Transcript The Structure of the Teen's Neighborhood Community

LESSON 3
The Structure of the Teen’s Neighborhood Community
And How It Shapes Their Personalities
The Effects of Neighborhood Borders,
Socio-Economic Borders, and Ethnic Borders
On Social Skills, Tolerance, Understanding,
and Relationship Building
Presented by
THE NATURAL SYSTEMS INSTITUTE
7/21/2015
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
1
The Stratified Socio-economic Status
and Ethnic Identity
of Neighborhoods
Form a Global Structure
That Tends to Shape Relations between
Types of Neighborhoods
Which In-turn Shapes
the Personalities of Teens
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
2
The following slides relate to
neighborhoods and interpersonal
association patterns.
All descriptions are speculative and nonscientific.
They are meant to cause the audience to
think about the ideas being proposed
about the new world in which teenagers
are growing up and its effect on their
personalities.
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
3
The Myth of the American Neighborhood
WHERE NEIGHBORS ARE NOT FRIENDS
In which neighborhoods do adult neighbors have parties; hold meetings;
meet as close friends; know each just as acquaintances; have occasional,
impersonal contact; never speak; have antagonistic encounters?
This is a non-quantitative description, based on Contact Type, of the degree
to which neighborhoods in the demographic areas A. to F. below exhibit the quality
we call ‘community’.
Neighbor
Contact Type
Neighborhood
Parties
A. City
Upper
Class
B. Suburbs
Apartment
Complexes
C. City
Middle
Class
E. City
Lower
Class
X
X
Housing
Development
Meetings
D. Small
Towns
X
X
Neighborhood
Meetings
X
X
Close Friends
Acquaintances
X
Occasional
Impersonal
Contact
X
Never Speak
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Antagonisms
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F. Inner
City
Impoverished
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
X
4
Where Do People Tend To Have Their Closest Relationships?
The Evolving Replacements For The Neighborhood Community
Closest
Relationship Settings
A. City
upper
class
X
Business, Civic Clubs
X
X
X
X
Non-neighborhood
Private Homes
X
X
Country Club
X
B. Suburbs
Apartment
Complexes
Work
Recreational Facility
or Gym
D. Small
towns
X
X
X
X
X
Church
X
X
X
X
Children’s School
(PTA)
X
X
X
Children’s Activities
X
X
X
X
E. City
lower
class
F. Inner
city
impoverished
X
X
X
Social Club
X
C. City
middle
class
X
X
Neighborhood Street Green
X
X
Bar
X
X
Night Club
X
X
X
Neighborhood
X
In the modern world, the settings in which people tend to have their closest relationships are at work, business
and civic clubs, recreational facilities, and church.
Our Society, as a whole, is becoming more impersonal.
The traditional neighborhood community is phasing out.
Except for the suburbs and small towns, socializing with close friends is less and less frequent.
Close friends in the Ghetto neighborhood are counterbalanced by the threat of antagonisms.
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
5
Different Types of Communities
Have Facilities of Different Types and Quality to Meet the Needs of Teens
Study chart by taking a community type from A through F at the top and go down the column for facility classifications 1. through 4.
Facility
Classification
1. Private
restricted
A. City upper
class
B. Suburbs
A Schools
Parks
Swim Pools
Social Graces
B Schools
Parks
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Athletic Fields
Church Programs
Gyms
Country Clubs
Riding Clubs
Church Programs
Gyms
Dance Clubs
Country Clubs
3. Public
(de facto)
restricted
D. Small towns
Dance Clubs
Church Programs
Dance Clubs
Parks
Swim Pools
C Schools-Charter
Parks
Swim Pools
Swim Pools
Athletic Fields
Youth Centers
Special Classes
Gyms
Youth Centers
Special Classes
2. Commercial
Special Classes
C. City middle
class
C Schools
Parks
Swim Pools
Parks
E. City lower
class
F. Inner city
impoverished
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Athletic Fields
4. Public
unrestricted
Residentialrating
rating
Residential
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AA
B
B
C Schools
Parks
Streets
Church Programs
D Schools
Parks
Vacant Lots
E Schools
Parks
Streets
Vacant Lots
F Schools
Parks
Streets
Vacant Lots
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Athletic Fields
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Church Programs
Gyms
E
E
Swim Pools
Youth Centers
Church Programs
Gyms
F
F
C
C
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
D
D
6
SINCE Different Types of Communities
Have Different Types of Facilities to Meet the Needs of Teens:
QUESTIONS
• After studying the chart on the previous slide, which
community type – A through F – would you want your child to
be in?
• If you lived in community F and suddenly were able to move
to E or D or C or B or A, how do you think life would change
for your children?
• How about if you lived in A and had to move to F?
• Imagine the other alternative moves.
• NOW describe how you think the structure of the
neighborhood environment you live in effects and shapes the
personality of your teenagers.
• How would you go about optimizing the structural
characteristics of your community?
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
7
TRANSFORMATIONS of EMOTIONS and BEHAVIORS INDUCED by
the STRUCTURE of the NEIGHBORHOOD TRANSFER to SCHOOL
Going to school with negative emotions primes these teens to act out. As the factors in the structure of a
neighborhood shift from negative to positive, the emotions of teens are transformed from negative to positive.
Factors in neighborhood structures: Impact of neighborhood structural factors on teens’ emotions
1.Affluence range of neighborhood.
2.Population: ratio of people to a
square block; ratio of people to a
dwelling; percentages of age groups.
3.Schedules: presence or absence of
enforced neighborhood curfews.
4.Physical-spatial characteristics: ratio
of open-unsupervised space to each
square block in a community;
5.Degree of presence of neighborhood
organizations and supervised youth
facilities.
6.Recreation activities: degree of
presence of organized and
supervised sports, recreational
activities; parks, playgrounds, and
youth centers.
7.Authorities: frequency and number of
law enforcement officers present;
presence of other types of
supervising authorities; frequency of
social service visits.
8.Transportation: automobile traffic
patterns; access to public
transportation; feasibility of bicycles
as transportation, paths for jogging
and walking.
9.Presence of gangs: number and
behavior patterns of gangs.
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1.Social comparisons affect feelings in the categories of esteem and pride versus
embarrassment; envy, superiority, inferiority.
2.Crowding and unavoidable contact between age groups engenders frustration,
annoyance, resentment, suspicion, aggression, exclusion, alienation, and fear and
anxiety.
3.Lack of curfew in crowded neighborhoods engenders categories of fear, excitement,
edginess, lost-ness. Presence of curfews from authorities engenders frustration,
resentment, hostility, and safety.
4.A ratio of a small amount of space for a highly populated area engenders irritation,
frustration, wariness, aggression, confusion, hopelessness, and excitement.
5.Neighborhood organizations for improvement and safety engender resentment,
hope, and happiness. Lack of neighborhood organizations and youth centers
engenders confusion, anger, suspicion, impulsivity, and resignation.
6. A lack of recreation settings in a crowded neighborhood engenders feelings of
boredom, edginess, and insignificance. Presence of recreation engenders delight,
eagerness, pride, rivalry, and hope.
7.A lack of presence of authorities for control and assistance engenders anxiety,
resignation, abandonment, resentment, shyness, and fear and banding together in
gangs for security. Their presence engenders suspicion, resentment, hostility,
inferiority, motivation, hope, security, happiness, and pride.
8.Small, crowded neighborhoods surrounded by high traffic engenders fear,
resignation, frustration, insignificance, and rage. With a lack of ease of access to
public transportation, the emotions of boredom, gloominess, and hopelessness
compound the other negative emotions. When there is light traffic and access to
public transportation the emotions change to hope and anticipation, excitement,
longing, and pride. When families have cars, the possibility of positive emotions is
even greater. Mobility is a major source of relief from negative emotions.
9.In a crowded neighborhood, with the negatives of the above factors, gangs are
highly likely to arise. When gangs arise in these neighborhoods fear is submerged
behind arrogance, elation and bravado mask insignificance, lost-ness is replaced
with an urgent bonding and loyalty, boredom generates a quest for arousal and
excitement, and suspicion is replaced with active rivalry and hostility with gang wars.
Copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
8
Critical Dimensions in the Structure of a Neighborhood
WHAT ARE THE PIVOTAL FACTORS IN A COMMUNITY THAT POSITIVELY SHAPE TEENS
PERSONALITIES?
• Neighborhoods have five Dimensions that are critical in shaping the personalities of
teens:
1. Openness
2. Personal
3. Organized
4. Productive
5. Rewarding
• If we analyze a neighborhood and find it is on the low end of these dimensions, we will
probably also find a high incidence of the following negative symptoms:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Unsupervised, counterproductive recreation
Gangs
Interpersonal antagonisms
Emotional /behavioral problems
A high incidence of delinquent activity
Deficient education
Employment - economic problems
Health problems
Addictions
Abuse
Broken families
Multiple problems with the infrastructure, streets, housing, pests, and the like of the
neighborhood.
• A positive community requires a type of neighborhood organization or community
council organization that works on overcoming these problems by promoting the five
dimensions listed above.
• The way these dimensions are implemented may vary by type of community, but their
presence in some positive manner is essential.
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
9
THE DIMENSION OF OPENNESS
• What is an Open Environment?
– Providing avenues for personal fulfillment and
achievement that are open to everyone.
– Does your neighborhood have many positive programs,
activities, jobs, and roles that are appropriate,
challenging, diverse, and truly interesting and available
all for male and female youth between the ages of 12
through 19?
– Are these avenues open to everyone regardless of
gender, race, religion, or economic condition?
– Do the neighborhood’s avenues provide for differences
in personality and ability and remedial assistance when
needed?
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
10
THE PERSONAL DIMENSION
• What is a Personal Environment?
– It involves developing mutual respect, sensitivity, mutual facilitation, and
a personal touch in neighborhood resident interactions.
• Does your community provide non-threatening ways for any
and everyone in the neighborhood to positively connect with
other individuals and groups.
– Do the residents of the community encourage courteous and
considerate interactions with everyone?
• Are the residents able to resolve disputes amicably?
• Do residents have ways that mutually facilitate personal
expression; genuine listening to each other’s feelings; and
positive regard for personal information?
– Do these ways of relating to and getting to know one another encourage
learning to respect one another; acknowledging each other’s
contributions; and be understanding of each other’s difficult life
circumstances and sudden misfortunes when and if they should occur?
7/21/2015
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
11
THE DIMENSION OF ORGANIZATION
•
What is an Organized Environment?
– What is the form of the encompassing organization of the community as a whole?
– What are the existing community agencies? What private organizations exist to
enhance the community?
– How do residents of the community participate in these organizations and organizing
processes?
– Is there a way for residents to develop new organizations should there be a need to do
so?
– Is there some central focal point in the neighborhood that retains information about all
of the governmental and private organizations and groups that are active in the
neighborhood?
– Is there a way to ensure that organizations in the neighborhood circulate new people
through offices and roles so that they do not become closed, exclusive, insider-stagnant
groups?
– Is there a network that connects these groups and facilitates sharing that information
between groups? Is there a way to make sure that important information is
disseminated to all relevant people?
– Is there a way to gather information about the interests, talents, and skills of neighbors
so as to create avenues for the use of these talents in promoting projects and events
and in assisting others, particularly the youth, in the community whether inside or
outside of particular organizations?
•
Does the encompassing structure of the organizations within the community
include effective ways to develop and coordinate programs for the enhancement
of the positive growth and maturation of all of the community’s youth?
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
12
THE DIMENSION OF PRODUCTIVITY
•
•
What is a Productive Environment?
A productive neighborhood community environment means:
•
When these factors are present all of the residents of all neighborhoods receive the
benefits of safety; security; the necessities for survival; enhancement of their life
circumstances; and individualized opportunities for satisfying and fulfilling
recreation and entertainment.
Questions to ask in determining if your neighborhood community is productive:
•
•
•
– Productivity for the individual and family; for the community and its organizations; and for
the city and its institutions. Does it promote production of goods and services?
– Developing profitable enterprises with well paid employment; facilitating requisite
personal training and education; creating volunteer roles for maintaining a strong
community; sustaining programs for the disabled and invalid; developing personal growth
programs; and creating systems that foster productivity in all aforementioned endeavors.
– Do the organizations in the neighborhood strive to promote projects and tasks that work
for the enhancement of the neighborhood environment and the economic welfare of
neighbors?
– Do they provide productivity enhancing programs for individuals and families?
– Do they actively draw upon the assistance of agencies and businesses to provide
requisite vocational knowledge, skills, and opportunities?
– Do they encourage sharing information for mutual success?
– Do they encourage volunteer mutual assistance programs for those with misfortunes?
If these factors are present in your community, the youth are most likely to have a
vision of a productive, rewarding career. They will be motivated to prepare
themselves; take full advantage of their education and training; conduct themselves
in a mature manner; and develop an identification with their community and the
larger society.
These are the conditions that make it possible for the community’s youth to
become productive, responsible citizens whom the community can take pride in.
7/21/2015
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
13
THE REWARDING DIMENSION
•What is a Rewarding Environment?
– A community environment has a rewarding structure when its inhabitants are oriented toward positive behavior rather than
negative behavior. When the community is high on the dimensions of Openness, Personal, Organized, and Productive, it has
the pre-conditions to be Rewarding. In such an environment, people want each other to pursue their interests and achieve their
goals. When a person is able to pursue their interests and achieve their goals, that process itself is inherently rewarding.
Providing a system that recognizes the individual’s achievement transforms each individual’s inherently rewarding achievements
into a community event. It is the community’s statement of what it values. Therefore, the celebration of individual achievements
in such a community is a celebration of a collective value system, a reaffirmation of the essence of this particular community.
When the individual receives an external reward, he/she has the dual satisfaction of the inherent reward or satisfaction and the
public satisfaction of having reaffirmed what the community stands for, its values. The community as a whole experiences the
satisfaction that its structure and system, taken as a whole, is working as it is intended to, is a successful community.
– Developing a Comprehensive Reward System. Who Should do it and How should it be done? Working out the implicit
philosophy of the community and its explicit recognition and reward system is a sacred trust the leaders are entrusted with on
behalf of the residents. It is a silent contract between the people and its representative leaders that implies the support of the
people as long as their leaders uphold and advance the essential values of the whole community. While this process takes place
without conscious awareness, any abandonment of allegiance to or corruption of the community values receives almost
immediate, vocal protests. Therefore, the comprehensive reward system of a community, worked out in separate organizations
in a manner consistent with the whole, is not something to be taken lightly nor is it achieved and sustained easily. Each group,
and particularly each leader, has to think about the reward system. They have to carefully consider what to reward, when, how,
and where to reward. They also have to be vigilant in detecting when something is being rewarded unintentionally that corrupts
the values of the community. For example, the reward system of public school athletics, we saw in Lesson 2, was reinforcing
values and behavior which, if candidly and publicly stated to the community as a whole, would be condemned as an anathema.
•Is the nature of the neighborhood community such that it encourages people to informally and personally
acknowledge and congratulate each other for achievements, promotions, or successes? When doing so, are the
people equally attentive to and appreciative of the processes that led to the achievement as they are of the
outcomes. In other words, is it just the result, or, is the person the primary recipient of appreciation and
acknowledgement? It is the latter that bonds a community together. It is the latter that distinguishes between
relating to the person as a thing, some thing that enhances the reputation of the onlooker, and relating with
empathy to the person themselves and their own struggles and successes that makes the community intrinsically
and commendably human. It is this regard for the person’s internal process that provides the conditions for each
person to be purely and wholeheartedly, without the guilt of ulterior motives or the fear of exploitation, devoted to
the pursuit of their best.
•The community publicly rededicates itself to its essential values when it has formal ways to acknowledge or
ceremonies to celebrate the achievements of its citizens. It typically does this with visible awards or rewards for
the achievements of its neighbors. The community that thrives performs these ceremonies for people of all ages,
both genders, and regardless of race, religion, or economic status. Merit is the criterion. The leaders of the
community carry the responsibility for making the giving of rewards a solemn process so that when one receives
the reward they know it is well deserved and their performance was acknowledged as authentic and valid. The
magnitude of the reward and its ceremony must be commensurate with the true significance of the feat.
Everything should be in balance. This requires that there be leaders of sound judgment and wisdom. Again, the
responsibility for upholding the essential values of the community is in their hands. It is a sacred trust.
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
14
HYPOTHETICAL CHARACTERIZATION the DIMENSIONS of UPPER INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS
•
Dimensions of an upper strata neighborhood:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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OPEN
PERSONAL
ORGANIZED
PRODUCTIVE
REWARDING
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
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HYPOTHETICAL CHARACTERIZATION the DIMENSIONS of WHITE COLLAR NEIGHBORHOODS
•
Dimensions of a white collar neighborhood:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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OPEN
PERSONAL
ORGANIZED
PRODUCTIVE
REWARDING
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
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HYPOTHETICAL CHARACTERIZATION the DIMENSIONS of BLUE COLLAR NEIGHBORHOODS
•
Dimensions of a blue collar neighborhood:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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OPEN
PERSONAL
ORGANIZED
PRODUCTIVE
REWARDING
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
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HYPOTHETICAL CHARACTERIZATION the DIMENSIONS of MANUAL LABOR NEIGHBORHOODS
•
Dimensions of a manual labor neighborhood:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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OPEN
PERSONAL
ORGANIZED
PRODUCTIVE
REWARDING
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
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What Are the Effects on Teens of
Stratification and Segregation of a City’s Population
into Neighborhoods with
Homogeneous Socio-Economic Status?
1. Most Affluent Neighborhood
How will the
community you
live in influence
all aspects of
you as a
teenager?
4. Manual Labor and Unemployed
3. Blue Collar
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2. White Collar
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
19
Negative Pressures on Youths Living in Communities That Are Low in Openness,
Personal, Organized, Productive, and Rewarding Dimensions and Living with the Life
Circumstances Displayed Below Will Result in Negative Personality Traits
Negative
Reactions
From Family
Teen
Teen
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
Negative
Experiences
In School
20
The Structural Characteristics, Dimensions,
of Educational and Recreational Facilities within Types of Communities
Restructured to Promote Optimal Personal Growth for All Teens
City upper class
Suburbs
Facilities for Teens
Open
1
Personal 1
Organized 1
Productive 1
Rewarding 1
Facilities for Teens
Open
1
Personal 1
Organized 1
Productive 1
Rewarding 1
City Middle
Class
Facilities
for Teens
Open
Personal
Organized
Productive
Rewarding
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Inner City
Impoverished
Facilities for Teens
Open
1
Personal 1
Organized 1
Productive 1
Rewarding 1
1
1
1
1
1
copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
21
OVERVIEW
OF THE STRUCTURE
OF THE CITY
AS A STRUCTURE ENCOMPASSING
MANY STRATIFIED NEIGHBORHOODS
EACH WITH ITS UNIQUE
TYPE OF COMMUNITY
AND UNIQUE TYPE OF ORGANIZATION
OF THAT COMMUNITY.
YET, ALL ARE INEXTRICABLY INTERTWINED!
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
22
The Interdependent, Demographic-Overlap, and Intermingling
Nature of a Socio-Economically Stratified City
OVERVIEW OF HOW THE STRATIFIED STATUS GROUPS OVERLAP
Work
Human Services
Education
2 Overlap
OVERVIEW
OF
CITY
1 Overlap
4 Overlap
Recreation
3 Overlap
Government
Family
Organization
1
2
of
City
3
4
Economic Status of Communities
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23
The stratification of neighborhoods
creates pathological
social and psychological effects
as youth interact
in trans-border relationships.
If you identify, in general, with one of the three status levels on the next four slides
and are offended by the characterization of that level, the point is to look at your
status group from the viewpoint of those in the other status groups.
No characterization is meant to be flattering but rather are ‘equal opportunity
offensive’.
We seldom see ourselves as others see us or accept their negative characterizations
of us.
The point is to take these other perspectives for the sake of understanding some of
the reasons why it is so difficult to relate comfortably with people who might be
characterized as in higher or lower status groups.
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
24
Level of Social Status, Ethnic, and Racial Identity Engenders Anxiety or Fear
Over Crossing the Status, Ethnic, or Racially Created Borders of Neighborhoods
High Status People
I wonder what
‘they’ are like
down there?
I wonder
what ‘they’
are like down
there?
I wonder what
‘they’ are like
up there?
Middle Status People
I wonder what
‘they’ are like
up there?
Low Status People
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
25
Level of Social Status, Ethnic, and Racial Identity Involves a Concept of Conditions,
Imposed by Culture, That Define the Status, the Geo-Territories, and Psycho-Social Borders
“This is my
territory!”
Higher Status
People: Perceived
high prerogatives
and entitlement to
opportunity and
privilege.
“This is my
territory!”
Middle Status
People: Perceived
need to struggle
for opportunity
and privilege; no
entitlement.
Lower Status
People:
Perceived
permanent lack
of privilege;
lack of
prerogatives or
opportunity, yet
perceived
entitlement to
minimum
subsistence
“This is my
territory!”
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
26
Level of Social Status, Ethnic, and Racial Identity Engenders Different Types of Psychological
Experiences When Crossing Borders Into the Other Groups’ Territories
Low Status People: “I’m
feeling moderately out of
place and subservient.”
Middle Status
People: “I’m
feeling inferior,
embarrassment,
pressure,
anxiety, unsure
of my place,
and insecure
about
belonging.”
Low Status People:
“I’m feeling inferior,
awkward, pressure,
anxiety, unsure of my
place, and insecure
about belonging.”
Middle Status
People: “I’m
feeling superior,
disdain,
pressure, fear,
anxiety, unsure
of my place, and
don’t want to
belong.”
High Status People: “I’m
feeling superior, pressure,
embarrassment, fear, anxiety,
unsure of my role, and
insecure about safety.”
High Status People: “I’m
feeling moderately out
of place, but superior.”
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27
Each Level of Social Status, Ethnic, and Racial Identity Has Its Own
Characteristic Feelings Toward People in Other Status Levels, Ethnic, or Racial Groups
Low Status People: Feel
awe, dependence, servility
toward higher status people
Middle Status People:Feel
envy, jealousy, disdain,
subjection or oppressed
by higher status people.
L
Low Status People:
Feel rivalry,envy,
hostility toward
middle status people.
L
Middle Status People: Feel
resentment, fear, disgust,
disrespect toward lower
status people.
High Status People: Feel
pity, compassion, distrust,
disrespect toward lower
status people.
High Status People:
Feel condescending
and patronizing toward
middle status people
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
28
How are You Going to Let
the Type of Community and Neighborhood
You Live in Effect Your Life?
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copyright by Edwin L. Young, PhD, 7/1997
Border
Border
Border
• My socio-economic status is derived from my
parents. Your socio-economic status is derived from
THE EGO POGO STICK
your parents.
I’m better than them. I’m superior to you.
• My parents’ socio-economic status pretty much
determines the neighborhood I live in, as does
yours.
• But I am not my parents and you are not your
parents. I should not be stereotyped, labeled, or
judged according to the neighborhood I live in. I
should not judge you on that basis either.
• Some parents can buy their kids more expensive
cloths and some parents can only afford less
expensive cloths.
• Just because of this, should any of us feel we are
better than others? Should any of us feel we are not
as good as others? Should any deserve more
respect?
• We do not all have to dress the same, but if we did,
could we all feel we were just as good as and only as
good as everyone else?
• How about, instead, all of us trying to learn to treat
everyone as though they are all due equal respect,
equal opportunity, and appreciate each others’
unique qualities and talents?
• If we did this, the our egos would not be like they
were on pogo sticks. We would not be so jealous or
envious of others or look down on others. We would
not see others as rivals to be attacked and put down.
• How about if we try to see things this way and to act
this way?
He is better than me. I’m inferior. They look down on me.
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ASPECTS OF THE GLOBAL STRUCTURE ENCOMPASSING:
I. STRATIFIED NEIGHBORHOODS
II. GEO-SOCIAL LANDSCAPE of NEIGHBORHOODS
III. DIMENSIONS of NEIGHBORHOODS’ COMMUNITIES
ALL THREE SHAPE the IDENTITY, GOALS, MORALS, SOCIAL SKILLS and MATURITY of TEENS
1. Each of the three aspects of the Global Structure encompass the entire city and all of its neighborhoods.
When two neighborhoods, one of high and one of low status, constitute the city, each determines the nature
of the other. There typically is a zone that demarcates the transition out of one status into the other. The
physical characteristics of one sets up a contrast with the other since there are expensive homes; elaborately
manicured landscapes; well constructed and well kept, clean roads with safety features; artistically designed
parks; and education and public buildings with aesthetic, architectural features. The high status communities
will usually have well funded and well staffed public offices and well paid occupants of public offices like
schools, libraries, churches, recreational facilities, clubs, and the like. There will be an elaborate system of
social and business associations. The people will be visibly and ostentatiously courteous to one another.
There will be many owners of private businesses, stores, services, and the like. Within the community,
employment rates will be high and the ‘positions’ well paid. There will be a wealth of procedures to give
recognition and awards to residents for outstanding performance. There will be lavish amount of media
coverage of events and publicity for ‘personages’. There will be an excess of leisure facilities which will be
expensive and will specialize in indulging their patrons. The lower status neighborhoods will have varying
degrees of the opposite characterization.
2. As one considers these striking differences, one can draw the inference that teenagers in the respective
communities will have decidedly different identities and self-concepts. The structure of their respective
communities will require that they learn a very different set of social skills. They will have very different types
of entitlement attitudes. They will have very different visions of their future careers and place in society. The
prevalence of expensive material possessions will be dramatically different. While excessive, expensive
possessions and money creates expectations for them, they do serve as a powerful incentive to most of these
teenagers. Seeing themselves as having superior wealth, they also must find ways to demonstrate their
superiority in every other way. If there is endeavor in which they cannot show their superiority, they learn to
skillfully disparage that endeavor. Those with a majority of genetically determined inadequacies will suffer
extreme loss of self esteem and may engage in self effacement. However, if a teenager begins to show a
deficiency in some area that their parents consider vital, the parents will provide special schools, tutors, and
all sorts of remedial programs to help their child overcome their deficiency. The alternative is to find
placements in schools or programs for the elite but which are designed to accommodate the less well
endowed and at the same time preserve and enhance their self-esteem. In other words, these affluent
teenagers are surrounded with models and coaches yet this is done very unobtrusively. Now, contrast this
with a teenager growing up in one of most impoverished neighborhoods.
3. Despite the obvious contrast in advantages, most of the teachers, coaches, police, judges, and the many
other adults invested with the responsibility for preparing these teenagers for adulthood typically relate to both
advantaged and disadvantaged as though endowed with ‘equal rational wills’. Bad choices of the
disadvantaged, therefore, are a matter of a ‘bad will’. Some authorities will chalk up such bad behavior as
due to ‘bad seed’ and therefore incorrigible. Oddly, life histories and circumstances are treated as irrelevant!
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Suggestions for Overcoming the Effects of Negative Structural Characteristics of Neighborhoods and Communities
1. Two perspectives are necessary if you are going to overcome the effects of negative structural characteristics of neighborhoods on residents in
their neighborhoods, as well as your own:
1. An internal perspective so you can begin to understand the role your own neighborhood played in shaping your personality and the way you
perceive and relate to teens from other types of neighborhoods.
1. The negative effects of one’s neighborhood: Remember, neither you nor they chose the neighborhood to grow up in. The reasons for
why we dislike and look down on some teens and like and admire other teens may seem to be because of the way they look and act but
those traits may very likely be a result of growing up in a different sort of neighborhood. Should hold people accountable for something
over which they had no control? If you did not know that your neighborhood shaped you, should you expect them to know how theirs
shaped them?
2. Dealing with differences we do not like and do not understand: A question to ask yourself is, does judging or blaming help or is it more
creative and constructive to try to get to know others by starting with being understanding and tolerant of their differences on the one
hand and on the other hand being patient with their uninformed, negative reactions to you.
2. An external perspective so you truly understand how neighborhoods differ and how growing up in each type of neighborhood shapes
teenagers’ personalities and how it shapes the way they perceive and relate to teens in the other types of communities.
1. Once you understand the structures of different types of neighborhoods, you can begin to actively work to help others in your
neighborhood understand and begin to try to make changes in your neighborhood. Making changes requires getting to know the leaders
of organizations and getting information on what your neighborhood needs to do in order for it to be high on the five critical dimensions:
Openness, Personal, Organized, Productive, and Rewarding.
2. If your neighborhood has many serious problems and if its teenagers are failing in school, getting in trouble with the law, having harmful
conflicts with other teens and with adults, or having many other such problems, ask your leaders to consider what it might be about the
structure of your neighborhood community that could be causing these problems. Then ask them to consider what could be changed
and what could created and developed that might help solve these problems. Whenever the leaders and influential people in the
community begin to attribute the cause of problems to individual’s bad traits, ask why some other community does not have people with
these traits. Ask if they think such ‘bad’ people might be good or positive if they had a chance to be in groups, clubs, associations, and
the like that treated them differently, more positively, and actively worked to help them grow, mature, succeed, get a positive identity, and
gain self-esteem?
2. Developing a plan:
1. If your community leaders erect roadblocks because they do not have the necessary funds, explain to them how the neighborhood might be
even stronger if it tried to develop projects without soliciting funds first. If they initiated a campaign to identify people in the neighborhood
with skills, talents, knowledge, awareness of need, and motivation, community organization and development could begin with them. If these
leaders began to get the community’s organization to communicate and cooperate with each other and bring together the identified talent in
the community, everyone would begin to come up with ideas and plans. Next, if people were encouraged to try out their plans and to be
mutually supportive in the process, the long-standing resignation, pessimism, and mutual antipathy could gradually be overcome. After the
first small successes, these participants would get satisfaction, excitement, and ambition and from there a positive momentum would
continue to build.
2. Involving the community’s teenagers: For the plan to succeed the community must enlist the aid of its teenagers. When the teenagers are
brought in, their youthful energy and exuberance will easily be channeled into developing the new projects. Their self-esteem will soar and
they will develop a strong positive identification with their community. Under these circumstances, those adults who are involved will become
natural mentors. While working with the teenagers, these mentors will naturally become maturity coaches who take an interest in the teens
struggles and successes and a beneficent cycle will begin to replace the former vicious cycle.
3. Is it worth a try?
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Movies to Accompany This Lesson and Be Discussed in Group
Focus Concept When Viewing the Movie:
Understanding How the Different Types Neighborhoods
and Their Structures and Dimensions Shape the Personalities of Teenagers
• After you have studied and discussed slides of this lesson, it would be
helpful to view one of the movies listed below and discuss it with your group
in terms of the focus concept in the lesson:
–
–
–
–
Class Act (1992)
Telling Lies in America (1997)
Social Suicide (1991)
Beautiful Girls (1996)
• While viewing the movie of your choice, look for how the socio-economic
stratification of neighborhoods impacts the youths’ personalities, values, and
behavior.
• Look for how the five dimensions of the different communities impact the
youths’ personalities, values, and behavior.
• Note how the each type of neighborhood effects their youths’ interpersonal
relations with youth in other types of neighborhoods.
• Note what you think the major problem areas are for youth in the respective
neighborhoods.
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Exercises on Overcoming the Effects of
Negative Structural Characteristics of Neighborhoods
1. If you can find a way to do so, take a trip through areas of the city that could be characterized as
upper class, suburbs or middle class, lower class, and the most impoverished areas. As you tour
these areas of the city, imagine what it might be like to have been born and grown up in each one.
Try and be objective and place your own neighbor in one of these four status categories. Imagine
you are an outsider imagining what it would have been like to have been born and grown up there.
Consider the contrasts between the neighborhoods. Now try and imagine how each type might
influence the personality of a teen growing up there and how they would look upon and relate to
teens from the other three types of neighborhoods. How does it feel to get the insight that a person’s
personality is to a large extent shaped by the type of neighborhood they grow up in? Write down a
brief summary of your thoughts with respect to each status type.
2. Now, imagine switching places with each of the other three neighborhoods. Briefly write how you
feel things about your personality might be different had you been in each of the other three types.
How would your identity and self-concept be different? How would your vision of your future be
different? How might your preferences, tastes, interests, preferred entertainment and recreation,
values with respect to money, expectations for school performance, standards for your appearance,
and feelings about society and its leaders? What would you accept as standard and normal for teen
related programs and facilities? How would you expect to be treated by teachers, police, and other
authorities? How would you expect to be treated by teens from the other three types of
neighborhoods? Write a brief description of the thoughts that came out during this exercise.
3. Find someone from who is, roughly speaking, from each of the four status groups and ask them
where they expect to be ten years after high school. What kind of additional education would they
have completed, what kind of occupation would they be in, and where would they expect to be living?
Ask them what some of their favorite things to do and places to go are. As you listen to them, also
try to take note of their manner of relating to you. Is it in some way different depending upon the
status group to which they belong? Make brief notes from each of your interviews.
4. Go over your notes from 1, 2, and 3 above and then write down how you think your neighborhood
has influenced your personality and life choices. Consider the possibility that your personality and
choices do not have to remain restricted by your place of origin. How could you begin to change the
way you see yourself, relate to other teens, roles you could take in school, vision for your future,
attitude to education, relations with authorities, and possibilities for changing your neighborhood?
How might you go about making these changes? Make a list describing how to make each change.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS RELATED TO
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS and RELATED AGENCIES
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON HOW TO ORGANIZE NEIGHBORHOODS
SEE:
The items in this table of contents in blue green and underlined are to
the hyperlinks to the respective documents.
A. ORGANIZING NEIGHBORHOODS or
http://dredyoung.com/Neighborhoods/Neighborhood Organization.htm
– 1 Human Services Agencies in Relation to Communities
– 2 Graphics of Hypothetical Neighborhood Types
– 3 Characterizing the Environment of the Neighborhood
– 4 Community Council Plan
•
4 A How to Organize Community Councils
– 5 The Power of Therapeutic Social Roles
•
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5 A Mediation: An Example of a Pro Social Role
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