Baseline Happiness

Psychologists theorize that people have a baseline of happiness, or hedonic set point. What they mean is that while an individual’s level of happiness will ebb and flow, go up and down, dependent upon the circumstances, there is a point to which his or her level of happiness tends to return. I was thinking aboutContinue

Black Names

The case manager from my insurance company had come to meet with me. His name is Katario. We talked about my health care and just kind of hammed it up, just talking as two guys. He said, “You’re 32? I have a daughter about your age.” I asked in jest, “Oh yeah? Is she single?”Continue

Weird Waiting Room

I had a meeting at 401 Court Avenue. I arrived at the building early. I was pretty sure I was at the right place, but I wasn’t entirely sure, because the waiting room didn’t look exactly like most waiting rooms. It looked more like a rec room, with a PlayStation 4 console, Rock Em SockContinue

Support The Troops?

It’s been said that humans are the only animals to wage war. That’s not strictly true, as you need look no further than our fellow apes, the chimpanzees, see see another species that engages in warfare. War is nonetheless lamentable. War is an unfortunate aspect of the human condition; don’t you, dear reader, agree? YetContinue

Phrenology

My third grade teacher taught my class about the Wild West. One of the lessons was on the James Gang. Looking at a picture of Jesse James, I said, “He doesn’t look like a criminal!” It was perhaps a nonsensical utterance, but I guess that back in my childhood, I thought that criminals resembled monsters more thanContinue

We Don’t Get To Choose Our Parents

Individuals are born into times, places, and social systems beyond their choosing. When such times, places, and social systems are not conducive to producing a well-adjusted individual, a great deal of distress and maladjustment and result. Also consider that individuals may inherit from their parents temperaments that are dissimilar to those of the parents. ImagineContinue

The True You

You are what other people say you are. But people don’t usually know who you really are. If you’re successful, it’s not so much a matter of how good a person you are; it’s more a matter of happenstance, accidents of history, luck of biography, and your social milieu. You may believe you are whatContinue

Sociological Theory: A Few Brief Considerations

Introduction A crucial question poses itself to the sociological discipline: How are the complexities of human interaction to be studied?  This question is indeed complex and loaded, which is perhaps why “we’re still theorizing,” a question explored in depth by Waggoner and Roark. Why are we theorizing at all, and about what are we theorizing?Continue