Explain the validity and helpfulness of gender socialization sources.
Assignment: Gender Socialization.

Culture is the glue that holds a society together—it is what encourages the members of that society to cooperate with each other as much as possible. We learn culture through socialization, the lifelong social experience. From birth we are taught how to be members of our society.

The most common agents of socialization are our family, peers, school, and media. The family, for example, influences a child’s development by such things as the way the parents hold the baby, look at it, talk to it, and respond to its needs. We take on typical gender roles from the beginning as girls are given pink clothes while boys are given blue. Family socialization is reinforced or modified by experiences at school and with peers, by the mass media, and by interaction with others. Socialization, the lifelong social experience through which we learn culture, is vital to becoming members of a society.

In this assessment, we look at the sociological concepts of culture and socialization and how they impact our behavior and attitudes.

Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Examine how theory and sociological concepts apply to everyday life. Identify gender-specific childhood clothing and/or toys.
Competency 2: Explain the basic tools of sociological inquiry. Summarize gender socialization sources.
Explain the validity and helpfulness of gender socialization sources.
Competency 4: Analyze the influence of culture on both the individual and society. Describe the impact of gender-specific messages towards one’s self.
Analyze how gender-specific messages of childhood clothing and/or toys reflect larger societal expectations.
Competency 6: Compose text that articulates meaning relevant to its purpose and audience. Develop text using organization, structure, and transitions that demonstrate understanding of cohesion between main and subtopics.
For this assessment, you analyze how gender is created by society, specifically looking at children’s toys and/or clothing. The purpose of this assessment is twofold:

It helps you to start thinking about the impact of socialization on your life as a starting point.
This first analysis will be used again for Assessment 6.
It also requires you to locate and evaluate resources on socialization and these resources may be used in Assessment 6.

Deliverable
Write an essay in which you complete all of the following:

PART 1
Examine the toys and clothing you had as a child.

Describe the clothing and toys from your childhood and identify which were gender-specific.
PART 2
Examine your experience with gender socialization.

Describe the message your toys and clothing sent you about gender. ​​​​​​
Analyze how gender-specific messages that arise from childhood clothing and toys reflect larger societal expectations.
Reflect on the impact these messages had on you. Describe how you feel about your experience with gender socialization.
PART 3
Analyze and then include outside sources.

Your analysis should also include information from two additional outside resources regarding gender socialization—one from a popular source and one from a scholarly source. A critical component of this assessment involves evaluating these outside resources.
Summarize your outside articles (one scholarly and one popular) and explain how they helped you better understand your experience with gender socialization.
Explain the validity (quality) of each source and how helpful each was. What conclusions can you draw about the difference in these types of sources (popular versus scholarly)?
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Develop text using organization, structure, and transitions that demonstrate understanding of cohesion between main and subtopics. Written communication needs to be free of errors that detract from the overall message. Write in a professional style using references and correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
Sources: Cite at least three scholarly sources.
Length: 4–5 pages, not including title and reference pages.
Format: Include a title page and reference page. Use in-text citations to cite your sources. [Example: Writing becomes better as the child matures (Britton, Thomas, & Miller, 1996).]
Font and size: Times New Roman, 12-point.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Assignment: Gender Socialization.