Using the experience you wrote about for assignment 1*, write a simplified analysis of your experience from a sociological viewpoint and psychological viewpoint.
I. In your sociological section, examine the social facts and nature of the relationship of yourself to the society. What social institutions were involved in the rite? How was power brokered in the rite? Did society benefit from the rite?
III. In your psychological section, elaborate on the effect the rite had on you. How did the rite you experienced address some of Eriksons's developmental challenges? How did this rite affect your self concept (self-esteem, perceived self, ideal self)? What social mechanisms were used in the rite? In what stages of the rite (i.e., separation, liminalization, aggregation) were these mechanisms used?
Was this a powerful rite of passage, that is, do you feel you were transformed by the rite you experienced?
Questions? Send e-mail to me at balfour@tamu.edu.
*If you would like to write about another experience
you had that you feel is more fitting, please feel free to do so.