Ten American values are as found in the text
- Education is the value that makes each person understands their background and why they act the way they do (Kendall, 2013). The value enables individual to sensitize and enlighten developments within the society.
- Religiousness is the idea of studying every aspect of religion from what believed to how persons perform while in devotion and while living out their definite beliefs.
- Sex and sexuality are values that offer a historical sociology analysis of ideas about expressions of sexual desire, body’s images, and transgender. The value gives discussion on intersexuality, cross-dressing, and transgender (Kendall, 2013). The value also educates individuals on discrimination based on sexual orientation, particularly from same-sex marriage, health care, and employment.
- Groups and organizations are the values that show individual’s activity and teamwork. Hardworking individual are praised and influence much in society development.
- Technology entails the knowledge, techniques, and tools that allow individual to change resources and ideas. Moreover it is a usable method in which the skills, knowledge and experience helps to develop the society. (Kendall, 2013).
- Ethics this a value that comprises of race and ethnicity, this value help individuals to understand social, economic and political relations between races and ethnicity at all levels of society.
- Ethnocentrism and Group Dominance This is the idea that judges all the other cultures by one’s culture. Therefore, bringing an impression that one racial or ethnic group is superior to others, for instance, the acceptance of the way of living in America is believed to be supreme.
- Efficiency and Rationality this is the idea of having all things in the society done incompetence, practicality, better, perfection and quicker performance, with much stress on how good work is presented. In addition, how sensible it is to do (Kendall, 2013).
- Making a difference this is an idea of making every individual influential on society development as each person maintains his or her culture.
- Individuality is the value that makes each person responsible for his or her failure or success in the society (Kendall, 2013).
Symbols that represent America
Despite the fact that American values are important to American societies, they are key value to everyone globally. I do believe that ethics is the vital value that binds sociologist in the field of sociology (Kendall, 2013). Ethics plays a large role in everyday human interactions. I do agree with functionalist theory since in order for a race and ethnic relations to last longer, be functional and leads to the contribution of harmonious conduct and stability of individual. The ethnic minorities must assimilate into the respective society (Kendall, 2013). The second value is Education since one understands their background and, therefore, become responsible of what they do or say. The third value is Technology, which allow individual to change resources and ideas to usable knowledge and skills to develop the society to another level. I think the left out value is Commitment. Commitment is a process that arises when one voluntarily decides upon an alternative, therefore, seeking to link hypothetical work to a vision of an improved world (Kendall, 2013).
According to the book, Symbol is defined as anything that meaningfully represents something else (Kendall, 2013). According to me, symbols are culture representations of reality or anything that carries a particular meaning and is recognized by its respective culture. Therefore, the symbols of America are American language, American Flag, Presidency, National Anthem, and The Statue of Liberty. In my mind, American values have helped to express the America I live in and convey the meaning of American culture (Shearer & Shearer, 2002). I believe they too communicate and represent other components of culture since they are the source of continuity and identity in culture.
The concept of cultural lag
Cultural lag occurs when technological innovation outperforms cultural adaptation. The two values affected by the culture lagging are Making a difference and Efficiency and Rationality since there is no law exist that make the values illegal. We all have an equivalent chance to make a difference, but some of us fails and sit back to watch others working. Technology as one of the westernization has played a major role of making many people lazy and unreliable in the society.
References
Kendall, D. E. (2013). Sociology in our times. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
Shearer, B. F., & Shearer, B. S. (2002). State names, seals, flags, and symbols: A historical guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
