Breaching Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

In social psychology and sociology field, a breaching experiment is one that evaluates the reaction of people to violation of accepted norms. The experiments consist of the exhibition of conscious engender, and social structure analysis that make the social reaction possible.

The second breaching experiment I chose was not on the list, but was one that I came up with on my own. The goal of this experiment was to step a little too close to a person that I was talking to, which is outside of the social norms for our society. I decided to do this on impulse at Cracker Barrel, a restaurant, when I walked up to the person in charge of seating everyone. I leaned in, a little too close but not so noticeable, as I told him that we were a party of five people. The man backed away slightly and proceeded to ask a question about our seating arrangements, to which I pounced on the opportunity and took a full step closer to this man. He backed completely away this time and had a look on his f ace that seemed to ask me, “What do you think you are doing?” The people I was eating with also questioned my actions. Once we were seated, I explained to my friends that this was also a part of an assignment. Their reaction this time was laughter, as they thought his reaction to the breaching of a social norm was funny. What was interesting about this breaching experiment was that not only did that man give me an odd look but my friends did also. Through this experiment, I learned that it is a social norm to not step into another individual’s ‘personal space’, and when that norm is crossed, it leaves an individual feeling violated and like an unspoken rule has just been broken. This is the way I felt during both breaching experiments: like I was breaking some sort of

Breaching is a type of sociological experiment where a social norm is purposefully broken and the reactions of people unaware of the experiment are noted. It can be used to discover how people react when presented with a situation to which they are not accustomed. Along with that, it is important because some reactions are more or less severe based on their experiences and how developed their generalized other is in regards to the norm being breached. Some things that are considered mores in one group may only be folkways in another. Breaching experiment are the first stepping stone to discovering why people react to different events in different ways.

Breaching experiments are sociologically based and used by Ethnomethodologists to help gain a better understanding on how people make sense of their world. Typically, Ethnomethodologists do not focus on analyzing a mass-level society, but rather dedicate their research on individual’s reactions in social situations. The purpose of a breaching experiment is for the researcher to be in a controlled social site and intentionally break social norms. It is important to do these experiments because it helps gain an understanding of socially driven rules and structure, and how people react when they are broken. I decided to go up to people and ask them how their day was, wait for them to ask me how I was and stand there without responding.

There are different types of social norms that are constantly being broken, such as not saying “excuse me” after burping, not holding the door for the person right behind you, or not saying “thank you” for every gesture that is being made to you. However, there is one specific social norm that I have violated that always makes others wonder why I  don’t follow the rules.

As a believer in Christ grows they become more aware of the gifts that they may have been given by the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to use the gifts for the right reasons. We are to allow God to work through us to edify the body of Christ. I see a lot of so called Christians these days using what is supposed to be a spiritual gift to use for ministry of the local church using them for self-edification. They are looking to see how much praise they can get instead of how much pleasure God will get through their service. We as believers need to be able to discern between what a spiritual gift is and what virtue is. A spiritual gift is related to the ministry of Christ and a virtue is related to our character. It is very easy for someone to blur the line between two and get confused. Our spiritual gifts are not the same for everyone, where all who believe should show the fruit of the spirit. To some believers the Holy Spirit gives the gift of serving, teaching, administration, and so on. But in the end it is not what spiritual gift we have but how we use it; this is what makes the difference between edifying the body of Christ or oneself.

Learning something new is something to strive for. However, are all the lessons we learn good ones? After all, there are two sides to every coin. A lot of the times it is easy to find the bad lessons learned but what about the good? Well, that takes a lot more thought. Ironically these were the thoughts running through my head that day, that dreadful day which is permanently burned into the back of my mind.

Someone asked me the other day if I was a lesbian. I answered no, because I do not identify as a lesbian. But what would have prompted them to ask that question to me verses my friend Erica? My friend Erica has long blond hair, she is skinny and wears feminine clothing. She has never been asked if she was a lesbian. But being a lesbian or any sexual orientation is not defined by clothing, style or demeanor. But many times a women dressing or acting more masculine put them in the butch category of the female gender which is often associated with being a lesbian. I personally hate categories, mostly because I am terrible at making up my mind. But I suppose if I had to label myself I would put myself into the soft butch category. I am masculine in many things I do or the way I dress but I also do embrace my femininity and display that through wearing dresses and makeup when I feel like it.

As the year of 2017 is coming to an end, I think about all that has happened this year. I have to say; this year has been nothing short of a chaotic roller coaster. We had the largest mass shooting our country has ever seen, a president who is far too obsessed with Twitter, and had a hurricane named Irma, that was the size of the state of Ohio. There have also been incredible breakthroughs that we’ve seen for the first time this year such as: Women being given the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in all states, and an Israeli scientist named Dr. Rachel Lichtenstein has found a treatment for Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and Alzheimer’s. (Times of Israel) There have been many headlines this year, some positive, some negative, but one in particular is disturbing to me. That is, an athlete by the name of Colin Kaepernick of the National Football Association (NFL) kneeling during our country’s national anthem.

Like many Catholics, I was welcomed into the faith shortly after I was born. My mother and father had me baptized at only four months of age. From then on, I was raised in a Catholic household. My faith was prevalent in my school life as well. I attended St. Bernard Catholic School from preschool to eighth grade. There were some parts about being Catholic that I really liked. I enjoyed the church songs we sang at mass and I loved having shorter classes on the days we said the Stations of the Cross. However, I wasn’t fond of being an altar server and I found no joy in having to wake up early on Sundays to go to mass. Though it was a part of my everyday life, Catholicism never really became part of my identity. I never took it upon myself to learn more about the church or strengthen my faith outside of school. I only really participated in Communion and confession and whatnot because it was what I was told and taught to do. Whenever I prayed, I felt more like I was speaking to the ceiling than to God. I hadn’t even considered that I could have my own set of beliefs until high school.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always built an imaginary box around my life. It contained everything that I was used to and shielded against any major external changes. This included my school life. Other than my pre-k class, I’ve never been to any other school except for Maryvale Elementary School. I was in the French Immersion program there with over 50 other students. Throughout the years we all became very close, especially since they were the some of the only people I knew my age. By third grade, 10 students had already left and more would continue to leave. This only reaffirmed the bond between the rest of us. In fifth grade, the total number of French Immersion students in my grade only amounted to a little over 30 students.

In any kind of organization, development of the same plays a major role and it is essential for the employees and the recruiters. The developers need to be implemented in each and every aspect thus both the employers and employees get benefitted from the same. There needs to be a huge amount of effort invested for improving the ability of organization and educating each and every person for reaching and attaining the company mission. The individuals in an organization need to be confident in taking any kind of crucial decisions.

Being a student that attends Zenith Academy, I have seen quite a number of faults in the way students conduct themselves while at school. Although it may be okay to spend time with your friends while at school, what’s not okay is having so much fun that you end up shoving other students who are trying to shift to their other class periods down the hall. What’s more disturbing, however, is that almost half of the students don’t pick up after themselves once lunchtime is over, obviously expecting others to do it for them. I am fully aware of the fact that the school has hired janitors, but it isn't completely impossible that some day a visitor may decide to pop up into the school cafeteria and have a heart attack once they see the bedlam occurring in a HIGH SCHOOL cafeteria ( That is, if the said visitor has heart problems).

All over the world, there are more and more environmental catastrophes occurring and we are beginning to see the repercussions of our treatment of the planet. Even though there does appear to be some action being taken to reduce the amount of risks, we still continue to follow our traditional ways in a lot of aspects. Something that I have personally noticed however is that certain communities end up facing the worst of the repercussions when something goes wrong. It’s no secret that people in the United States are persecuted based on their racial background, but I never really thought about how environmental issues played a part in this. My main goal is to look into why people seem to not care about the impact environmental issues have on certain groups of people based on their race. I specifically want to look into how the indigenous tribes of America are affected by this since it has become a recurrent theme throughout American history to blatantly ignore the rights of indigenous peoples in America and that statement could not be more true when it comes to environmental issues. I am choosing to make this my area of focus because I have volunteered my services on one of the reservations and have seen first hand some of the hardships these people have had to endure.