case and looking up the Category in the Full Outline and the Schematic Outline ([9. 3] and [9. 3. m-v. 3] respectively).

The following examples are only illustrations and are not meant as models of content but only to reflect actual interpretations by the writers. These can be informative in picturing how you might do the task, though retaining your own interpretation of it.